Previously we elaborated on the marketing strategy of Hyatt. In this article, we are going to elaborate on the marketing strategy of Northrop Grumman – an American multinational aerospace and defence technology enterprise.
The objective is to learn and gain insights into Northrop Grumman corporation and how it became one of the world’s largest weapons manufacturers and military tech services.
So it’s quite clear now that marketing is the essence of any business. With the right strategies, one takes its business to the next level. If you are curious to know more about marketing then do check out our Free Masterclass on Digital Marketing by the CEO and founder of IIDE, Karan Shah.
By the end of this blog, you will get to learn the entire marketing strategy of Northrop Grumman. Before diving deep into it, let’s begin with Northrop Grumman’s story, target audience and online presence.
About Northrop Grumman – Company overview
Northrop Grumman Corporation( NGC) is an American multinational aerospace and defence tech company. With 80,000 employees and annual revenue of over $30 billion, it is one of the world’s largest weapons manufacturers and military technology providers. The company operates through its four reportable segments: Aeronautics systems, defence systems, mission systems, and space systems.
This company was founded by John Knudsen Northrop ( an American aircraft industrialist and designer) in 1939 in California. After the end of the Cold War, Northrop went on a series of acquisitions where they bought noteworthy companies named Grumman Aerospace, Westinghouse and TRW Inc. Kathy Warden is the chairman, CEO and president of Northrop Grumman. NASA funds the company.
Northrop Grumman and NASA successfully conducted a full-scale static fire of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket motor, called Flight Support Booster-2. The five-segment solid rocket booster is the world’s largest solid rocket motor and will provide more than 75 percent of the SLS rocket’s initial thrust during launch.
| CEO | Kathy Warden |
|---|---|
| CMO | Patricia Mozzicato |
| Area Served | Worldwide |
| Industry | Aerospace, defence and security |
| Market Share/ Revenue | $30 Billion annually |
| Vision | To be the most trusted provider of systems and technologies that ensure the security and freedom of our nation and its allies. |
| Tagline | Technology Makes the Impossible Possible. |
Marketing Strategy of Northrop Grumman
Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning:
The primary customer of Northrop Grumman is the U.S Government, principally the department of defence and the intelligence community. Approximately 85.05% of the company’s total revenue comes from the U.S government. Their remaining target audience is international agencies, commercial agencies, and state & local governments.
The Northrop Grumman is segmented into 4 categories: Space, Aeronautics, Mission and Defence systems. The company generates most of its revenue from the Space segment.
The company solves the most challenging problems in space, aeronautics, defence and cyberspace to meet the ever-evolving needs of its customers. They made sure to deliver superior capability in tandem with maximised cost efficiencies.
Marketing campaigns
Northrop Grumman teamed with Dentsu creative for its “Not Shot On An iPhone” ad campaign in order to highlight the awe-inspiring power of the web. The campaign was launched on 25th December 2021. Poking fun at Apple’s influential “Shot On An iPhone” platform, the campaign features OOH elements like billboards, posters etc. in Washington, D.C as well as Los Angeles where the telescope was built at the company’s Space Park facility.
The campaign was successful and spread a lot of awareness. Spending on OOH advertising skyrocketed by more than 40% in the first quarter of 2022 compared to 2021 with the Out of Home Advertising Association of America (OAAA).
Northrop Grumman started a campaign “The value of performance” in 2016 with the mission to leverage full-spectrum cyber to neutralise enemy threats. The Northrop ad campaign helps explain cyber’s appeal: virtual soldiers dropping into the battlefield, zipping through laser grids, and shutting down communications before magically teleporting away. War is messy and cyber is as harmless as a game of Call of Duty. This campaign was successful and gained a lot of popularity.
This campaign was started when a candidate for president named Ben Carson stated that they needed to secure and advance America’s online presence. That was a major cyber opportunity for cyber brands selling cyber weapons to the nation’s cyber forces. That’s when defence contractor Northrop Grumman took this opportunity to start the cyber campaign.
