EADS goes through longely awaited re-branding as a new year comes

As the new year came, the plane makers parent company dropped one of the corporate worlds most unrecognized names: European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co. The company has always been appealing to its customers with its alternative – Airbus.

The Dutch-registered French-German-British-Spanish multinationals company re-branded itself under the name of Airbus Group NV.

“It was always much too long and confusing for effective marketing,” says Rainer Ohler, head of group communications at Airbus Group. Sales, marketing and public-relations executives for years moaned at the challenges posed by the name.

Some of companys managers said EADS sounded like a disease.

The creation of EADS was announced in October 1999 in Strasbourg, a city on the French-German border that had traded hands for centuries and is a seat of the European Parliament. Accompanying the overlong name, EADS was born with dual French and German headquarters, chairmen and chief executives. The logo was a mix of icons from the merged companies.

In 2006, EADS bought out British Aerospace (BAE)s 20% share of Airbus. The name Airbus was created in 1970 because its first plane was going to be a 300-seater designed to bus fliers between Paris and Frankfurt—remained with the EADS unit.

Airbus was now the biggest chunk of EADS and Airbus officials quietly boasted that their division was the true success story. But when problems arose developing the new Airbus A380 superjumbo jetliner that same year, the Europeans started fighting. French managers blamed German engineers for shoddy work. Everyone else accused the French of chauvinism.

Last year, the aerospace groups finally made progress on the subject. European politicians had just shot down a proposed merger of EADS and BAE Systems, ignoring their predecessors dream of a true pan-European company. EADS Chief Executive Tom Enders opted instead to scale back on defense, making Airbus an even bigger portion of the company. Lagardère SCA and Daimler AG sold their remaining shares, reducing EADSs direct ties to France and Germany.

In May the name change becomes legally binding after the companys annual general meeting. But Europe wont disappear from the name of the group. Airbus Group plans next year to change its corporate designation from NV (the Dutch abbreviation for public company) to the SE that is used across the European Union. The designation is short for societas europaea, which is Latin for European company.