Military Has Gone Mainstream

New peer-reviewed research challenges how marketers think about the military and veteran consumer

For years, marketers have treated America’s military and veteran community as a niche audience, often approached through patriotic campaigns, military discounts, and Veterans Day messaging.

New peer-reviewed research suggests that view is far too narrow.

Published in Advertising & Society Quarterly, a new article by Laurence Minsky and MARCH Marketing founder Tom Aiello brings together decades of academic research, consumer data, design history and marketing experience to examine the military and veteran community from a different perspective: not simply as people to be served, thanked or recognized but as a powerful consumer audience with distinct cultural characteristics and an influence on mainstream American consumer behavior that may be far greater than most businesses realize.

The central idea is surprisingly simple:

The military and veteran community should no longer be viewed as a niche audience sitting outside mainstream consumer culture. In important ways, it is already part of the mainstream and has helped shape it.

That conclusion matters because many businesses still approach this audience in almost exactly the opposite way.

A brand decides it wants to "do something for veterans." It creates a flag-draped campaign, adds a military discount, thanks veterans for their service, and waits for the audience to respond.

Then it wonders why the campaign falls flat.

The problem is not a lack of appreciation. It is a lack of understanding and specialization.

And the new research suggests businesses may be underestimating both the economic power of this audience, and the influence military culture already has on the consumers they are trying to reach.

Start with the business case: 44 million Americans and $1.5 trillion

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ 2024 Consumer Expenditure Survey, approximately 44 million Americans live in households that include a veteran or active-duty service member. Together, these households represent approximately $1.88 trillion in annual household income and nearly $1.5 trillion in annual consumer spending. To put that in perspective, that level of annual spending is on the scale of one of the world’s 15 largest economies.

That makes the community relevant to virtually every major consumer category, from financial services and education to automotive, technology, retail, housing and travel.

The economic profile is also stronger than many marketers assume. Veterans have higher median incomes, lower unemployment and a lower likelihood of poverty than the overall population. They are also approximately 45 percent more likely to start businesses than their civilian peers, with military-developed traits such as adaptability, discipline, resilience, strategic thinking and team management helping to drive entrepreneurial success.

For companies selling financial services, vehicles, education, housing, durable goods and premium products, that should command attention.

And especially healthcare.

Military service can create a healthcare consumer relationship that begins decades earlier than it does for many civilians. Research cited in the peer-reviewed article notes that veterans can require significant physical and behavioral healthcare beginning in their twenties and continuing for decades.

Consider what that means from a healthcare business perspective. Veterans are not simply a patient segment. They are potentially long-duration healthcare consumers who interact with health systems, insurers, pharmacies, medical-device companies, behavioral health providers, caregivers, telehealth companies and community providers throughout their lives.

But scale and economics are only half of what makes the new research noteworthy.

The more important business case comes from the combination of scale + distinctiveness + influence.

This is not simply a large audience. It is a large audience with shared experiences and cultural characteristics that can affect how its members interpret communications, evaluate brands, consume media and make decisions.

And the research raises an even more provocative question for business leaders:

What if the military and veteran community is not merely a large consumer segment, but a consumer segment whose behaviors, preferences and aesthetics increasingly influence the mainstream?

That is where the opportunity gets much bigger.

The new research changes how we should define this audience

One of the most important contributions of the Advertising & Society Quarterly article is that it challenges the tendency to think about veterans primarily as a demographic audience.

They are not.

Today's U.S. military reflects much of the racial and ethnic diversity of America. But military service creates another powerful layer of identity. Shared training, experiences, language, expectations and cultural norms can become enduring parts of how servicemembers see themselves and the world around them.

Research cited in the article describes this phenomenon as identity fusion, a powerful form of group attachment in which membership in the group becomes intertwined with personal identity.

And that identity does not simply disappear when someone takes off the uniform.

The research reports that 86 percent of U.S. veterans say their military service significantly affects decisions they make every day.

Pause on that statistic from a marketing perspective.

We routinely build specialized marketing strategies around audiences whose identities affect their preferences, behaviors and purchasing decisions. Yet many organizations continue to put veterans into the broad "general market" category and assume that a military discount or patriotic creative will bridge the gap.

The scholarly research suggests something much more sophisticated is happening.

Military and veteran marketing is a specialty because military identity itself is specialized.

Why this audience requires specialization

Understanding the military consumer requires more than demographic targeting. It requires understanding how military identity is formed and how that experience can influence communication preferences, relationships, trust and behavior years after someone leaves the service.

Basic training is designed to transform individuals into members of a cohesive unit. Uniforms are issued. Personal routines are standardized. Recruits experience intense physical and psychological challenges together. They learn to depend upon one another to accomplish a mission.

That process helps create identity fusion, a powerful sense of connection between individual identity and membership in the group.

The result has significant implications for marketers.

