Marketing and Communications Report: Ryanair Strategy and Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Ryanair's marketing and communication strategies. It begins with an introduction to marketing orientations, including production, marketing, and societal orientations, and identifies Ryanair's adoption of a societal orientation, providing examples. The report then delves into the marketing environment, discussing the importance of situation analysis and identifying political and socio-cultural factors impacting Ryanair's decisions, along with an analysis of its key competitors. Internal environmental factors, serving as Ryanair's strengths, are also explained. The analysis continues with an examination of market segmentation variables, including geographic, demographic, and psychographic segmentation, and their application to Ryanair's consumer markets. The report then assesses the 7 Ps of the service marketing mix for Ryanair, providing examples for each element. The second part of the report focuses on a communication campaign, including visual illustrations, promotional mix, target audience analysis, chosen communication channels, key messages, and the application of AIDA marketing theory. The report concludes with a summary of findings and a comprehensive reference list.

Running head: MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS
Marketing and Communications
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Table of Contents
Part 1................................................................................................................................................2
Marketing Report.............................................................................................................................2
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Task 1: Evolution of marketing.......................................................................................................2
Part A...............................................................................................................................................2
Describe the production, marketing and societal orientations in marketing...................................2
Part B...............................................................................................................................................3
Identify and explain the orientation adopted by Ryanair and provide 2 examples that demonstrate
Ryanair’s use of the approach..........................................................................................................3
Task 2: Marketing environments.....................................................................................................4
Part A...............................................................................................................................................4
Discuss the purpose of a situation analysis and explain why it is important for Ryanair prior to
setting a marketing strategy.............................................................................................................4
Part B...............................................................................................................................................5
Considering macro environment of Ryanair and identify and discuss one political factor, one
socio-cultural factor that impact Ryanair’s marketing decisions....................................................5
Part C...............................................................................................................................................6
Identify two key competitors of Ryanair and discuss the potential threats they pose to the
business............................................................................................................................................6

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Part D...............................................................................................................................................7
Identify and explain two internal environmental factors that could be considered as strengths of
Ryanair’s business operation...........................................................................................................7
Task 3: Marketing strategies............................................................................................................7
Part A...............................................................................................................................................7
Discuss the four major sets of variables that might be used in segmenting consumer markets......7
Part B...............................................................................................................................................8
Identify and explain the segmenting variables used by Ryanair, providing examples at the same.8
Task 4: Marketing Mix..................................................................................................................10
Part A.............................................................................................................................................10
7 Ps of service marketing mix of Ryanair by providing examples................................................10
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................11
Reference List................................................................................................................................12
Part 2..............................................................................................................................................14
Communication Campaign............................................................................................................14
Introduction....................................................................................................................................14
Task 1.............................................................................................................................................15
Visual illustration (As shown in PPT presentation)......................................................................15
Task 2.............................................................................................................................................15
Communication campaign.............................................................................................................15

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Explanation on how promotional mix theory can use to decide over selection of
communication channel.............................................................................................................15
Target audience and response in relation to new objective.......................................................15
Chosen channel..........................................................................................................................16
Communications key message...................................................................................................16
AIDA marketing theory for explaining the poster.....................................................................16
Explanation on how feedback was collected.............................................................................16
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................17
Reference List................................................................................................................................18

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Part 1
Marketing Report
Introduction
This study deals with marketing and communications of Ryanair (Ryanair.com 2017).
The current segment explains about various orientations in marketing (production orientation,
marketing orientation and social orientation). The next segment explains about identifying social
and political factors of airline industry and how far it influences in the working in real case
scenario with instances. The present study even explains about the competitors of Ryanair and
how far it poses threat in the business operations in the competitive world. Several sets of
variables are explained in the study and use of 7 Ps of service marketing mix of Ryanair (Wu et
al. 2015).
Task 1: Evolution of marketing
Part A
Describe the production, marketing and societal orientations in marketing
Evolution of marketing
Marketing has changed over years and became an integral part of today’s business
environment. The production-centered system had changed the relationship era of today for
period of years where specialization has emerged like sales versus marketing and advertising
versus retailing. The concept or evolution of marketing has taken the modern shape after going
through several stages since 19th century.

