How to market for the BSA

[Eagledad]

It's time to show parents how the outdoors builds their kids into better adults. At the very least, activities in even the most adult run units can get their kids "safely" away from the computers.

 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/09/19/teens-grow-up-slower-study/105758486/

 

""The lure of the internet – which might keep kids glued to screens instead of out driving and dating – probably has had some recent impact, Twenge said. And more attentive parenting, sometimes derided as “helicopter parenting,†certainly has played a role,""

 

Barry

[Back Pack]

A lot of the material I have seen from bsa the last few months has been on just about everything else except outdoors. Things are focused on family stuff and ready made events. Not picking up your gear and heading outside.

[qwazse]

Excuse me, but I don't consider take reductions in promiscuity, drunkenness, and wasted money on vehicles and insurance they can barely afford -- to be signs of a flawed developmental pathway.

 

Unmentioned is an increase in health-professional, and advance placement studies, and service-earning. So, we have fewer kids bagging groceries for pin-money and more volunteering with EMT, hospital, starting their own online businesses, or junior apprenticing with trades. Where did they learn how to do this? That inter-web thingy put "ideas" in their head.

 

Not gonna lie - a lot of my friends got derailed by 70's culture - thinking they could always dig coal or roll steel or something to pay for their beer and weed. Decades of life wasted (their words, not mine). If more kids these days are thumbing their noses at that kind of culture, there's hope for this country.

[Torchwood]

I don't think that all of the measured changes are due to a single cause. The reductions in sex, drinking and drug use are far more likely to be due to better access to healthcare and the millions of dollars spent on PSA campaigns and school programs aimed specifically at those issues. In the upscale community where my Troop is, most kids never need to have a part-time job. Some do delay getting a driver's license, although I am willing to bet that the average family in town would eagerly buy their teenager a car as soon as said license was acquired. We do have quite an issue with helicopter and snowplow parenting. I have some families where we are fighting an uphill battle to get them to even let their Scouts regularly go on  camping trips. The time spent with electronic devices is a symptom of that culture in many cases, not the root cause.

[walk in the woods]

In the upscale community where my Troop is, most kids never need to have a part-time job. 

That's the problem though.  I didn't grow up in an upscale community, but, I also didn't need a part-time job.  However, my dad made it perfectly clear if I wanted gas money or car insurance or walking-around money, it was on me.  It wasn't because he couldn't slip me a $20 on Friday night, it was because he knew how to force me to grow up.  As far as the authors go, my relationship with my dad hasn't suffered over the years because he was my parent instead of my friend.

[AltadenaCraig]

Excuse me, but I don't consider take reductions in promiscuity, drunkenness, and wasted money on vehicles and insurance they can barely afford -- to be signs of a flawed developmental pathway.

 

Unmentioned is an increase in health-professional, and advance placement studies, and service-earning. So, we have fewer kids bagging groceries for pin-money and more volunteering with EMT, hospital, starting their own online businesses, or junior apprenticing with trades. Where did they learn how to do this? That inter-web thingy put "ideas" in their head.

 

Not gonna lie - a lot of my friends got derailed by 70's culture - thinking they could always dig coal or roll steel or something to pay for their beer and weed. Decades of life wasted (their words, not mine). If more kids these days are thumbing their noses at that kind of culture, there's hope for this country.

 

qwaze: here's a more thorough excerpt from her book:  https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/09/has-the-smartphone-destroyed-a-generation/534198/

 

I share Eagledad's opinion that Scouting is an antidote to Twenge's thesis (and should be vigorously Marketed as such).  However my prescription differs somewhat in that what's needed is a healthy dose of the Patrol Method.

 

Agreed that the Patrol Method should occur primarily outdoors - though occasionally indoors for some Service Projects - but my point is that Twenge's argument is that peer-to-peer interactive social skills are at extreme risk.  Plucking boys out of their computer-coma's and plopping them in the Outdoors is definitely a step in the right direction; however the cure (in my mind) is the interaction demanded by the Patrol Method.

