Viral Marketing - the of Ryanair - Case Study Example

RYANAIR: A CASE OF VIRAL MARKETING In early 2000, a small and relatively unknown airline company launched its corporate website, with online booking as one of the components of the new portal, though its inclusion was considered rather unimportant at that time. The main intention of the provision was to facilitate passengers to be able to book flights directly by using the airline’s web site. Additionally, providing booking facilities online was an attempt further at keeping costs as low as possible. Since then, Ryanair has become a symbol of low cost travel all across Europe and North Africa and has emerged to become the world’s largest airline in terms of airline traffic. Even more convincing is the fact that the web site began to handle as much as 75% of the airline’s bookings within the next year. But what has been the secret behind the growth of Ryanair, despite the fact that it continues to operate out of smaller and lesser known airports in most countries. Low costs, very cheap flight deals as well as popularity within the customer base have all led Ryanair to assume the significant position that it has secured in the industry today. However, the success of Ryanair is based on the use of a marketing technique that has combined all the above-mentioned advantages and allowed people to spread the message among them. As the coming sections will go on to show, this form of marketing, popularly referred to as ‘Viral marketing’ has had its pros and cons on the prospects of the company. Concept ‘Viral marketing’ as a term sounds a bit offensive and in the initial sense, seems to suggest something associated with healthcare. Introducing someone as a viral marketer is sure to make the respondents recede a couple of steps in a state of surprise and many would even think to question whether they were out seeking to promote a medicine or drug used for fighting a deadly virus. The simple virus, a more sinister thing, does not however figure anywhere in this discussion (Justin Kirby, Paul Marsden, 2005). However, the thing being emphasized here is the nature with which a virus operates in the daily environment. Apart from transcending repeatedly between the states of living and non-living states, one has to admire the sheer fact that a virus wins through the sheer weight of its population that often preys on a host organism. A virus (or some very large numbers of it) piggyback on neighboring and accessible hosts and grow in an exponential fashion. What’s more interesting is that a virus does not have to mate in order to expand. Instead, it simply replicates in a geometric manner, that allows it to produce multiples of itself with every iteration. Given the above explanation, one may wonder how the modus operandi of a virus can be related to marketing in any way. Viral marketing denotes a strategy wherein individuals are motivated to relay a marketing message to other individuals thereby creating an environment that facilitates an exponential growth of the message in terms of its exposure and influence. In line with viruses, many forms of promotion and message make use of rapid multiplication and explode the message to thousands and perhaps millions in the long run. In terms of the internet, Viral marketing has come to be associated with terms such as ‘creation a buzz’, ‘leverage of the media’, ‘word of mouth’ as also ‘network marketing’ (George Silverman, 2006). Despite several attempts to provide a better name to the approach, the name viral marketing has stuck on. The case of Ryanair When explaining the rise in popularity of Ryanair over the years, its rise in terms of growth and popularity can be explained on the basis of Viral marketing, which can be substantiated on several grounds. Ryanair’s promotional strategy works on the basis of two main features. Ryanair’s business model is based on low cost travel and aims to provide some of the cheapest flight deals to passengers. In many cases and on an unusually regular basis, the airline is also popular and well known amongst customers for giving out free seats for limited periods of time with no hidden costs whatsoever. This prospect of free tickets has helped spread the services offered by the company with such speed and thrill that customers often access the site very often looking out for such offers. This high hit rate amongst customers is also another major reason that such flight deals do not last for long upon issue, which further helps the company project better occupancy rates (Susan Sweeney, 2006). Ryanair additionally makes use of email based promotions on a heavy scale that constantly notify earlier passengers and members on its sing up list about deals and promotions that not only cover such short free ticket offers, but also cheap holiday deals that include additional services such as hotel, transport and leisure activities. Its association with cheaper airports has allowed it to provide these services at much cheaper rates against its competitors. One of the most enticing aspects of Ryanair’s websites is the availability of cheap flight deals right on the home page. Additionally, the structure of the website is designed in a manner that seems to promote cheap flights all