Another Girl Scout makeover on the Way

[SemperParatus]

from today's Wall Street Journal...

 

 

Girl Scouts Seek an Image Makeover

Green Skirts Are Out

As Organization Faces

A 'Nonjoiner' Society

By ELLEN BYRON

March 25, 2008; Page B5

 

The cookies will stay, but the green skirts are history.

 

The Girl Scouts, seeking to reverse declining troop numbers, is shaking up its image. On Tuesday, the organization is expected to announce the appointment of its first chief marketing officer, a former senior partner and executive group director at WPP Group's Ogilvy & Mather.

 

Laurel Richie will be in charge of modernizing the image of the Girl Scouts, which is viewed by many as a rigid, old-fashioned organization focused on cookie fund-raisers and campouts. "Girls think of us as outdated," says Kathy Cloninger, chief executive of Girl Scouts of the USA. "They have stereotypes of who we are that are not right."

 

 

Girl Scouts of the USA

Ads that show the Girl Scouts' recent efforts to transform their image.

Appointing a marketing chief is part of a broader, multiyear effort to bring the 96-year-old organization into the 21st century. Over the past three years, the Girl Scouts has streamlined its organizational structure to 109 leadership councils from more than 300, added programs on topics such as managing busy schedules and online bullying to better reflect current issues, and narrowed the age ranges within each troop.

 

Trying to reinvigorate an old brand is a classic marketing challenge, and remains one of the trickiest feats in the business. On top of that, the Girl Scouts are trying to win over a demographic that is not only notoriously fickle but is also bombarded with marketing pitches: technologically advanced adolescent girls.

 

"They're very smart about media consumption, and deft at avoiding any communication that's not relevant to them," says Samantha Skey, executive vice president of strategic marketing at Alloy Media + Marketing.

 

The Girl Scouts was started in 1912 as a way to give girls more opportunities outside the home. It has since focused more on helping girls work together in groups and develop leadership skills. The Girl Scouts has long offered programs on everything from running a business to mountain climbing.

 

But the big problem for the organization these days is that it is seen by many as sleepy. Though it has held up as an American icon, the group has little name recognition beyond its cookies, its executives say. The group, which has 2.8 million scouts from ages of five to 17, has been losing 1% to 2% of its membership a year for about 10 years.

 

After conducting a study of itself, the group discovered its main competition for members wasn't the sports teams or church groups it suspected, but rather what it calls "nonactivities," says Ms. Cloninger. "Girls start hanging out at the mall, spending time online or just being with their friends, and basically become 'nonjoiners' -- that's [what] we were losing the most girls to."

 

 

Girl Scouts of the USA

Advertising efforts over the past two years also reflect the group's new direction, including public-service announcements in publications such as Entertainment Weekly and Girls Life that highlight girls' independence, and the tagline: "It's a Girl's Life. Lead it."

 

Repositioning the organization "isn't about us trying to be cool," says Ms. Richie. "We've seen jeans, sneakers and soft drinks try to do that and you just cringe."

 

Ms. Richie is hoping to increase the group's exposure among demographics that have been underrepresented in its troops, particularly Hispanics, Asians and other groups. She says she will also try to do more outreach to mothers, both to drive membership of their daughters and to recruit more volunteer leaders.

 

As for the cookie box, the former Ogilvy executive says she wants to turn it into more of a marketing tool -- some 200 million boxes of Girl Scout cookies are sold each year. "I'm dying to get my hands on it," says Ms. Richie. The nearly three million scouts who sell them door-to-door also need to become more opportunistic about promoting the organization. "I don't mean [for them] to be shills, but there's an opportunity for them to genuinely speak about their Girls Scouts experience," she says.

 

Ms. Richie is looking for an agency to add more panache to upcoming Girl Scouts marketing efforts; the group's current ads were created in-house. Coming marketing campaigns, she says, should balance the tension adolescents feel about being part of a group while maintaining individuality.

