It’s a question we get asked a lot - why is an inbound marketing company named after a World War II plane?
When you think about the most powerful, agile airplane that ever existed the first thing that comes to mind probably isn’t the Spitfire – but it should be.
The Spitfire is one of the most powerful visual symbols of World War II, and it’s been argued that it was the reason that the Allied forces won the Battle of Britain – not because of its superior agility – but because of psychology.
Here’s the story of the Spitfire, and why it’s so powerful that we decided to name our inbound marketing agency after it.
A brief history lesson
I’ve always been interested in history and design – especially design that changed the world. So when we launched a purpose-built marketing agency to deliver effective, results-driven marketing that would make a real impact on our clients’ business, we needed an icon to reflect this.
The Spitfire airplane encapsulates this concept for me.
The Spitfire was purpose-built to take on the German Luftwaffe. It wasn’t the most heavily armed aircraft and it wasn’t the fastest; but the Spitfire could be used by inexperienced pilots who could be trained to fly these aircrafts very quickly. The British army could get a pilot flying and combat-ready in an extremely short period of time.
The advantage lay, in part, in the design of the aircraft. It had elliptical wings that allowed it to turn fast and maintain airspeed.
The psychology of the Spitfire
These distinctive wings had a secondary function too – a largely unanticipated one that changed the course of a war: their unique silhouette made them easy to identify in the air. So, when the Battle of Britain was underway and Allied forces on the ground looked up at the sky they could easily identify the Spitfire. As a result, it became a rallying cry – a belief that the Spitfire was helping the Allies win the war.
Arguably, this created a massive turning point – and it wasn’t due to the physical fact of how many enemy planes the Spitfire was knocking out of the sky: it was the psychological factor. It was about the belief that these little, nimble, planes were helping Great Britain to win the war. The technical ability of these planes was shadowed by the mental shift that this gave the Allied forces, and the advantages associated with this shift.
Spitfire Inbound - Inspired to help our clients win their war for new customers
At Spitfire Inbound we aim to help our clients grow and achieve the results they need to achieve to turn their whole business into an effective sales machine. In order to help our clients, especially those with smaller budgets and not a massive marketing arsenal, we are purpose-built and agile. We also help our clients believe they can reach their customers and prospects more effectively and, by working with them, we deliver results.
Our goal is to put our clients on the front foot and to help them win each battle in the most effective way possible so that they can, ultimately, win the war – without necessarily throwing masses of resources away in the process.
