TIL 37: Patriotic Marketers

Today I learned that the term ‘military grade’, used by a lot of firms to categorize the material they use in making their products, is actually just a clever marketing ploy. In reality, defense forces state “military grade” is that is “meeting the bare-minimum requirements of durability, while also costing the least.”

In 2015, Ford released a new pickup truck F-150, and the television commercials in the US made sure everybody knew the aluminum alloy used in making its outer body was ‘military grade’.

The actor in the commercials also went on to say that the vehicle was ‘battle-tested- slyly referencing it could be as strong as a tank for that matter.

But what does military grade actually mean?

Well, truth be told the Ford F-150 would meet the same fate in active warfare like that of a trashcan- butchered down to bullets making sure everything on the inside looks the equivalent of a scrambled egg.

But how do they get away with this claim?

That’s essential because a smart-ass in a board meeting pulled of a clever marketing sleight-of-hand.

Everything in the military is designed to certain specifications called ‘mil specs’. These specs define the standards for everything used by the military- from Coffee cans to sub-machine guns.

And that’s essentially done to have a similar standard of production for everything. All coffee cans with the same mil-spec are similar, so are all the submachine guns.

And since there are a lot of products used by the military, the standards of that meet military requirements are pretty weak.

And that’s where military-grade comes in.

The mil-spec of the aluminum alloy Ford F-150 refer to their body is MIL-STD-810. Now it just so happens, the aluminum alloy falls into the broad category of a long list of alloys the military uses for various applications.

And it’s a pretty darn long list.

And while the company makes a smart referendum of the metal with the strength and durability of something used in a battlefield, in reality, the metal is just another aluminum alloy used by the military to make one of its products.

In fact, according to a military official, it might actually be the most ‘cost-effective’ option in the market, considering they have to buy in bulk.

So yeah, it’s a ploy. Clever stuff Don Draper.

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