Marketing Case Study Assignment

This marketing case study assignment focuses on Ryanair, a low-cost airline. It includes a SWOT analysis, analysis of macro-environment factors, segmentation criteria, and positioning strategy in the Irish market.

Running head: MARKETING CASE STUDY ASSIGNMENT
Marketing Case Study Assignment
[Ryanair]
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
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1MARKETING CASE STUDY ASSIGNMENT
Table of Contents
Q1. SWOT Analysis........................................................................................................................2
Strengths......................................................................................................................................2
Weaknesses..................................................................................................................................2
Opportunities...............................................................................................................................2
Threats.........................................................................................................................................2
Q2. Macro-environment..................................................................................................................3
Demographic and cultural changes..............................................................................................3
Economic and Political & Legislative factors.............................................................................3
Environmental and Technological implications..........................................................................4
Q3. Segmentation............................................................................................................................4
a. Target market........................................................................................................................4
b. Segmentation criteria............................................................................................................5
Q4. Positioning Strategy..................................................................................................................5
a. Define Ryanair’s key positioning strategy in the Irish market.............................................5
b. Consider how a competitive advantage is attained through product, services, channels,
people or image............................................................................................................................6
Bibliography....................................................................................................................................8

2MARKETING CASE STUDY ASSIGNMENT
Q1. SWOT Analysis
Strengths
Ryanair boards a huge passengers' count every year. In the year 2017, it became the first
European airline to have carried over approximately 1 billion customers (Howandwhat, 2019).
The company is the pioneer in regards to the low-cost airline business model. The size and the
average lifetime of Ryanair fleet are also worth noting. It enables the company to have a control
on its lower fares. The profit noted a 10% increase in May 2018 (Howandwhat, 2019).
Weaknesses
Managing employee relations is one of the weaknesses of the company. It is evidenced in
the summer 2018 when walkouts by cabin crew and pilots resulted in cancellation of flights to
some major holiday destinations. Customer perception of the brand is an issue. Ryanair's buzz
score has in the year 2017 declined from -13 to -35 (Howandwhat, 2019). This may be attributed
to flight cancellations and strikes. However, it's also true that the company has performed poorly
in a number of service and poles for so many years (Howandwhat, 2019).
Opportunities
Ryanair has a very strong presence in European countries such as the UK, Germany,
Spain and Italy. These markets have further growth prospects for the airline industry.
Introduction of new routes is also worth mentioning. 20 new routes include such as Turkey,
Ukraine and Jordan (Howandwhat, 2019). The company can also explore opportunities to
diversify into many other complementary sequence of the industry such as in Europe and beyond
(Howandwhat, 2019).

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Threats
The low cost airline model is hugely competitive. Legal challenges are one of the threats.
Flight disruptions have created many issues in past. It is damaging to their corporate image in the
market (Howandwhat, 2019).
Q2. Macro-environment
Demographic and cultural changes
Low-cost airlines’ expansion and their growth can be mostly attributed to the disposable
income of the middle class family. This airline model is mostly suitable to Generation Y
travelers who can afford to travel multiple short-tips every single year. The culture related to
boarding is getting changed with it. It is evidenced in a fact that millennials expect high customer
service even in budget range flights. Brands with ability to deliver in terms of customer service
will be highly preferred by the modern day travelers. These trends have compelled Ryanair to
constantly involve towards improving design and infrastructure of flights, number of routes,
quality of customer service and so on (Businessteacher.org.uk 2019).
Economic and Political & Legislative factors
In case of recession which is expected to happen post a complete separation of the UK
from the EU there will be decline in the UK market. It is because there is a close correlation
between an economic state and the demands for leisure travel. However, the problem will get
resolve if the airline reposition its base in the EU (Businessteacher.org.uk 2019).

4MARKETING CASE STUDY ASSIGNMENT
Ryanair is registered in Ireland; however, it maintains large bases in the United Kingdom.
Hence, unfavourable Brexit outcomes may negatively influence the operations of Ryanair. If an
agreement to provide restriction-free flights gets failed this could impact in reduced EU airline
access to the UK market (Businessteacher.org.uk 2019).
In case if UK and EU decision makers fail to reach to legal consensus all flights between
EU and UK will be suspended (Businessteacher.org.uk 2019).
Environmental and Technological implications
Heat waves are a growing issue. This is rising way above the normal temperature for the
ground operations. This has impacted airline brands across the globe. Ryanair also is using a fuel
efficient modern aircraft fleet. Low-cost airlines are amongst the most to contribute to carbon
emissions (Businessteacher.org.uk 2019).
Modern travelers can be largely attributed to Generation Y travelers. Generation Y
prefers remain connecting with friends and relatives on social sites. Hence, Ryanair will need to
work towards ensuring network connectivity in flights. In addition, this change must be
communicated by means of digital channels. Ryanair will need to adopt feasible and relevant
digital channels for distribution and marketing of airline services. Digital channel will also
generate large scale data, which can be utilised by the company for even furthering its standard
of service (Businessteacher.org.uk 2019).
Q3. Segmentation
a. Target market