[Cambridgeskip]

qwaze: here's a more thorough excerpt from her book:  https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/09/has-the-smartphone-destroyed-a-generation/534198/

 

I share Eagledad's opinion that Scouting is an antidote to Twenge's thesis (and should be vigorously Marketed as such).  However my prescription differs somewhat in that what's needed is a healthy dose of the Patrol Method.

 

Agreed that the Patrol Method should occur primarily outdoors - though occasionally indoors for some Service Projects - but my point is that Twenge's argument is that peer-to-peer interactive social skills are at extreme risk.  Plucking boys out of their computer-coma's and plopping them in the Outdoors is definitely a step in the right direction; however the cure (in my mind) is the interaction demanded by the Patrol Method.

 

I agree with you to the extent that that peer to peer stuff, taking responsibility etc is great for personal development and should certainly be what scouts are doing.

 

What I'm not convinced by is whether plugging that is what gets them through the door in the first place. From a marketing perspective I think the emphasis on outdoor adventure is where to begin, and introduce them to the patrol method when they get through the door.

 

Think of it as like reading. It's a rare 11 year old that reads Dickens, Austen or Steinbeck. Most are perfectly capable but you need to get them into the library first with a healthy dose of Harry Potter!

[qwazse]

Thanks @AltdenaCraig. I'll not deny that the time demands of social media on our teens (and the rest of us) is something to struggle with.

I will insist that a net good are teens who are less promiscuous, more sober, thriftier, more closely tied to thier parents, and more focused on longer term yields over short term gain.

 

But, so long as scouting has a bizarre social media policy that treats all scouter's as potential predators rather than potential sounding boards, it will have precious little to market to iGen. We have nothing to offer unless we're there to see the mind of a troubled scout and say, in front of all his/her peers, "If you want, we can discuss this ... I'll give your PL my coordinates and we can arrange an event." That's basically what the outdoors does for humans ... it gives them time to build trust, let their guard down, sound off, meditate, and grow.

[Snow Owl]

We need a national campaign more than ever.  I am a firm believer in the basics or core of Scouting - the outdoors, camping, canoeing, Scout Law, Scout Oath....

[Eagledad]

I share Eagledad's opinion that Scouting is an antidote to Twenge's thesis (and should be vigorously Marketed as such).  However my prescription differs somewhat in that what's needed is a healthy dose of the Patrol Method.

 

 

Different? LOL! We are on the same track. But marketing is about selling a vision, not the intricacies of the process. If you ask the average parent what patrol method is, they won't have an answer. If you ask them the benefits of making independent decisions while spending a weekend in the woods, they will ponder for a moment their child standing near a tent fishing in the trickling stream.

 

Barry

[Back Pack]

I think the money spent on a potential national campaign would be better spent on better training for youths and adults. With social media giving you such reach there's no reason to do a traditional media campaign. Why doesn't bsa get someone like Mike Rowe to do a series of psas for scouting? I'd bet he would do it.

[qwazse]

I think the money spent on a potential national campaign would be better spent on better training for youths and adults. With social media giving you such reach there's no reason to do a traditional media campaign. Why doesn't bsa get someone like Mike Rowe to do a series of psas for scouting? I'd bet he would do it.

We've been here before. Let me channel Mr. Rowe egregiously: "We're American scouts and scouters. If we are not our own spokespersons, the Mike Rowe imprimatur will do us no good."

 

Don't reinvent the wheel. Borrow egregiously from Scouts UK, Scouts South Africa, and Scouts Australia. Especially: focus on the "Prepared for Life" theme. Sell how scouting give skills that will forestall death. Although, from time to time, I've shared the "We Are Happy Scouts" home grown challenge that WOSM did a few years back. The one of British cubs chatting by the fire is really cute too. Also, look up "Venturing is Awesomer."

 

Honestly, everyone here should, at least twice a year, post on social media (or send a link via mass E-mail) your favorite PSA - be it professional or amatuer produced - related to scouting, and add a tagline like "Ask me more, I'll hook you up."

If you're not doing that, don't waste BSA's time.

