Brand ≡ Strength or Weakness?
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Despite being one of the few airlines in Europe to successfully delink itself from its country of origin and therefore build a
truly international brand, Ryanair’s brand image is poor as it has always been considered as a not so customer friendly
brand. It has had to defend itself in the UK due to customer related charges and that, obviously, took its toll in the
already not so friendly image Ryanair had.
The CEO, Michael O’Leary, has often labeled customers as “idiots”, called those who forget to print their boarding pass
“stupid” and told anyone looking for a refund to “**** off”. Which might not be the best way to treat your customers.
Kenny Jacobs, the recently appointed chief marketing officer looks to move the airline into a friendlier direction, towards
the customers and their needs and not treat them like an inconvenience that must be dealt with.
But know it’s taking a turn towards the other direction, assuming that profit and low costs are not the only important
things in the world when you’re providing services. By the ending of 2013, Ryanair felt the impact of not regarding their
customers as they should in their profits. Shareholders also wanted the company to turn in another direction in response
to its poor customer image (in addition to its poor legal image eg. received an 8m euro fine for labour contracts in France
in 2013 and has been the subject of several court and EU investigations, over airport subsidies, Aer Lingus takeover, etc.)
Simon Carter, marketing director at Fujitsu, recently stated
that it’s “interesting that Ryanair has finally concluded that
the textbooks were right, that customers do have a choice
and that customer respect is necessary”.
According to YouGov’s BrandIndex, Ryanair’s ratings have
been going up since they adopted this new strategy.
Reputation, Brand Impression, Quality and Buzz have all
gone up ate least half a point. To top it all, Ryanair’s Index
score (the average of all perception measures including
impression, quality, value, reputation, satisfaction and
recommendation) rose more than five points.
Despite all these rises, Ryanair’s values are still negative.
Than is one of the main reasons why they’re trying a
different approach, to try and capture a slice of the market
that doesn’t care just about the price, but is also conscious
of the service quality they should receive and demand it.