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Production orientation in marketing- Production orientation in marketing before 20th century
was conservative as well as hire bound, as there was lack of information. In production-oriented
marketing, the success mantra was all about improved production and distribution. In this
orientation of marketing, the focus of business enterprise is to reduce costs by using mass
production (Wirtz and Lovelock 2016). This type of orientation in marketing should avoid
production efficiency processes that widely affect product design as well as quality. This concept
in marketing is one of the oldest orientations that are used by business organization to improve in
the production as well as distribution efficiency. The main objective of this concept of marketing
is to satisfy customer needs as well as aims at building relationships.
Market orientation in marketing- This concept in marketing was one of the first approaches
that actually fulfill the needs of a marketing strategy. The main aim is to build profitable long-
term relationships by way of maximizing value for the customer. This marketing concept takes
on an outside perspective that starts mainly with customers needs as well as aims at finding the
right products for the customers.
Societal orientation in marketing- This concept in marketing is an advanced version of
marketing that looks for possible conflicts between consumer short-term wants as well as
consumer long-term welfare. It is important for business enterprise to keep balance of three
considerations together and these are profit generation, consumer wants as well as interests of the
society (Ryan 2016).
Part B
Identify and explain the orientation adopted by Ryanair and provide 2 examples that
demonstrate Ryanair’s use of the approach
After evaluating three orientation of marketing concept (production concept, marketing
concept and societal concept), it is understood that Ryanair uses societal orientations in
marketing as their marketing strategy as this airline industry makes strategies where they can
generate profits, understand needs of the customers and even provide services that benefits
society (Corporate Social Responsibility).

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For instance, Ryanair had made ways to treat customers as discrete transactions. The new
model adopted by Ryanair is based on relationship marketing where they believe in maintaining
long-term relationship with the customers.
The next example to prove that Ryanair uses societal orientation in marketing is to look
at how the company deals with customer relationship management. The company uses customer
data (ensuring data privacy) aims at offering significant value as and when needed. Customer
Relationship Management will afford to maintain stronger relationship with the customers that
ensure timely messaging and tailored to the individual as far as possible.
Task 2: Marketing environments
Part A
Discuss the purpose of a situation analysis and explain why it is important for Ryanair
prior to setting a marketing strategy
Situation analysis is a collection of data that will help organization to analyze the internal
as well as external environment and to understand the organization capability, capacity and the
business environment as a whole.
The macro environmental factors are the external factors that cannot be controlled easily
and influences decisions made by organization and directly affect its performance as well as
strategies. Some of the macro environmental factors include political factors, economical factors,
social factors and technological factors.
On the other hand, micro environmental factors are the internal factors that affect a
company’s ability for serving its customers like the company itself, marketing intermediaries,
customer markets as well as public and suppliers.
The main purpose of situation analysis is to plan for consequences prior to
implementation of any new marketing strategy. Situation analysis treated as one of the important

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part in the business or marketing plan that need to be reviewed on monthly basis. This can be
judged by any company by highlighting the strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats to the
organization or business (Killian and McManus 2015). SWOT analysis tool should be used by
the management of Ryanair prior to setting any of the new marketing strategy into practical
course of action.
Strengths Weakness
Strong Networking
Lowest fares
Updated fleet
Strong brand recognition
Experienced and specialized staff members
First mover advantage in low-cost market
High operating margins
Excellent cost management as well as logistics
Poor Customer Relationship Management
Limited landing slots especially in major airports
Seasonality
Poor website as well as social media presence
Controversial advertising
Need high level of innovation
Opportunity Threats
Improved customer service
Business travelers
New Aircraft
Accident
Loss of focus
Competitive response
Part B
Considering macro environment of Ryanair and identify and discuss one political factor,
one socio-cultural factor that impact Ryanair’s marketing decisions
Political factors- There are several political factors that affect airlines industry to large extent.
Deregulation is one of the political factors that show decrease in margins because of increased
competition in this marketplace. In addition, new security requirements are the cause behind
operational costs as well as waiting times that make air transportation less attractive (Kane et al.
2014). In terms of deregulation, several factors affect functioning of Ryanair such as price
restrictions on airlines, restricted entry and intervention by government.

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Socio-cultural factors- There are several socio-cultural factors that affect airline industry to
large extent. Holiday popularity is one of the socio-cultural factors that show opportunities in
new market in new segment. In addition, it is noted that there is increase in relative type
traveling that creates new market opportunities.
The above factors help in creating marketing opportunities or threats for Ryanair because
these are external environmental factors that provide insights of information on how external
factors influences airline industry in any form. If there is any interference by the government, it
becomes difficult for the airline industry to come up with new policies for the development of
their company (Hambrick and Kang 2015).

