Marketing Strategies Report: Ryanair Brand Analysis and Campaign

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Ryanair's marketing strategies. It begins with an executive summary and then delves into the company's background, followed by a SWOT analysis to assess its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The report then examines Ryanair's segmentation and targeting strategies, brand positioning analysis, and brand communication objectives, including SMART goals. A significant portion of the report is dedicated to proposing a digital marketing campaign, including channel selection, platform choices, messaging strategies, and target audience identification. The report concludes with an assessment of the campaign's potential impact and offers recommendations for future marketing efforts, supported by a list of references.

Running head: MARKETING STRATEGIES
Marketing Strategies
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author notes:

1MARKETING STRATEGIES
Executive Summary
Ryanair is an airline company based in the United Kingdom that offers
affordable commutation to its customers. The company was established in
1985 and have been providing cost effective services to the customers
ever since. The company has been subject to negative perception
regarding the price as it is assumed that customers associate low quality
with price. A digital marketing campaign has been proposed for
communicating the same to customer community. The company aims to
establish unfiltered communication with the customers and propel the
sales of the ticket in the higher price brackets. A digital marketing has
been proposed for communication of the same.

2MARKETING STRATEGIES
Table of Contents
Aim..............................................................................................................3
Background.................................................................................................3
SWOT analysis.............................................................................................4
Segmentation and Targeting.......................................................................6
Brand positioning analysis...........................................................................7
Brand positioning objectives.......................................................................8
Brand Communication objectives (SMART).................................................9
Digital marketing campaign......................................................................10
Channel selection...................................................................................10
Platform..................................................................................................11
The Message..........................................................................................11
Target audiences....................................................................................12
Impact.......................................................................................................12
Conclusion.................................................................................................12
REFERENCES.............................................................................................14

3MARKETING STRATEGIES
Aim
The aim of the reports is to help analyze the position of Ryanair, in
terms of their brand. Evaluation would include, brand segmentation and
targeting strategy of the company. A SWOT analysis of the company will
be conducted and a digital marketing campaign will be proposed for
boosting the performance of the company.
Background
Ryanair is an airline company that was established in 28th
November, 1984 (Ryanair.com 2019). The airline commenced its services
in 1985. The company is based in Dublin Ireland, with the UK base in
London (Ryanair.com 2019). The company operates in the market by
offering low cost air transport to the market. The main motive of the
organization is realized in their mission statement which states that they
provide low fares and in the process make sustainability favourable for the
customers. The company has adapted an aggressive pricing strategy
which helps them increase and capitalize on consumer satisfaction.
However, the company have not been compromising on the quality of
their service.

4MARKETING STRATEGIES
SWOT analysis
Strengths:
 The market of the United
Kingdom is said to be cost
elastic (Gavazza, Lizzeri and
Roketskiy 2014). Thus the low
price services allowed by the
company is a strength.
 Innovation is the key to
success of companies in in the
UK (MacGillivray et al. 2014).
The company has succeeded
in innovation and thus have
been able to incorporate, low
cost, low price, and high
capacity in their flights.
Weaknesses
 The brand is perceived as
cheap in the market full of
niche customers (Barry, Hogan
and Torres 2013).
 Seasonality is an issue that
the company suffers from
(Diaconu 2013). It was found
out that the main earnings of
the company came from
earnings in the summer.
Opportunity:
 The quality of service offered
by Ryanair is at par with many
companies in the aviation
industry. However, the fact
that the company would like
to get be realized as the very
best has been realized.
 Business routes help generate
a considerable amount of
revenue in the aviation
industry (Fasone, Kofler and
Scuderi 2016). Thus the
Threats:
 No matter how efficient and
secure an airline service may
appear to be, there is always a
degree of risk that is
associated with the operations
of the flight.
 While trying to capitalize on
opportunities presented by the
market the company should
say on point and not deviate
from its goal of offering cheap

5MARKETING STRATEGIES
company can incorporate
more services that cater to the
needs of the customers who
avail business class flights.
services to the customers.

