The Defense Industry’s Jimmy Carter Moment
The defense industry is suffering from something of a crisis of confidence. With people in D.C. and around the country using military spending as a proverbial political piñata, the reaction from within the defense community has been, to say the least, underwhelming.
The defense industry has a unique story to tell: it’s one of innovation, job creation and American Exceptionalism. And in the past, the industry had rarely shied away from telling its tale. Yet, for one reason or another, during the latest round of mark-ups, defense companies and their associations have been surprisingly quiet.
Now isn’t the time for the industry to be bashful: in the next month, the ominously titled “Super Committee” will be looking to trim $1.2 trillion from the coming decades’ budgets.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I don’t think that current economic climate represents an existential crisis for contractors. However, with this said, the longer the industry stands back and allows critical programs to be gutted, the weaker it becomes. Politicians can smell blood, and right now the defense industry is hemorrhaging.
Recently, the Aerospace Industry of America launched its Second to None campaign, which at this point consists of a website and, unfortunately, little else. I applaud their initiative. But, to me, they’re pushing the wrong message. Very few beyond the defense industry really care about the projection of American power, space exploration or corporate jets. If this campaign is to be successful, the industry needs to stop messaging to itself and begin engaging their real audience — lawmakers and the public.
Politicians are notoriously self-serving, as is the public (for the most part), so the industry needs to keep this in mind when communicating with them. Their campaign should be telling their audiences about the jobs that the defense industry creates, about the startups and small businesses that make up more than two thirds of the industry, and about defense technology that filters into their cars, hospitals and computers. These are the things that make a real difference to people and will ultimately influence decisions.
An effective campaign that comes to mind is the America’s Power initiative,a.k.a the Clean Coal movement. This is a campaign that took a highly controversial issue — whether coal could truly be produced without destroying the environment — and crystallized it into facts and figures that Americans cared about, namely, how much the average family could save by supporting the technology and how many well-paid jobs it would create. Whether you agree with their message or not, they were extremely effective at getting it out.
There are a lot of lessons that the defense industry can learn from the clean coal strategy. For instance, America’s Power at least had the perception of being a grassroots movement. There were no corporate logos emblazoning the page nor were there links to the movement’s main sponsor, General Electric. This provided the public a certain level of comfort that current defense industry campaigns fail to provide. Another example would be their media campaign, which rather than preaching to the choir and focusing on conservative or political media, took their message to local newspapers, television and talk shows. These audiences were not always supportive of the clean coal message, but by simply showing the courage of their conviction, the movement earned a begrudging respect from its opponents.
It’s this last point that I think the defense industry stands to learn the most from. The industry seems reluctant to engage with those who might disagree with it. Those who support the defense industry, support the defense industry, but they’re not the ones who need to be convinced. The public has a vested interest in seeing a strong military sector, but by neglecting to remind them of this, defense companies are losing the perception battle. Right now, the average American is hard-pressed to find a reason to support defense spending, but as we know, public opinion is fickle and the story is there to be told — tell it.
Elliott Suthers, is a Vice President at Spector & Associates and a registered government lobbyist. He specializes in the defense and technology sectors. Prior to joining Spector, Elliott worked in government relations for the United Nation’s Development Programme in Washington, D.C, with the Republican National Committee during the 2008 Presidential cycle. He has also advised two successful senatorial campaigns. Elliott is a current political contributor to Forbes.com and can be reached at Elliott@SpectorPR.com.
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