along in comparison to other services offered. This provision has allowed users to use the site with relative ease and enabled them to keep in touch by simply opening the website and glancing through the offers. Additionally, the large number of offers also leads to the generation of excitement amongst potential customers (Russell Goldsmith, 2007). In an effort to make the best of the moment, customers make the extra effort in contacting their friends and family to let them know of these deals. Thus, more and more people are drawn into the offers, thus leading to a rapid promotion, all at the expense of a simple website and minimal cost on promotion. Thus, like tiny waves that emerge and spread farther upon dropping a pebble in a pond, a properly designed viral marketing approach ripples outwards in a rapid manner. The success of Ryanair can be explained further over several dimensions as discussed below: Offering valuable products and services for cheap or free The word ‘Free’ has often been acknowledged as the most powerful word in the vocabulary of a marketer. The essence of a success viral marketing strategy is to give away valuable marketing products for free or at least at very low prices. Travel is one of the most sought after commodities in Europe. The volume of traffic and goods moving within the economic zone of the European Union is huge and there is a high demand amongst passengers for travelling between countries especially to tourist destinations. Ryanair has made effective use of this valuable product and besides offering very cheap flights for as low as £1 on an almost constant basis, introducing periodic offers of free seats has proved to be another important contributor to the popularity and the preferred airline amongst most consumers. Cheap offers will no doubt generate interest, but it’s the ‘free’ offer that generates the much needed wave among passengers and drives them in flocks to the airline. The airline maintains that by offering a portion of its seats at cheaper prices, it is able to churn out a huge passenger volume and is able to generate profits by generating revenue from the sale of other seats, which regardless of the price, are cheaper than the prices offered by competing carriers. Effortless transfer Viruses spread depending on the ease with which they may be transmitted. In tune with this, another important aspect of viral marketing is based on the requirement to use a medium that helps propagate the message in a much easier fashion thus allowing for easy replication along the way. Emails and online facility to view and book flight deals offers a rather inexpensive method of propagation. Additionally, there is no degradation in the spread as it is usually accompanied with an element of excitement and an urge to grab the opportunity at the earliest. Easily scalable In order to be able to spread like wildfire, the method of transmission needs to be rapidly scalable. There are countless instances where people have come to know of Ryanair simply by word of mouth that has eventually prompted them to access the webpage of the airline almost instantly. Additionally, the large number of users and the resulting high incidence of traffic to the site requires the company to maintain an equally responsive IT infrastructure capable of fulfilling all the needs of the website. as the discussion will show further on, this is one aspect, which has not been to the true working of Ryanair’s satisfaction. However, the instant speed of booking and no noticeable delays in navigating through the site suggest that the company has invested adequately in ensuring a smooth user experience (Ook Lee, 2001). Clever exploitation Viral motivation takes advantage of common motivations affecting human tendencies and behavior. In the case of Ryanair, what seemed as the beginning of low cost travel during the late 1990s with the freeing up of air space within the EU, could still not reach optimum levels until the common man was allowed the flexibility to know about what low cost travel really excelled at offering. The initiative to allow online booking and the relative ease with which it could be done allowed the company to take further steps that would allow it to concentrate its marketing campaign by solely aligning its corporate website with its customers. Additionally, it is not strange that greed drives people. The greed to fly to exciting new places at the least cost certainly encourages people to go for it even if they haven’t planned it on an earlier note (Leonard M. Lodish, 2005). The resulting urge to let more and more near and dear ones allows for the marketing strategy to evolve on a foundation of common behavior and motivation. Symbiosis or Parasitism? Most individuals are social in nature. Social scientists have pointed to the fact that on an average, every individual has a network of 8 to 12 people amongst their close circle of family, friends and other associates. On a broader sense, this network may encompass several hundreds and thousands that is largely determined by the position of the individual in that society. In the case of email campaigns of Ryanair, several mails tend to be addressed to individuals and companies, who have the habit of forwarding them to