6MARKETING STRATEGIES
Segmentation and Targeting
Segmentation refers to segregation of the market (Wilkinson 2013).
Markets are generally divided to sections which help the marketers of
companies identify and analyze the market that they wish to target (Li et al.
2013). The phenomenon that is characterized by dividing the prospective
customers in segments based on their varied behavioral characteristics
refers to market segmentation (Alt and Iversen 2017). It is created in order
to help companies focus certain marketing strategies or campaign on a
selected segment or group. Targeting is the process of pitching a particular
marketing strategy to a particular group (Weinstein 2013). Segments may be
created on the characteristics of the group of customers or based on the
demographics they belong to (Rezaei and Ortt 2013). It has been observed
that various group behave in distinct and differentiable patterns (Spahn
2013). Thus the rationale behind creation of segmentations is justified. Most
consumers of a selected group behave similarly, as a result segmentation
helps in identifying the target market. The company has identified, the
potential of the low and mid tear market. Thus they have decided to carry
out their operation based on this segment. United Kingdom is a market that
consist of personnel belonging to diverse ethnical and cultural backgrounds
(Hunt, Layton and Prince 2015). It is also composed of people belonging to
various income levels. It has been realized that the market of the United
Kingdom is characterized by a huge segment of individuals belonging to the
mid and low income bracket (Corak 2013). The company has realized the
same and have decided to devise strategies based on the same. The
company has segmented their customers. The targeted customers mostly
belong to the mid and low income level. There exists various companies in
the industry that provide highly priced and high quality services to the
consumers (Beesley and CLittlechild 2013). However, there exists very few
or no airline in the industry who provide high quality services at low prices.
Thus the rationale behind the segmentation policy is justified.

7MARKETING STRATEGIES
Brand positioning analysis
Brand positioning is the key to sustainability of a business in the long-
run (Park and Kim 2016). The fact has been realized by most of the
successful companies of the world. The image that a company has been able
to occupy in the mind of the customer is the position of the company in the
head of the customer. Brand positioning refers to the impression that a said
brand or company has created in the mind of a customer (Jalkala and
Keränen 2014). It is often the credit of successful brand positioning that the
customers are able to relate to a particular brand at once (Sirianni et al.
2013). Success of brand positioning can be deemed to the success of the
marketers who have been successful to position themselves effectively in the
minds of the customers.
The Ryanair Airlines has been subject to various perceptual conception
form the time of its existence (Pels, Njegovan and Behrens 2017). However,
it can be opined that the company has been able to justify its place in the
industry with a powerful brand image. Any type of opinion that people may
have about a brand affects their sales. Same applies in the case of Ryanair.
The company is positioned as an airline who provide cheap air travel. The
company extensively advertise the fact how they provide lower prices than
other airline companies just as any other company would do if they would
have offered the same. However, the company also do realize the
importance of proper communication and inform the customers about the
quality of their service as a result of the dip in price as compared to other
airlines. Thus the consumers of the company are aware of what service they
are opting for without any unrealistic expectation. Companies tend to hide
their impediments. This generally leads to grievances from the part of the
customers. Ryanair realizes the importance of the same and thus they
clearly communicate to the customer. However, it has been opined that the
company are outperforming the expectations of the market by setting low
expectations. The challenge is to cope with high expectation of the first time

8MARKETING STRATEGIES
customers. This is the reason behind the appreciation that the company
received form the customer community and this is the reason behind their
successful position of their brand.
Brand positioning objectives
There is a rationale behind every action that a company takes. Same
applies in the case of brand positioning of Ryanair. The company has devised
a positioning strategy that help them occupy their position as the company
who care about the budgets of the income elastic customers of the
community and thus provides cheap services. People often have the
perception, that cheap and bad quality correlate. Same applies for the case
of Ryanair to some extent. The company has realized the following
objectives in devising the aforementioned brand position in the market of the
United Kingdom for the upcoming year. The objectives will help in mitigating
the challenge of high expectation.
i. To become relevant: The company has realized that relevance is one
of the key criteria of measurement of the success of brand positioning.
Success of brand positioning implies that the consumers community
will be relate to the brand with a said factor at once. For Ryanair it is
its price that make people recall the brand at once.
ii. To differentiate: Brands often disclose important facts to the
customers which finally lead to grievances. High expectations are
directly proportional to increased amount of dissatisfaction when the
expectations are not met. Ryanair can differentiate themselves form
their competition by stating the actual serviced that the customers will
be offered when the latter decide to board the airline.
iii. To devise attainable goals: The company advertises itself as an
affordable airline. The previous objective is to differentiate themselves
form their competition by stating compromise in the service as a result
of the low prices. The company realizes two objectives by doing the

