Marketing Strategy for Ryanair - Business Plan Example

Marketing Strategy for Ryanair Marketing Strategy for Ryanair Introduction PESTLE: PESTLE ISSUE OPPORTUNITY/THREAT AND IMPACTPOLITICAL 1) Political Stability The political stability in Europe enables airlines in Europe to operate in a much conducive environment. This results in higher profits. 2) Pollution control Pollution control controls the activities that airlines can involve in, making their operations costs. ECONOMICAL 1) Fuel/oil Europe has experienced hikes in oil prices in the past few years. This makes the operation cost of airlines expensive. 2) Global economic woes The global economic woes have led to an increase in the prices of everything. This forces airlines to hike their ticket prices in order to conform to the economic changes. SOCIAL 1) Recurring safety lapses There have been various safety threats to air transport. An example of such a threat is terrorism. When security levels are high few people will prefer air transport. 2) Career attitudes Career attitude has highly improved at Ryanair. This makes the employees perform better. TECHNOLOGY 1) Automation Ryan air has not automated their customer service system. This makes their communication with their clients and the public harder. 2) Rate of technological change When a business fails to conform to the high rate of technological advancement, they become competitively disadvantaged. This is because they will not be able to keep up with the standard of services offered by their competitor. This is the case with Ryan air. LEGAL 1) Health and safety law By making sure Ryanair takes into consideration the health of their clients and the general public, these laws increase the operation cost. 2) Antitrust laws These laws protect businesses from anti-competitive practices. These laws have accorded Ryanair a fair competing chance. ENVIRONMENTAL 1) Climate change Climate changes force airlines to make adjustment to their programs. These frequent adjustments are costly. 2) Weather Weather conditions such as snow make it hard for air transport to take place during this season. This leads to massive losses that are incurred during such sessions. (Cadle, Paul & Turner 2010, p. 37). CONCLUSION FOR PESTLE SWOT: STRENGHTH 1) Low prices 2) Market grip 3) Customer centered practice OPPORTUNITY 1) Economic crisis which calls for an affordable means of transport. 2) Advancement in Technologies 3) Increased demand for air transport. WEAKNESSES 1) Poor customer service system 2) Using non-preferred methods of payment 3) Lack of automation of operation. THREAT 1) Price competition from their competitors 2) Increase in the cost of operations 3) New market entrants (United Nations 2004, p. 45) Conclusion for SWOT Ryan airline can take the advantage of the fact that they are already among the most affordable airline service providers in Europe to increase their increase the number of clients that they attract. The market grip that they already have will help them, especially if they decide to improve their services. The improvements can come if they decide to embrace emerging technologies, thus enabling them to cater for the increasing demand for air transport. Embracing technology will also help them take care of weaknesses such as poor customer service, non-preferred payment methods and lack of automation (Cadle, J., Paul, D., & Turner, 2010). The business should also get ready to deal with threats such as price competition from their competitors, increase in the cost of operations, new market entrants. Definition of marketing objectives Marketing objectives can be defined within various fundamental areas. One of such objectives is increasing the market share of a business. It could also be to increase the trust on the corporate brand. This would also be aimed at increasing the company’s sales volume. A business would also do this when introducing a new product into the market. In coming up with a marketing strategy, a business organization should make sure that the strategy is realistic. This is to make sure that they do not invest in a strategy that will fail. The strategy should also be specific so that implementing it would be easy. The strategy should also be measurable so that the business will be able to predict its outcome. The strategy should be timed so that it does not turn out to be inappropriate for the specific time and period when it is supposed to be implemented. Examples of the various types of marketing strategies that Ryanair could adopt 1. Customer focus Under this marketing strategy a business organization is expected to enhance the development of a customer oriented culture. When designing such a strategy, the business must make sure that they incorporate a mechanism that would enable the collection of the customers’ input. Before the development or alteration of airline services, the company should make sure that they have collected, interpreted and synthesized the information that they have for their customers. A business organization can get customer information through customer surveys, face to face contact, industry trends, and customer complaints. This strategy is based on the knowledge of a business organization on how their products or services benefit their customers. In this case they should take into consideration how their customers benefit from their products or services, if their services or products, save their clients some money, and if the product or services have some inbuilt intangible benefits (Henry, 2008). With such a strategy a business organization is likely to attract more customers. However, if not properly managed, this kind of strategy might lead to the collapse of a business organization as a result of losses incurred. 