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Part C
Identify two key competitors of Ryanair and discuss the potential threats they pose to the
business
Ryanair faces stiff competition from Easyjet and Alitalia. In the European space, it is
noted that Ryanair mainly competes with most of the traditional as well as low-cost airlines as
shown in the below diagram. Even, Lufthansa was one of the competitors that are largest airline
in the world in terms of market share in air transport marketplace (Goworek and McGoldrick
2015).
Easyjet is a direct competitor of Ryanair as both are competing aggressively in the LCC
segment as well as even introduced trans-Atlantic flights to Asia (Andrews and Shimp 2017).
The market is quite concentrated where Ryanair and Easyjet control over 73% of the market.
Figure: Competitors of Ryanair
(Source: Ryan 2016)
Ryanair deals in low fare airlines market segment and this prove as serious threat to
Ryanair as they have some rigid approach and faces difficult in adapting its strategy to the new
market conditions. It is necessary for Ryanair to broaden their strategy as well as adapt itself to a
more customer-oriented market to remain ahead of Easyjet (Ford 2014).

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Part D
Identify and explain two internal environmental factors that could be considered as
strengths of Ryanair’s business operation
Ryanair is one of the leading low cost airlines, no frills, large brand awareness and quick
turnaround that had won several awards from the year 1985. This airline company aims to
become leader in the airline industry and have a stable competitive advantage. Internal
environmental factors that could be treated as strengths of business operations at Ryanair are
listed below with proper justification:
Stakeholders- The stakeholders of Ryanair own the shares as well as rights to claim dividends in
the operations.
Employees- Employees of Ryanair are treated as one of the true asset for the company and they
are the real reason behind success of Ryanair (Ang 2014).
Corporate Social Responsibility- Corporate social responsibility means that Ryanair implement
those strategies keeping in mind about the environmental factors and societal needs. CSR is one
of the important functions that regulate mechanism that ensure a loyalty to law as well as ethical
standards. Even Ryanair provided incorrect information about carbon gas emissions and
company is even misleading about their pricing structure. Negative image of the company as
well as negative corporate social responsibility will directly lead to decrease in sale and loss in
profits (Darley 2016).
Task 3: Marketing strategies
Part A
Discuss the four major sets of variables that might be used in segmenting consumer
markets
There are four set of variables that might be used in segmenting consumer markets and
these are explained below with proper justification:

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Geographic segmentation- “Geographic segmentation means when business divide its
market based on geography”. One of the set of variable is geographic variable that
include location, climate, countries, nations, states as well as regions and neighborhoods.
Demographic segmentation- “Demographic segmentation means when business
segments into several markets in order to help business enterprise target their customers
in an accurate way”. One of the set of variable is demographic variable that include age,
occupation, gender as well as religion and income.
Psychographic segmentation- “Psychographic segmentation is all about dividing the
market based on attributes such as customer personality traits, attitudes, lifestyles and
values”. One of the set of variable is psychographic variable that include lifestyle, social
class as well as personality. It may happen that people belonging to the same
demographic group that have various psychographic make-ups.
Behavioral segmentation- “Behavioral segmentation is one of the marketing strategies
that is purely based on actual consumer buying behavior”. One of the set of variable is
behavioral variable that include benefits, usage rate as well as special occasion and
loyalty status (Armstrong et al. 2015).
Part B
Identify and explain the segmenting variables used by Ryanair, providing examples at the
same
From the above discussion, it is understood that there are four common set of variables
used for segmenting consumer markets. From the four set of variables, Ryanair had used
geographic and demographic segmenting variables in their business operations (Charter 2017).
For instance,
Geographic segmentation

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Figure: Geographic segmentation
(Source: Armstrong et al. 2015)
Ryanair is an airline company that operates throughout the European regions that include
27 countries connecting with 160 destinations. In addition, the passenger orientation of Ryanair
is based in UK (Balmer 2013).
Demographic segmentation
Figure: Demographic segmentation
(Source: Camilleri 2017)
From the graph shown above, it is noted that 83% of passengers belong to the age group
of 18 t 54 years. Then, 31% of passengers belong to the age group of 25 to 34 years. However, it

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is understood that at this particular age group, people shows interest in traveling frequently. Once
people have that interest, they will travel more and look for those airlines that are providing
services at lower cost. Ryanair is one of the low cost carrier’s airline companies that aim at
meeting the needs of these customers in the most appropriate way (Camilleri 2017).