friends and associates. The incidence of forwarding such messages also increases with the lucrative nature of the deal being offered. With the brand and its offers in mind, a recipient is sure to look into the mail without simply ignoring them. Having said this, it might seem all along that Viral marketing possesses a rather symbiotic nature with the masses that help promote it and who are in turn motivated by its innate aspects. However, as in the case of Ryanair, it is quite visible that the rather close association between the product, marketing and the customer base is also an important reason why this reason needs to be maintained in a delicate sense, without which such a mechanism may work against the interests of the company (Martin Lindström, 2007). The case for this argument is strengthened from the an incident that occurred in late February, 2009 when certain actions of employees of Ryanair showed why it was clearly in need of a better marketing policy that could make better use of the social media. Jason roe, a freelance web developer from Ireland was trying to book a flight on Ryanair’s website when owing to his professional skills, he suddenly chanced upon a bug in the system that allowed users to obtain a zero charge for their flights (Igor Beuker, 2009). In essence, Roe had chanced upon a way to fly free even in during times when there was no such offer by simply exploiting the software bug in the system. What he intended to be a note on his blog to alert the authorities at Ryanair of the malfunction was met with angry remarks by some employees of the airline, which was heavily criticized both by the media as well as the public. The popular public image of Ryanair further prompted the event to be panned by criticized in the full glare of the customers and the media. The uncalled responses on the part of Ryanair, especially resorting to personal remarks have clearly shown that the airline needs to make use of the social media for marketing in a better manner. by violating the code of ethics that prevail within the social space, Ryanair has not made a smart move from the point of view of brand equity (Stevan Roberts, 2008). The proper argument is that advertising, branding and Public relations will not help consolidate the image of companies on the social space. As such, companies need to hire specialized talent that understands the ethics and decorum that needs to be maintained on other dimensions that heavily influence the perspectives that affect viral marketing (David Meerman Scott, 2007). Without this, incidents such as the one described above will work in a direction that the company would not want wade through. Apart from negative attention, such a response also dispels customers from looking at the airline as a good provider of services as a heavy public image tends to magnify the public perception and doubts to a similar degree. People begin to wonder if they too would be subject to such a response and treatment and the sentiment begins to flow by a similar word of mouth. In the modern age of blogging, sharing of such thoughts happens at an even more rapid pace where every event is scrutinized and discussed from every imaginable perspective. Thus, without managing branding and marketing and the various elements that govern it, it would become impossible prevent viral marketing from turning parasitic in nature. The company would then have to work and put in a great amount of effort in turning around any reverses, which is not desirable in the case of any business enterprise (Michael R. Solomon, 2003). Thus, it can be seen that Viral marketing can prove to be both symbiotic as well as parasitic in nature. References 1. Justin Kirby, Paul Marsden, 2005. Connected Marketing: The Viral, Buzz and Word of Mouth Revolution. London: Butterworth-Heinemann. 2. George Silverman, 2006. The Secrets of Word-of-mouth Marketing: How to Trigger Exponential Sales Through Runaway Word of Mouth. American Mgmt. Association. 3. Russell Goldsmith, 2007. Viral Marketing: Get Your Audience to Do Your Marketing for You. New York: Prentice Hall. 4. Susan Sweeney, 2006. 101 Ways to Promote Your Web Site: Filled with Proven Internet Marketing Tips, Tools, Techniques, and Resources to Increase Your Web Site Traffic. London: Maximum. 5. Ook Lee, 2001. Internet marketing research: theory and practice. London: Idea. 6. David Meerman Scott, 2007. The new rules of marketing and PR: how to use news releases, blogs, podcasts, viral marketing and online media to reach your buyers directly. London: John wiley. 7. Michael R. Solomon, 2003. Conquering consumerspace: marketing strategies for a branded world. american Mgmt. Association. 8. Martin Lindström, 2007. Brandchild: remarkable insights into the minds of todays global kids and their relationship with brands. Stockholm: Kogan. 9. Leonard M. Lodish, 2005. Entrepreneurial marketing: lessons from Whartons pioneering MBA course. New York: John Wiley. 10. Stevan Roberts, 2008. Internet direct mail: the complete guide to successful e-mail marketing campaigns. New York: McGraw Hill. 11. Igor Beuker, 2009. Why Ryanair Needs A Social Marketing Agency. Found at Url: http://www.viralblog.com/social-media/why-ryanair-needs-a-social-marketing-agency/ Read More