Military-connected consumers can quickly recognize when a communicator understands their experience and, equally important, when an outsider is simply borrowing the language and symbols of military culture.

This audience cannot be reached with generic multicultural tactics.

Specialization is required because several forces are operating simultaneously: identity fusion creates powerful cultural bonds; military communication emphasizes clarity and directness; military life produces distinct media habits; repeated exposure to scams and predatory marketing can create skepticism; and overt attempts to pander to veterans can actively backfire.

These are not simply demographic differences. They are cultural and behavioral differences.

Specialization starts with understanding the mindset

The military does more than teach occupational skills. It teaches people how to communicate, make decisions, work within teams, respond to challenges and accomplish missions.

Those learned behaviors can persist long after military service.

One simple example is BLUF: Bottom Line Up Front.

Military communications are frequently structured so the recipient quickly understands the purpose, required action or most important information. Details and context follow. The article connects this communication philosophy to user experience design: functionality should be clear, information should be readily retrievable, and the user should not have to hunt for what matters.

Think about how different that is from much of contemporary marketing.

Brands frequently prioritize cleverness over clarity. Websites hide important information behind navigation. Advertising makes consumers decode the message. Healthcare communications bury the action a patient needs to take beneath paragraphs of institutional language.

For an audience conditioned to ask, "What's the mission?" and "What do you need me to do?", this can create unnecessary friction.

The lesson is not that every veteran wants short copy.

The lesson is that clarity signals competence.

Effective military and veteran communications tend to establish relevance quickly, make the purpose clear and provide an understandable path forward.

Challenge can be more powerful than sympathy

Another distinction has major implications for creative strategy.

Research discussed in the article describes military members as frequently viewing life as a test and as being conditioned to sacrifice in pursuit of larger goals. The authors also note that veterans tend to respond to communications that challenge them or appeal to mission and purpose.

MARCH Marketing has seen this repeatedly through side-by-side A/B testing. Communications that challenge military audiences and call upon a sense of mission tend to outperform those that do not.

That helps explain why one of the most common approaches to veteran marketing can be counterproductive: portraying veterans primarily as people who need to be rescued.

Veterans certainly face real challenges.

But vulnerability is not identity.

The article contrasts advertising that depicts a disabled veteran as dependent upon others with advertising depicting a similarly disabled veteran as determined to keep moving forward. The underlying condition may be similar, but the framing is dramatically different. One communicates helplessness. The other communicates agency.

That distinction is particularly important in healthcare.

A veteran with a disability does not necessarily define himself or herself through disability. Someone seeking assistance may still strongly value independence, competence and service to others.

Healthcare marketing therefore needs to understand the difference between acknowledging a challenge and defining the person by the challenge.

The better message is often not "You need our help."

It may be closer to: "Here is the resource. Here is what it can help you accomplish. Here is your next step."

Authenticity matters because this audience knows when you're trying too hard

There is another easy mistake: patriotism as a substitute for insight.

American flag. Saluting servicemember. Bald eagle. "Thank you for your service." Military discount.

Done.

Except the audience may recognize immediately that the company knows very little about them.

According to research cited in the article, 50 percent of military veterans report being turned off by communications they perceive as overly patriotic, pandering, disingenuous or inauthentic.

That does not mean patriotic imagery should never be used. It means patriotism cannot compensate for a lack of audience understanding.

When MARCH Marketing developed communications for Veterans Florida, for example, the work did not simply announce that Florida "supports veterans." The messaging, imagery, visual language and attitude were designed to signal that the organization understood the aspirations and realities of military transition.

Headlines such as "If you want to bring it, bring it to Florida" challenged the audience rather than patronized it. Other creative employed language and visual cues that immediately communicated familiarity with military culture.

That is specialization.

Do not simply tell veterans that you appreciate them. Demonstrate that you understand them.

Their media behavior is different, too

Audience specialization should also affect where and how organizations communicate.

Research cited in the article found servicemembers and their families disproportionately likely to be heavy internet users. Military and veteran audiences also over-indexed on social media and word of mouth, while under-indexing on heavy television and newspaper consumption. Seventy-two percent used mobile devices at least weekly for video viewing.

There is a logical explanation.

Military life is highly mobile. Families relocate. Servicemembers deploy. Friends who served together scatter across the country and world. Digital communication becomes an important mechanism for maintaining relationships.

Those behaviors can persist after service.

The implication is important for marketers: the media strategy should be informed by military life, not simply by age and income demographics.

The article also raises another complication. Military consumers can be particularly skeptical of sponsored content. Research cited in the paper found 54 percent reporting that they do not trust sponsored content, while 59 percent said a site loses credibility for publishing it.

Reaching this audience, therefore, is not simply an exercise in buying military-targeted impressions.

Trust must be earned.

Perhaps the biggest new insight: the military has already gone mainstream

This is where the new scholarly article takes the discussion somewhere most marketing conversations about veterans never go.