5MARKETING CASE STUDY ASSIGNMENT
The target market for Ryanair has always been the budget travelers. This is one of the
reasons to have encouraged the company to use the low-cost airline model. The cost-
leadership approach coupled with strategic management in the company resulted in its
dominance in terms of carrying maximum number of passengers in a single year. It has
continued to follow more or less the similar approach in selecting the target market. In the
Irish market, Ryanair’s current target market is still the low budget travelers. This is
evidenced in a fact that the company has strengthened its dominance in the discount airline
market. It adds more customers than any other major airline brands in the discount segment
(The Irish Times 2019).
b. Segmentation criteria
Segmentation criteria can be based upon several segmentation types like Geographic,
Psychographic, Demographic and Behavioural. Different airline brands in the world can have
distinguished criteria for the segmentation. This may vary depending on the airline model
being followed. Ryanair follows the low-cost airline model. Therefore, it follows a
behavioural segmentation criteria. The target market for the company are budget travelers.
This is one of the categories of travelers. Budget travelling indicates an attitude, which
middle-class income families possess (Shaw, 2016).
Q4. Positioning Strategy
a. Define Ryanair’s key positioning strategy in the Irish market
Positioning strategy of a company helps it create an appealing image in the target market.
This can be anything like cost-leadership approach or offering leisure-based services.

6MARKETING CASE STUDY ASSIGNMENT
Ryanair follows the low-cost airline model. The company attracts budget-travelers. Ryanair’s
positioning strategy in the Irish market is “low-cost, no frills air travel services to various
parts of European destinations” (Akamavi et al., 2015).
b. Consider how a competitive advantage is attained through product, services,
channels, people or image
Competitive advantage is attained by applying strategic thoughts to each marketing elements.
This will include but not limited to products or services, channels and people. Each of these
elements require a robust marketing audit to be able to understand the respective current
trends and plan strategies to create an appealing brand image. Ryanair is one of very few
airline companies to have effectively used these elements to its perfection. Below is how a
competitive advantage is attained (Akamavi et al., 2015):
Product or service: Food and drinks are income streams. Ryanair does not offer food and
drink to passengers. It offers low-cost flights to European destinations. Despite such flaws in
the service line Ryanair is able to be away from criticism. It does so with its effective criteria
for the target market. Therefore, the target market is budget travelers in the whole European
market.
Channels: Ryanair spend less on advertising. The company does not also employ any
advertising agency. In this way, Ryanair is able to save money on the overall costs of
operation. Instead, the company uses simple adverts to tell people about the low fares. In
addition, Ryanair employs controversial adverts to draw the attention. For example,
advertising about the penalty to be imposed on passengers using toilets onboard.

7MARKETING CASE STUDY ASSIGNMENT
People: The Company recruits young skilled professionals as pilot cadets. Professionals are
given opportunities to be promoted to higher positions. ‘Early promotions’ is one of the
retention policy that Ryanair follows. Cabin crew are not provided with any pay for getting
their uniforms cleaned. Ryanair does not also give a paid training to employees. However,
the work pressure on Cabin crew is very limited. They are mainly responsible for ancillary
revenues onboard and passenger safety.

8MARKETING CASE STUDY ASSIGNMENT
Bibliography
Akamavi, R. K. and Mohamed, E. and Pellmann, K. and Xu, Y. (2015). Key determinants of
passenger loyalty in the low-cost airline business. Tourism management, 46, 528-545.
Businessteacher.org.uk. (2019). Ryanair PESTEL Analysis | Business Teacher. Retrieved from
https://businessteacher.org.uk/pestel/ryanair.php
Fu, X. and Lei, Z. and Wang, K. and Yan, J. (2015). Low cost carrier competition and route
entry in an emerging but regulated aviation market–The case of China. Transportation Research
Part A: Policy and Practice, 79, 3-16.
Howandwhat. (2019). SWOT analysis of Ryanair | howandwhat. Retrieved from
https://www.howandwhat.net/swot-analysis-ryanair/
Shaw, S. (2016). Airline marketing and management. Routledge.
Taneja, N. K. (2017). Simpli-Flying: optimizing the airline business model. Routledge.
The Irish Times. (2019). Ryanair easily outperforms its rivals in adding customers. Retrieved
from https://www.irishtimes.com/business/transport-and-tourism/ryanair-easily-outperforms-its-
rivals-in-adding-customers-1.3345828
Wu, C. L. (2016). Airline operations and delay management: insights from airline economics,
networks and strategic schedule planning. Routledge.