 

At its national convention in October, the Girl Scouts will officially endorse the new uniform for scouts in the fourth grade and older: a sash or vest that displays achievement badges, worn over the scout's own white shirt and khaki pants or skirt. "That gives them the opportunity for self-expression," says Ms. Cloninger. Scouts at the Daisy and Brownie levels, usually students from kindergarten through the third grade, will keep their trademark blue and brown uniforms.

 

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[fgoodwin]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120641101055361411.html

[theysawyoucomin']

I love how Scouting organizations hire some Million do$$ar marketing firm to change the image.

 

Put the effort into making the program fun and safe and the girls that are in the program, girls that enjoy the program, will do all the marketing you need.

 

My daughter was in it for 13 years, k-12. Went to the Allagash in Maine. Great organization.

[talen333]

I have to agree that from my experience of having a teen girl the Girl Scout image really needs an update. The girls may have fun but they are not actively promoting it once they get to the older ages. I have two sons in scouts and when we talked to my daughter about joining Girl Scouts she had what seems to be the typical response of older girls and said it was not current enough with what she wanted to be doing. She then went and joined the Venture Crew that is linked to her brothers troop.

[nldscout]

Is this number 2 or number 3 of the makeovers they have tried in the last few years?

[Gold Winger]

Since most of the girl scouts in my experience don't bother with anything other than the vest or sash, this really isn't a big change.

 

GSUSA keeps trying to change based on what the girls who aren't members say. Then those same girls say, "Well, duh! I'm not going to join anyway."

 

[Cheerful Eagle]

GW has a really good point.

 

Personally, I'm kind of sick of the gyrations GSUSA keeps going through to "remake" themselves. IMHO National has lost all sense of "true north" and is all caught up in trying to be trendy. Scouting was never for trendy, fashionable, "it" girls. We scouts are the minority who wanted to get dirty, sleep outside in a tent, and play capture the flag.

 

We are constantly sabatauged by the division into tiny single age group units, lack of support for adult leaders. lack of a trained troop committee chair or sizable pool of parent volunteers.

[purpledragon]

"We are constantly sabotaged by the division into tiny single age group units, lack of support for adult leaders. lack of a trained troop committee chair or sizable pool of parent volunteers."

 

Amen Cheerful Eagle

[emb021]

"GSUSA keeps trying to change based on what the girls who aren't members say. Then those same girls say, "Well, duh! I'm not going to join anyway." "

 

That seems to be the impression of others.

 

Was chatting with a fellow leader at the WSJ from my area, who is/was also involved in GSUSA. She felt that all these changes in GSUSA was an attempt to attract girls who won't be interested in being in Girl Scouts, which just turned away the girls who DID want to be in Girl Scouts. Go figure.

 

Studio 2B is a good example of this.

 

 

[BadenP]

While you may not like the methodology they are at least trying to find ways to bring in membership, unlike our own organization who feels if it was okay in 1950 its ok today. I applaud their efforts and I hope that theNAtional BSA is going to try thinking out of the box someday before it is too late and the BSA goes the way of the Woodcraft Rangers, etc.

[Treflienne]

On 4/7/2008 at 1:05 PM, emb021 said:

"GSUSA keeps trying to change based on what the girls who aren't members say. Then those same girls say, "Well, duh! I'm not going to join anyway." "

That seems to be the impression of others.

Was chatting with a fellow leader at the WSJ from my area, who is/was also involved in GSUSA. She felt that all these changes in GSUSA was an attempt to attract girls who won't be interested in being in Girl Scouts, which just turned away the girls who DID want to be in Girl Scouts. Go figure.

Studio 2B is a good example of this.

I realize that this is an old thread, and the "another girl scout makeover" of the title happened a few years ago, and we got "Journeys" which do seem like
"an attempt to attract girls who won't be interested in being in Girl Scouts".

It will be interesting to see how many of the "girls who DID want to be in Girl Scouts" end up deciding to join the BSA now that that is becoming an option for them.