If military and veteran consumers were simply a large, culturally distinct audience, the business case for specialization would already be compelling.

But the research documents something more consequential:

Ideas created for military applications routinely migrate into mainstream consumer culture.

The article traces this phenomenon much further back than most marketers might expect. Military requirements helped advance standardized interchangeable parts, which became foundational to mass manufacturing. Organizational approaches used by early American railroads and industrial enterprises were influenced by military command structures. Modern reliability engineering also has roots in military requirements.

Then there is product design.

Military equipment is built around a brutally simple principle: form follows function.

Mobility matters. Durability matters. Ease of use matters. Reliability matters. Cognitive load matters. A product needs to work under difficult conditions and its purpose should be apparent.

Those same characteristics have enormous appeal to civilian consumers.

Look around.

Bomber jackets. Combat boots. Khaki pants. Camo. Aviator-inspired styling. Rugged watches. Tactical backpacks. Utility clothing.

What began as military functionality became fashion.

And it goes far beyond clothing.

The Jeep Wrangler traces its lineage to the World War II military Jeep. Its modularity, exposed hardware, repairability and extreme-terrain capability were originally functional military requirements that eventually became part of the vehicle's consumer appeal. The Hummer H1 came from the Humvee. The Ford Raptor borrowed visual inspiration from the F-22 Raptor fighter aircraft.

Even luxury watches, furniture and something as ordinary as a diaper bag now borrow from military design and aesthetics.

Why?

Because the underlying attributes translate remarkably well:

Durability. Functionality. Reliability. Mobility. Simplicity. Confidence. Purpose.

Those are not niche values.

They are mainstream consumer values.

What military consumers may be telling us about the next mainstream consumer

This leads to perhaps the most provocative implication of the new research.

The military and veteran audience should not always be viewed as a smaller market that follows the mainstream.

In some categories, it may function as an early indicator of where the mainstream is going.

Military consumers have lived for years in environments where functionality matters, mobile communication is essential, information must be quickly understood, products are expected to perform, and trust has to be earned through demonstrated competence rather than marketing language.

Those expectations sound increasingly familiar.

Today's civilian consumer also wants less friction. Faster answers. Intuitive interfaces. Authentic brands. Durable products. Communities built around shared identity. Clear value propositions. Greater transparency.

That should change the strategic question.

Instead of asking:

"How can we adapt our mainstream marketing for veterans?"

Businesses might sometimes ask:

"What can understanding veterans teach us about making our mainstream marketing better?"

The business opportunity is bigger than a veteran campaign

This is ultimately why the publication of the new Advertising & Society Quarterly research deserves attention from marketers.

It provides a different framework for understanding an audience that businesses have too often categorized narrowly as a cause, affinity group or CSR opportunity.

The business case is considerably larger.

This audience combines something marketers rarely find at the same time: scale, economic power, distinctiveness and cultural influence.

Thirty million Americans. Approximately $2.5 trillion in spending power. Higher median incomes, lower unemployment, lower likelihood of poverty and strong entrepreneurial activity. A meaningful presence in high-value categories including healthcare, financial services, vehicles, housing, education, durable goods and premium products.

But the economic case alone misses what makes this audience strategically different.

Military service creates shared experiences, cultural bonds and communication norms that can continue influencing behavior decades after service. Identity fusion, BLUF communication, distinct media habits and hard-earned skepticism mean that approaches designed for the general population cannot simply be repackaged with patriotic imagery and expected to work.

This audience cannot be reached with generic multicultural tactics.

Military specialization does not mean creating camouflage packaging or developing a Veterans Day social post.

It means bringing military and veteran expertise into research, strategy, UX, healthcare communications, product development, creative and media planning. And it means including military-connected consumers in the process rather than simply marketing at them.

Perhaps most importantly, the new research turns the conventional relationship between military and mainstream marketing on its head.

For years, marketers have asked how they can take mainstream campaigns and adapt them to reach military consumers.

Maybe that is the wrong question.

Military culture has already influenced the products we wear, the vehicles we drive, the products we carry, the way organizations operate and even some of the principles that define effective modern user experience.

Military has already gone mainstream.

And the military and veteran community is not waiting for brands to discover it.

They are already buying your vehicles. They already bank with you. They already use your healthcare systems. They already buy your products, attend your universities, live in your communities and influence the people around them.

This audience is already among your customers.

The question is whether they can tell you understand them.

The companies that take the new research seriously will not simply become better at marketing to veterans.

They may learn something important about where the rest of the American consumer market is going next.

This article draws from the peer-reviewed paper “Communicating with and Designing for an Often-Misunderstood Audience: Members of the Military and Veterans in Advanced Western Democracies,” by Laurence Minsky and Tom Aiello, published in Advertising & Society Quarterly, Volume 27, Issue 2, Summer 2026.

Read the full peer-reviewed article on Project MUSE