World War I was a
global conflict produced blood filled trenches, battlefields of dead, and
mangled soldiers. Some may feel that this war has little to do with the field
of marketing. However, marketing played a key role in the war. Despite the
important role of marketing in the war, scholars have not fully explored the
impact of promotion and propaganda on the war effort.
Marketing efforts related to World War I may not have
had the impact as the millions of soldiers who took active part in the
conflict. It did however play an important role in the filling the ranks of the
armed forces of the nations involved in the war. The United States, and other
nations, during the war developed increasingly more sophisticated marketing,
public relations, and propaganda campaigns in order to culturally mobilize the
home front, and to recruit additional fresh troops into the conflict in those
nations which did not engage in conscription. Efforts to market World War I
helped develop marketing tactics used today to brand and publicize products and
services.
A key figure in the efforts to market World War I to
the American public was George Creel. Creel was the head of the Committee on
Public Information. Creel was a successful promoter and champion of many of the
reform causes of the early part of the 20th Century. Creel’s
marketing efforts impact on America’s role in World War I was indeed
significant.
The topic of this paper is the impact of World War I
on the development of marketing related tools and techniques. Many of the
techniques and tools developed during the Great War are still used today to
sell products, in the United States and in the rest of the world presently.
Much of this paper will focus on the efforts of George Creel and the Committee
on Public Information efforts to promote World War I, and how this organization
impacted the development of marketing during its short existence.
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