Social media marketing
Northrop Grumman is active on various social media platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook etc. It has the maximum number of followers on Facebook i.e 279k followed by Twitter. The posts contain mostly promotional and informational content and inform people about their new product launch with attractive posts.
Northrop Grumman has invested a lot of money in social media channels and has got a great response from people. They believe with the right strategies, they can spread awareness among large sets of people.
SEO Strategies
As per SEO ranking, it is said that the number of keywords – below 500 is bad, above 1000 is good, and 10,000+ is impressive. We can see that www.northropgrumman.com has 114,678 organic keywords and 451,202 monthly traffic which is considered amazing.
Moreover, the backlinks are about 2,596,041 which is amazing too. Thus we can say that Northrop Grumman is using the right SEO strategies to help improve its website’s ranking.
Influencer marketing
Many brands have started investing a significant amount of time and resources into executing successful influencer marketing campaigns. About 17%of companies spend half of their marketing budget on influencers. Northrop Grumman does not do influencer marketing but is working on implementing strategies. The company should focus on influencer marketing as it will spread awareness among people and help them to gain popularity.
E-commerce strategies
Northrop Grumman announced the company’s OpenTrac(TM) software and e-commerce system that will assist Millennium Steel Service’s expansion to San Antonio, Texas, by helping the company manage its operations, update its technology and processes, and reduce operational costs.
The company’s suite of Web-based OpenTrac (TM) systems helps control the supply chain and links communication between a business and its trading partners. OpenTrac Director(TM) enables B2B transaction communications to and from suppliers and customers.
The system tracks material shipments from producers, toll processors, service centres and warehouses to large manufacturing, trading and distribution companies. The company has advanced IT solutions and online business services for government and commercial clients.
Mobile Apps
NGFCU (Northrop Grumman Federal Credit Union) branch mobile app provides easy and secure access to our Northrop Grumman FCU accounts. We can easily check our balances, make transfers, pay our bills, or find nearby branch locations or ATMs.This app is available to all Northrop Grumman Federal Credit Union members.
Content Marketing
Northrop Grumman company has a great content marketing strategy for its online platforms that have led to the growth of the company. They ensure that there is the right strategy on the right platform. They are very active on their social media platforms and post articles regularly related to technology, redefining traditional perceptions of the definition of “possible” and the impacts of tech developments in new and surprising ways.
They engage their audience through CTAs that link to Northrop Grumman’s careers page, related articles, catchy titles, and a monthly newsletter that rounds up a group of articles that all speak to one of the many themes throughout their content. Each article is carefully optimised in order to align with Google’s most current search algorithms to maximise performance.
This ends with an elaborative marketing strategy of Northrop Grumman. Let us conclude our learning below from the marketing strategy of Northrop Grumman.
Conclusion – What’s unique in Northrop Grumman Marketing?
Northrop Grumman is one of the leading companies in its industry. It maintains its prominent position in the market by carefully analysing and reviewing its marketing strategies.
As you know now the majority of the company’s revenue is derived from the US Government and its agencies, which leaves Northrop vulnerable to unforeseen circumstances, such as the US government terminating contracts, changes in defence approvals, changes in congressional appropriations, and changes in government regulations which could unfavourably affect its business operations and market share.
So the company should focus on other potential customers too so that it is not solely dependent on the government and risk its profit and market share.
Over the past few years, the company has invested a good amount of money into the online platform. This investment has opened a new sales channel for Northrop Grumman. In the next few years, Northrop Grumman can leverage this opportunity by knowing its customers better and serving their needs using big data analytics.
Digital marketing is crucial since it links a company with its clients when they are online and is effective across all sectors. It links businesses with ideal consumers through SEO and PPC on Google, social media marketing, and email marketing. If you would like to learn more and develop skills, check out IIDE’s 4-Month Digital Marketing Course to learn more.
Alternatively, you can enrol in one of our free online masterclasses led by IIDE’s CEO, Karan Shah, to gain insight into the field of digital marketing.
We hope this blog on the marketing strategy of Northrop Grumman has given you a good insight into the company’s marketing strategies.
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