by Todd Cotts, Vice President, Marketing & Communications at SES Space & Defense

As SES Space & Defense evolves from being primarily a connectivity provider to delivering mission outcomes, what does that shift mean from a marketing perspective and how you want to position the company in the market?

Our customers across the U.S government and all the various defense agencies are going through a transformation. They are moving away from managing their own networks and technologies and integrating commercial capabilities into their operations. The pace of that transformation continues to accelerate. To align and compete, we are transforming as well, moving away from talking about our own technologies and solutions and focusing instead on customer priorities. This shift has tremendous implications for our marketing strategy. Everything from the collateral we produce to our website and imagery is being refined to ensure our government and defense customers clearly understand how we can help them achieve their mission and vision.

Government and defense customers are no longer simply looking to buy satellite capacity. How does this shift change the way you will market to them?

Our customer conversations used to be about capacity and terminals. Today, as we engage decision-makers at all levels of the U.S. government and defense departments, it’s imperative we speak their language. We need to be talking about their mission, their vision, and where they are headed in the next decade. We need to use their language and terminology in our conversations and our collateral. If we’re just talking about traditional satellite, they’re simply not going to care. The fact that we have terminals and solutions is no longer the lead story. It’s about how multi-orbit and multi-domain connectivity can deliver the resilience our customers seek and help them maintain operational continuity.

How do you change any existing perceptions that might be held of SES Space & Defense as primarily (only) a provider of satellite connectivity?

We’re working to change the perception of our brand as a traditional satellite operator, without changing the brand itself. We want to be perceived as a Tier 1 defense partner that can be trusted to help our customers preserve command and control and maintain continuity no matter where operations take place. Some of that is still going to be about connectivity, but the main crux of the story has to be about our customers’ mission and how we can help them achieve success.

With government and defense customers increasingly relying on commercial companies to provide integrated, mission-ready capabilities, what opportunities does this create for SES Space & Defense to reach new customers? What are the implications for marketing?

We are a commercial company among many vying for the same U.S. government projects and programs. From a marketing standpoint, we need to position our company on par with or above the noise. While we have been doing business with the government and defense sector for decades, there’s an opportunity to become more visible as an entity across the broader ecosystem. Our marketing goal is to make SES Space & Defense a more recognized brand and ensure our customers understand our value proposition and see us as a partner that is aligned with their mission today and in the future.

In a sector where trust, security, and reliability are critical, how do you differentiate the SES Space & Defense brand from competitors?

In reality, most traditional satellite operators tend to use the same words and language. Trust is one of those words. Real trust comes from relationships. SESSD has long been trusted by our customers due to the quality of our connectivity solutions and the relationships we have built. We want our customers to know we have the ability to meet their evolving mission needs, leveraging the strength, capabilities, and reliability of our parent company SES. Our biggest marketing objective will be continuing to convey to our customers that they can trust us to be there when it matters most.

If your marketing strategy is successful, what do you want government and defense customers to think about SES Space & Defense 2-3 years from now that they may not necessarily think about the company today?

As we continue this transformation, we want and expect our customers to come to think of SES Space & Defense as a key partner in everything they do.