 

Short of someone throwing down some millions for a commercial slot during Superbowl (and, nowadays, the World Cup), asking for any marketing favors from national is just gonna lose us some good boots-on-the-ground professional staff.

[blw2]

I still say they need to get a Bear Grylls type at the helm...even if not really at the helm as nothing more than a figure head....

somebody on a TV show doing really cool stuff every week. Somebody not acting...yes I'm aware of some of what Bear has been accused of, but I still believe he is capable and still does a lot of that stuff.... even if he is doing it now with a full production crew.... rappelling, minimalist adventure camping, and the rest....

somebody that has a respectable resume in the field, somebody that is very personable, very positive, and that can be an exciting role model

 

I think somebody like that, doing the things the OP suggested could well be the ticket....(doing that stuff in place of the famous person interview stuff Bear currently does..)  Could be something not all that different from what he's doing now.....just a different twist.

 

Post it on youtube if you can't get it on network TV.

 

The BSA needs to get their heads out of the boardroom and into the woods.

 

My son has lost all interest in scouting.  He only says the meetings are boring, that's all I can get out of him....but I know that a majority of the outings are boring too.  His summer camp experience is the highlight example, but others are to some degree the same.... classroom, bookwork, adult driven advancement.  He could care less about any of that stuff.   The adults, all the way from national to the local volunteers, need to take a HUGE step backwards away from the campfire circle and let the scouts do what they want to do....

[Eagledad]

I think the money spent on a potential national campaign would be better spent on better training for youths and adults. With social media giving you such reach there's no reason to do a traditional media campaign. Why doesn't bsa get someone like Mike Rowe to do a series of psas for scouting? I'd bet he would do it.

I'm not disagreeing and I'm sure you are right, but since we pay for our training, how do you imagine the marketing dollars helping?

 

 

For your pleasure, one of my favorites:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpMFkcSn5IM

 

Barry

Edited September 20, 2017 by Eagledad

[AltadenaCraig]

I agree with you to the extent that that peer to peer stuff, taking responsibility etc is great for personal development and should certainly be what scouts are doing.

 

What I'm not convinced by is whether plugging that is what gets them through the door in the first place. From a marketing perspective I think the emphasis on outdoor adventure is where to begin, and introduce them to the patrol method when they get through the door.

 

Think of it as like reading. It's a rare 11 year old that reads Dickens, Austen or Steinbeck. Most are perfectly capable but you need to get them into the library first with a healthy dose of Harry Potter!

 

... But marketing is about selling a vision, not the intricacies of the process. If you ask the average parent what patrol method is, they won't have an answer. If you ask them the benefits of making independent decisions while spending a weekend in the woods, they will ponder for a moment their child standing near a tent fishing in the trickling stream.

 

Thanks, fellows.  I suspect we're all in "violent agreement; nevertheless, your points are touching on a sore spot with me ... and one where admittedly I have a bit of an agenda.

 

In my experience selling the "exciting adventures" risks inviting a parental "smorgasbord" mentality where they get the idea Scouting is just the pre-college equivalent of the student activities center.  If the item on the calendar doesn't have the "spark" forget about participation.  This leads to dysfunctions which inhibit the benefits of the Patrol Method.

 

First, planning gravitates to adult "takeover" of the calendar, as the "exciting activities" demand more and complex executive and planning functions beyond the capabilities of Scouts.  The "trickling stream" overnighter envisioned by Eagledad, absolutely required for scout-to-scout training of trail-to-first-class skills, gets crowded-out for more whitewater-rafting-like trips.

 

Second, the "cardboard box" adventures never materialize.  How many times have we given a child a gift, only to be amazed when the kid spends more time playing with the box it came in?  Scouts can plan effectively and execute brilliantly at the "cardboard box" level, where the Patrol Method thrives.

 

I agree, selling the Patrol Method is a heavy lift.  Much heavier than Eagledad's "trickling stream" - which by his own admission requires some parental pondering.  Nevertheless, I truly believe Twenge is onto something that can be addressed directly by the Patrol Method.  I hope the BSA can find a marketing partner to touch on this subtle but critical point.

 

Rant over, carry on.