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Task 4: Marketing Mix
Part A
7 Ps of service marketing mix of Ryanair by providing examples
Product or service- Product or service here means services offered by any company with a aim
to generate profits from it and the service should meet the need and expectations of the
customers or targeted audience. Ryanair offer core service of transport for short hauling
destinations at lower prices. This airline company does not offer food, drinks or any extra
services as like other traditional companies does.
Place- Place here means which place the service will be offered to the end customers so that it is
easily accessible to the target audience. Ryanair sells their tickets through website of their
company as well as other websites that cuts off other intermediaries such as travel agents. The
airline company makes use of secondary as well as small airports that cost less as the
turnarounds on grounds are performed faster.
Promotion- Promotion means how the company will make promotional strategies to promote
their product or services to bring awareness among the public or else it will be difficult for the
customers to track or understand about the product or services. Ryanair has eliminated
advertising cost. The airline company makes use of websites for promoting their image as well as
people have the tendency to learn from the websites that help them to compare the services.
Ryanair invest less on advertisement and has only little advertisement on the back of the seats in
the cabin as well as they send to customers with some emails so that the customers are informed
about any of the special offers decided by Ryanair.
Physical Evidence- The only physical evidence in case of Ryanair is their airplanes. Ryanair has
tried to diminish their cost when it comes to purchasing their aircrafts by taking advantage of
special offers because of special situations or circumstances. Ryanair even have only one class of
seating as they have minimized free space per customer so that they can increase the number of
seats (Belch and Belch 2014).

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People- In this type of airline industry, pilots work for several hours and they even need to
follow flexible work conditions where their wages are very low as well as their contracts do not
follow any of the trade union agreements. This is the only reason why Ryanair had to suffer from
strikes performed by the human resources who work for this airline company. There is no
dedicated customer service as Ryanair use outsourcing for this purpose at the same time (Balmer,
Illia and Del Valle Brena 2013).
Process- The process starts when passengers book their ticket by using internet medium. After
booking, the passengers need to show passport. The turnaround times on the ground are kept as
the aircrafts are used to the greatest extent as well as offering point to point service.
Price- Ryanair aims at providing the transport cost at lowest price to the passengers. This airline
company offers a combination of low cost fares along with high frequency service as well as
wide network of routes (Bax and Woodhouse 2013).
Conclusion
At the end of the study, it is concluded that Ryanair adopts production oriented marketing
practices by providing services at low cost. Ryanair faces stiff competition from Easyjet and this
company poses huge threat to survive in this competitive world. The above segment properly
explains about the service marketing mix that is adopted by Ryanair in their current business
operations.

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Reference List
Andrews, J.C. and Shimp, T.A., 2017. Advertising, promotion, and other aspects of integrated
marketing communications. Nelson Education.
Ang, L., 2014. Principles of integrated marketing communications. Cambridge University Press.
Armstrong, G., Kotler, P., Harker, M. and Brennan, R., 2015. Marketing: an introduction.
Pearson Education.
Balmer, J.M., 2013. Corporate heritage, corporate heritage marketing, and total corporate
heritage communications: What are they? What of them?. Corporate Communications: An
International Journal, 18(3), pp.290-326.
Balmer, J.M., Illia, L. and del Valle Brena, A.G. eds., 2013. Contemporary Perspectives on
Corporate Marketing: Contemplating Corporate Branding, Marketing and Communications in
the 21st Century (Vol. 17). Routledge.
Bax, S. and Woodhouse, P., 2013. Cambridge marketing handbook: communications. Kogan
Page Publishers.
Belch, G. and Belch, M., 2014. The role of new and traditional media in the rapidly changing
marketing communications environment. International Journal of Strategic Innovative
Marketing, 1(3), pp.130-136.
Camilleri, M.A., 2017. Integrated Marketing Communications. In Travel Marketing, Tourism
Economics and the Airline Product (pp. 85-103). Springer, Cham.
Charter, M. ed., 2017. Greener marketing: A responsible approach to business. Routledge.
Darley, W.K., 2016. Brand building via integrated marketing communications. The Routledge
Companion to Contemporary Brand Management, p.201.
Ford, S., 2014. Listening and empathizing: Advocating for new management logics in marketing
and corporate communications. Making Media Work: Cultures of Management in the
Entertainment Industries, pp.275-94.

