Portfolio: Airbus Defence & Space
Unearthing a powerful brand truth to help Airbus shine in a commoditised marketplace
Challenge
Against a highly commoditised marketplace, Airbus was losing significant ground to its major competitor Boeing. Boeing had just won the US DoD contract for the new Joint Strike Fighter that was slated to make their flagship Eurofighter Typhoon redundant within a decade.
Airbus needed to change the narrative.
They needed something that could remind the world why they matter and what makes them special.
Insight: A Convenient Truth
Ultimately, what set Airbus apart wasn’t (see Simon Sinek) WHAT they made, or even HOW they made it. What makes Airbus special as an organanisation is bound up in WHY they are in the aerospace industry in the first place. As always, this wasn’t about telling Airbus something new - the answer had long been there, hiding in plain sight.
Clearly, the genesis of Airbus came about as a counterpoint to the growing success of major, notably American, aerospace manufacturers such as Boeing. There was a growing concern that reliance on dominant American manufacturers would lead to a dangerous monopoly in the aviation industry that would leave the rest of the world at a strategic disadvantage. And so it was that Airbus was born as an international collaboration from day one - jointly owned by aviation leaders in France, Spain, the UK and Germany.
The result was that a collaborative approach was built in to how Airbus operates from day one.
The major American manufacturers approach is forged through tight partnerships with major American buyers (the major US commercial carriers, but most importantly the major US stakeholders in Defence and Space, namely the US DoD and NASA). In other words, they build the solution that the major US stakeholder requires, and then other customers around the world are welcome to purchase the product for their own fleets, however (some minor cosmetic tweaks aside), the product was made available to international customers with only very few modifications.
By contrast, Airbus approaches its product development differently. Because it comes from a place of international collaboration, they are used to building product platforms that are flexible enough to adapt to the needs of multiple stakeholders. This means customers can expect to find a solution from Airbus that much more closely meets their specifications.
That’s the joy of doing business with an organisation that’s more collaborative.
The Creative Solution
When it came to turning this insight into something compelling and customer-facing, the solution was wonderfully simple.
The words “Ask Us” share 60% of their letters with the brand name “Airbus”.
The Marketing Team at Airbus immediately saw the potential of the idea. It was a simple, unifying thought spawned from an insight so close to Airbus’ purpose as a brand that it effortlessly brought together all the various business lines within Airbus Defence & Space, from space technologies such as satellites, launchers and imaging to military aircraft to UAVs.
All because it shone a light on how doing business with Airbus is fundamentally better than with the competition. More flexible, with solutions that better meet your needs.
