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Ryanair Promotion Analysis
545127
Ryanair Promotion Analysis
Marketing 300
Section 2
Student Number: 545127
E-mail: [email protected]
Date Due: December 2,2011
Date Submitted: December 2,2011
Executive Summary: This is a review of Ryanair’s Promotion strategy. The review
will look at the different aspect of Ryanair’s Promotions and dissect their promotion
strategy. There are many promotions that will be talked about like: advertising,
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publicity, personal selling, and branding. This will show how each aspect comes
together and make Ryanair’s promotion strategy.
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Table of Contents
Executive Summary ......................................................... 1
Company History .............................................................. 4
Company Profile ............................................................... 5
Advertising ......................................................................... 5
Publicity ............................................................................... 8
Personal selling ................................................................. 9
Branding ............................................................................10
Conclusion.........................................................................10
Bibliography.................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
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Company History
Christopher Ryan, Liam Lonergan, and Irish businessman Tony Ryan founded
Ryanair in 1985. Ryanair has climbed to the top since it’s establishment in 1985. It
went from flying a short hop from Waterford to London into one of Europe’s largest
carriers. They acquired their first jet in 1987, two years after starting Ryanair. After
the airline was taken public in 1997, the money raised was used to expand the
airline into a pan-European carrier. The airline began to grow rapidly, revenues
have risen from 231 million Euros in 1998, to some 1843 million Euros in 2003 and
net profits have increased from 48 million Euros to 239 million Euros over the same
time period. Ryanair during the 90’s decided to model themselves after Southwest
Airlines, in the United States. Southwest is an airline that is known for their lowfares and Ryanair’s motto was low-fares, no frills. Ryanair continues to grow.
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Company Profile
Ryanair is currently one of largest low-fare airlines. According to Air
Transport World magazine announced that Ryanair was the most profitable airline
in the world, on the basis of its operating and net profit margins, on a per-airplane
and per-passenger basis. Ryanair is about cost reduction. They do not serve free
food on flights. In order for a consumer to get food on a flight they have to buy the
food. This brings in more income for the company. They believe that passengers are
willing to pay more for a better level of service. They have been continuing to grow
since they were established and are now becoming the largest airline in Europe.
Advertising
Advertising is the act or
practice of calling public
attention to one’s product,
service, need, etc., especially by
paid announcements in newspapers and magazines, over radio or television, on
billboards.
Ryanair tries to
spend as little as
possible on
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advertising. This is one way that they cut cost and become more profitable.
Other ways that Ryanair cuts advertising costs are they do not employ an
advertising agency. All advertising is in house meaning that employees who are
already employed by Ryanair do the advertising themselves. The reason that
Ryanair is trying to cut costs is because of rising oil prices, a weak pound, and a
failing economy. All of these factors mean that Ryanair have to cut cost somewhere
and advertising is one of the areas that they felt would be a good way to cut costs.
One way that Ryanair does advertise is on their planes. All of their planes have their
name painted on them. They also have livery of
advertisers on their planes. Ryanair’s
advertising is anything but modest. However,
Michael O’Leary does this in order to get the
consumers attention. It is sometimes looked at
as negative and even wrong but O’Leary believes
that is it the best way to advertise. It get the
consumers attention and then they want to know about the product that is
producing advertisements like the one’s that Ryanair puts out. There have been
many complaints about the way that Ryanair advertises. People do not understand
why an airline company has to advertise in a way that Ryanair does. Ryanair
spokesman made the comment that “We’re just giving them what they want.” He
also made the comment that there are other advertisements out there that are just
like Ryanair’s and they do not seem to be a problem.
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One of Ryanair’s biggest advertisements is a calendar that they come out
with. This is where many people have a problem with because they have girls who
are wearing barely anything. Many people believe that this is not a proper way to
advertise. As the pictures show they are very risky pictures where the girls are
barely wearing anything. However, they do get the customers attention. It is also a
unique way of getting the customers attention. You do not see a whole lot of airlines
advertising in this way which give Ryanair the upper hand in advertising because
they are advertising in a way that no one else. It is not often that you see beautiful
girls just around different parts of a airplane. The goal of Ryanair is to draw the
attention of their customers. For the men it is the thinking that if they fly with
Ryanair then they may be able to meet a woman like the ones in the pictures. For
women it is the fact that they feel like if they fly with Ryanair then they could be
looked at as a beautiful women like the ones in the picture. Another goal for Ryanair
is to get people talking about their advertisements. The way that Ryanair is
advertising it will get people talking, even if people are talking in a negative way
they are still talking about Ryanair. The more you hear about a company name you
want to know and that is how Ryanair attracts the customers they have is by making
advertisements so unique that people talk about them all the time to the point
where people want to find out more about the company. Michael O’Leary is trying
to cause controversy in order to generate free publicity for the airline.
Another type of advertisement that Ryanair uses is to make direct
comparisons and attack their competitors. Ryanair did however, get in trouble for
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attacking their competitors and had to write an apology but they did not look at this
as a bad thing; Ryanair used the apologies to further their advertising.