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Goworek, H. and McGoldrick, P., 2015. Retail marketing management: Principles and practice.
Pearson Higher Ed.
Hambrick, M.E. and Kang, S.J., 2015. Pin it: Exploring how professional sports organizations
use Pinterest as a communications and relationship-marketing tool. Communication &
Sport, 3(4), pp.434-457.
Kane, G.C.J., Palmer, D., Phillips, A.N., Kiron, D. and Buckley, N., 2014. Moving beyond
marketing: Generating social business value across the enterprise. MIT Sloan Management
Review, 56(1), p.1.
Killian, G. and McManus, K., 2015. A marketing communications approach for the digital era:
Managerial guidelines for social media integration. Business Horizons, 58(5), pp.539-549.
Kitchen, P.J. and Burgmann, I., 2015. Integrated marketing communication: Making it work at a
strategic level. Journal of Business Strategy, 36(4), pp.34-39.
Percy, L., 2014. Strategic integrated marketing communications. Routledge.
Ryan, D., 2016. Understanding digital marketing: marketing strategies for engaging the digital
generation. Kogan Page Publishers.
Ryanair.com. 2017. Official Ryanair website | Book direct for the lowest fares | Ryanair.com.
[online] Available at: http://www.ryanair.com [Accessed 23 Nov. 2017].
Wirtz, J. and Lovelock, C., 2016. Service Marketing Communications. In SERVICES
MARKETING: People Technology Strategy (pp. 236-287).
Wu, J., Wen, N., Dou, W. and Chen, J., 2015. Exploring the effectiveness of consumer creativity
in online marketing communications. European Journal of Marketing, 49(1/2), pp.262-276.

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Part 2
Communication Campaign
Introduction
This part deals with communication campaign where the Marketing Director had
announced to set a new objective for Ryanair (Ryanair.com. 2017). The objective is to increase
Ryanair holiday package purchases by 14% by the end of December 2017. This can be done by
following a communication channel that is both effective and has the ability to target wider
audience as a whole. The company uses customer data (ensuring data privacy) aims at offering
significant value as and when needed. Customer Relationship Management will afford to
maintain stronger relationship with the customers that ensure timely messaging and tailored to
the individual as far as possible

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Task 1
Visual illustration (As shown in PPT presentation)
Figure: Poster
(Source: Created by Author)
Task 2
Communication campaign
Explanation on how promotional mix theory can use to decide over selection of
communication channel
The promotional mix theory can be used to decide over the communication channel that
should be used by Ryanair based on the objective to increase holiday package purchase by 14%
by December 2017.

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Target audience and response in relation to new objective
The new objective set can be implemented by targeting the tour operators and selling
bonded package holidays alongside its flights.
Chosen channel
The selected communication channel that should be used by Ryanair is online as it will
help in transforming the market.
Communications key message
“Consumers have been paying too much for package holidays for years”. It is for this
reason why Ryanair had decided to lower down the cost of holiday package and increase it sales
by 14% by the end of December 2017.
AIDA marketing theory for explaining the poster
Attention- Proper attention should be taken by Ryanair to implement the objective to increase
sale of holiday package for the benefit of target audience. There is a need to have cheaper
holiday package so that passengers can travel and relax as and when required.
Interest- It is important to convince the passengers to avail the services of Ryanair as they are
putting emphasis upon understanding the needs and expectations by providing holiday packages
at cheaper prices.
Desire- The feature of this holiday package with Ryanair includes savings up to 40 Euros on
every single seat they are booking. Furthermore, 10% discount will be given to the passengers
those who travel along with mother, father and kids.
Action- After understanding the need, it is necessary for Ryanair to implement this objective for
the benefits of the passenger as a whole.
Explanation on how feedback was collected
Feedback can be collected by asking the existing passengers about the services while
travelling for this holiday package offered by Ryanair. Feedback will help Ryanair to make any

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improvements further that will benefits the passengers and smoothen up the operations in the
near future (Ryan 2016).
Conclusion
Both the tasks have been properly explained with justification on why there is a need to
increase awareness about the holiday package business of Ryanair. In order to serve the
passenger better, Ryanair should offer discounts so that more passengers’ shows interest to avail
this services in the upcoming financial years.

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Reference List
Ryan, D., 2016. Understanding digital marketing: marketing strategies for engaging the digital
generation. Kogan Page Publishers.
Ryanair.com. 2017. Official Ryanair website | Book direct for the lowest fares | Ryanair.com.
[online] Available at: http://www.ryanair.com [Accessed 23 Nov. 2017].