9MARKETING STRATEGIES
same. The company has been seen to outperform the levels of
customer expectations which leads to appreciation. Highlighting the
downsides of their service also triggers the sale of costlier seats. Thus
the company can find itself in a ‘win-win’ situation.
Brand Communication objectives (SMART)
The company has set some specific objectives for the achievement of
defined goals of the organization. The communication objectives that has
been set up by the company are Smart, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant
and Time bound. Following are the objectives:
S – Specific: The Company aims to devise a digital marketing campaign
through which the company aim to increase brand awareness and help
propagate the expectations that the potential customers of the company
might be instated with. The campaign will be devised for England and the
Netherlands.
M – Measurable: The success of the campaign will be measurable. There
will be a specific budget that will be allocated to the digital marketing
campaign. The nature of performance of the brand will measurable in terms
of sales that the company is able to leverage form the community. The
feedback of the customers will also be taken into consideration to measure
the efficacy of the digital marketing campaign.
A – Achievable: The perceived result of the campaign is of realistic nature
and is achievable. Provided that the company is employing the right
strategies and tools to incorporate the objectives of the campaign, the
campaign can deemed to be achievable and not merely paradoxical.
R - Relevant: The outcomes of the objectives would imply that the company
will not have to cope with the grievances of the customers who had high
expectations from the aggressively priced services offered by the airline
company. Thus is considered relevant as this will help in boosting the image

10MARKETING STRATEGIES
of the company and will help in attracting increased number of customers to
Ryanair.
T – Time bound: The objectives thus propounded are time bound. This
implies that the operations relating to the commercialization of the digital
marketing campaign will be time stipulated. The same will be subject to
appraisal after the period of 12 months.
Digital marketing campaign
The company has decided to carry out an extensive digital marketing
campaign that will help the company position itself more effectively in the
minds of the customers. The aim of the campaign is to establish clear
communication of the services offered to the consumers of the company.
Through the campaign the company plans to communicate to the end users
of their service regarding the realities of the qualities of their services. The
company aims to differentiate itself as a brand and assumes that the same
will help the company in deriving sales of higher priced seats of the airline.
They also aim to establish themselves in the minds of the consumers as a
company who are deliver good services at affordable prices. The digital
marketing campaign will employ the use of online marketing tools such as
social media, the website of the company and the dedicated mobile
application.
Channel selection
The channel that has been selected for the proposed digital marketing
campaign is B2C. The company will directly connect to the end user of the
service. Traditional media platforms involve inclusion of third party
businesses in the operations and communication of the digital marketing
campaign. This will help the company as it would imply that the business is
able to save time and money that would have been used if any other channel
would be adopted. Thus selection of the channel has been justified.

11MARKETING STRATEGIES
Platform
The digital marketing campaign would be employ the use of modern
forms of media. The communication with the end user is said to take place
through mediums such as social networking websites, the website of the
company and the mobile application of the airlines company. Social media
has been proven to be a cheap and trusted way of boosting the sales and
awareness of any product or service. Thus same would be carried out using
traditional social media platforms as well as smart televisions. According to
a survey it was found that approximately 37% of households in the United
States own smart televisions (Debes et al. 2016). Thus the digital marketing
campaign can target the said demographic as it would help them reach an
increased number of audience than would be possible by traditional digital
platforms.
The Message
The main purpose behind the selection of the digital marketing
campaign lies in the company’s initiative to communicate with the
audiences. The company aims to communicate their vision with the
audiences at large regarding the services that they offer to them. It has been
found that customers associate a high degree of expectation with a product
or service that they have not used (Hsu and Lin 2013). Thus the company
has chosen to communicate with the audiences clearly about the quality of
the service and experience that the customers will be subject to low cost
flights. The company realizes the psychological aspect of the message. By
clearly addressing the outcomes of the services. The company aims to
undermine the end user experience and thus capitalize on the surprise
factor. The aim of the campaign is to encourage the prospective customers
to book costlier seats and thus the ultimate goal of profit maximization is
realized.