Ryanair does not only try to use women in their calendar they also use them
for regular advertisements. They have used models dressed in schoolgirl outfits
with the words “Hottest back to school fares.” Once again they are trying to get their
target market’s attention. However, when they use advertising like this they are
reaching more than just their target market. By using models that are attractive in
certain outfits will get more than their target market talking about their company.
Overall, Ryanair’s strategy for advertising is to make controversial
advertisements in order to get people to talk. It is free advertising in the end
because Ryanair does not use a lot of money on advertising they have also cut down
on the money that they spend on advertising. Which means that the way they
advertise has to be the most effective which what they are doing is because they are
getting people to talk whether it is good or bad.
Publicity
Publicity is extensive mention in the new media or by word of mouth or
other means of
communication. It
is also the
measures, process,
or business of
securing public
notice. Ryanair
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uses it’s advertising to get publicity. Since, Ryanair using such controversial
advertising and statements they get a lot of publicity that way. The reason that
Michael O’Leary advertises the way he does is in order to get free advertising, which
leads to publicity. With advertisements like the one above there is a lot of talk about
it. Like stated before many people do not like the way Ryanair advertises because it
shows a lot of models in hardly anything. This is sure to make people talk and when
it comes to publicity the company is trying to get their name out there whether that
is good or bad. In Ryanair’s case it is not always good. However, that is the goal of
Michael O’Leary, he wants to get everyone’s attention so that they will come and
find more out about Ryanair. Ryanair also makes some controversial statements
which leads to people talking and getting their name out there once again. With all
these controversial advertisements and statement there is bound to be an article
written about Ryanair which then again gets their name out there and if someone
who works for Ryanair gets interviewed then they can say good things about
Ryanair and get free publicity. The way that Ryanair advertises it gives them
publicity because of the way they are advertising to their target market.
Personal Selling
Personal selling is face-to-face selling in which a seller attempts to persuade
a buyer to make a purchase. The goal of personal selling is to meet the customer’s
need with the product(s) they are selling. Ryanair does a great deal of it’s personal
selling on its website, www.ryanair.com. This however, is not face-to-face selling it
is the closest that Ryanair can come to personal selling. By using the Internet
Ryanair is meeting its customers needs. Most consumers now want to use
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technology to do things. With Ryanair’s website it is easy for consumers to go on and
look at the different offers that Ryanair has. It is also easy to book flights with
Ryanair. Ryanair added to its personal selling when it began offering handheld
electronic point of sales transactions on flights. With this addition they are bettering
passengers flight experience. They are also meeting the needs of the passenger in a
faster way. This technology will also lead to other advances technology in the future.
Branding
From everything that has been discussed up to this point one can clearly see
that Ryanair has branded itself as the bad boy of the airline business. It is clear from
the way that they advertise and how they talk about the company that Ryanair is
definitely trying to stir up some talk. With a CEO like Michael O’Leary it is not
surprising that Ryanair has branded itself as the bad boy of the airline business.
Most airlines or businesses for that matter would want to be branded as the bad boy
of any type of the business world. However, Ryanair has been very successful with
branding itself in this way because it gets people talking and as the generations get
younger they want the bad boy of companies because younger generations like the
bad boy imagine.
Conclusion
After researching and seeing exactly how Ryanair does their promotion part
of the marketing mix it is very interesting. I have never heard or seen a company
advertise the way that Ryanair does in order to get so much publicity. However, it is
a smart way to advertise and get publicity even if people do not always agree. The
way they are going about advertising is cutting cost which all businesses are trying
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to do in a failing economy. They are also getting free publicity out of it because they
are start such a commotion with the way that they advertise that more than just
their target market is talking about Ryanair. While I do not think that I would ever
brand my company the way that Ryanair has branded themselves, it seems like it is
working out well for them.
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Work Cited
Business Dictionary. “Personal Selling” Web. November 28, 2011.
www.businessdictionary.com.
Harwood, Jonathon. "Ryanair Profits Drop Sparks Ad Cutbacks | InDepth Analysis | Marketing
Week." Marketing Jobs & Marketing News - Media,
Advertising, Brands - Marketing Week. 2007. Web. 16 Apr. 2011.
<http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/analysis/ryanair-profits-drop-sparksadcutbacks/2059507.article>.
Dalby, Douglas. "Marketing: Fasten Your Seatbelt, It's a Ryanair Ad –
Times Online." The Times | UK News, World News and Opinion. 2004. Web. 17 Apr.
2011. <http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/article399005.ece>.
"Ryanair." Cheap Flights. 2011. Web. 15 Apr. 2011.
<http://www.ryanair.com/>.
"Ryanair Marketing Mix." Marketing Teacher. 2011. Web. 22 Apr.
2011. <http://www.marketingteacher.com/case-study/ryanair-case-study.html>.
"Ryanair." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. 2011. Web. 20 Apr. 2011.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryanair>.
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