Chapter 13, Problem 36C

Summary Introduction

To determine: The alternatives to the factors that led BSA take such a decision.

Case summary: BSA- a non-profit organization that was founded in 1910 to teach and develop boys to become a better man. The organization runs programs that are mainly focused on service, outdoor adventure activities, and leadership development. Boys complete each activity and earn ranks and the highest rank was the E Scout. It was so famous that around 1970, there were 5 million boys in the group and suddenly in the recent few years, they saw a decline in participation to 2.3 million. Such a decline was because of parents and kids getting attracted to after school activities, they started having busy family schedules, and the perception of some family about scouting was that it is “old-fashioned”.

Therefore, in 2017, they decided to admit girls into all their programs because they claimed that they received a lot of parent’s requests to admit their daughters into the organization. To reach out to all such families who were interested to send their daughters, BSA opted for a multifaceted marketing campaign and used a new name for their programs as “Scouts BSA” in which Scouts referring to both boys and girls. They used the “See You Out There” campaign which included flyers, brochures, and stickers using a very clever tagline, i.e., Scout Me In . They employed an advertising agency which was managing their advertisements and campaigns.

Because of their decision of admitting girls to their programs, they discovered a very close new competitor, i.e., the 117 years old GSA which were the ones opposing their decision. They suggested the BSA not to opt for such a decision and should focus on serving 90% of the American boys not participating in Boys Scouts.

After 2 weeks of the decision announcement of the BSA, the GSA launched a campaign naming “Lifetime of Leadership” featuring their famous alumni such as tennis superstar VW, news anchor KC, etc. The campaigning was done in the continuation of rebranding effort which was done to associate the organization with leadership rather than just cookies.

Such a step of BSA could make an impact on the attitudes and priorities among U.S. parents and boys and girls. The future will tell that such a step has helped them achieve their goals or not and the impact of the change on GSA.