2. Direct marketing Direct marketing is a marketing strategy under which a business organization communicates directly to a group of targeted customers with the aim of triggering a response. Despite the various technological advancements in marketing, direct marketing remains to be the least affected. It is also among the most popular type of marketing strategy. Direct marketing is the most cost-effective and measurable way of improving the sale of products and services. The use of direct marketing can be advocated for under various circumstances. For instance, it is particularly effective if the business targets the whole population and not a particular group. It can also be effective when the product or service serve various purposes. This strategy also works best for products and services that are expensive. Type of strategy the company will adopt Of the two types of strategies discussed above, the customer focus is likely to be more effective in this case as compared to direct marketing type. This assertion is supported by a number of facts, including: the air transport conditions in Europe, economic conditions, competition in the airline industry, the strength of the company, and the threats that they face in their day to day operations. Looking at the results of the SWOT analysis for Ryanair, it is easily noticeable that this company highly relies on their prices in order to make sure that they remain competitive in this industry. The analysis also proves that they have faced much difficulty in terms of pricing, especially given that many other commercial airline companies have also adopted pricing as a way of attracting more customers. This is also because customer oriented marketing strategies are always aimed at making sure that the business organization is able to build a good relationship between the business and their customers. Ryanair has over the years been criticized for not being able to put an effective customer service system. Despite, having made some improvement in the recent past, it is still clearly evident that their ways of communicating to their customers needs some work. This would in the long run improve the nature of the relationship with their customers. Customer centred marketing strategies, also enable business organization to improve their products and services. For, instance, Ryanair has faced some massive criticism in the recent past regarding their services. By improving the nature of their services, the airline will be able to be more appealing to the public who will obviously be attracted to services that are improved (Schmid, 2011). However, this should be balanced unless they want their prices to rise or incur losses. Marketing programmes There are various marketing programs that can be taken by this business organization. This report is going to look at five of the possible marketing programmes that can be invested in by this business organization. 1. Encouraging free flow of information in the organization This means that the business organization will consider making sure that communication between them and their customers is done in an effective way. This can be done by redesigning their customer service system. In that they will be able to improve the nature of their communications with their clients. This communication will enable them to know what their customer expects of them and the various aspects of their services that their customers think that should be changed or improved (Kachru, 2005). 2. Innovation The business organization could also consider encouraging innovation. This will be in the bid to improve the nature of service provision. If this is successful, then they will not have to depend entirely on low prices as a means of attracting customers (Shaw, 2007). This is because with improved services they will be able to attract customers even without having to reduce prices. 3. Improve customer treatment A big percentage of Ryanair customers had the complainants that in most cases the treatment they got from the airline staff was not professional. This problem can be taken care of by making sure that their staffs are well trained and equipped. This can only happen if they hire the best and also introduce capacity building program of the organization. This kind of problem can also be taken care of by making sure that they enhance job satisfaction and security amongst their employees (Singh, 2008). However, this program should be moderated so that it does not increase the production cost to an extent that they will have to increase their ticket prices. 4. Investing in assets By investing in more and better assets, a company can be able to serve their customers more conveniently. In the case of Ryanair, they will be able to do this by investing on more planes. With more planes the airline will be able to offer air transport to more people. This will make them seem to be more reliable. With more airplanes they will also be able to restructure their program to match the wish of their customer. In this way more flights will airplanes will be allocated to the routes to most customers. In response to this the airline is planning to spend money on buying 175 new Boeing aircraft, which will be delivered between 2014 and 2018. 5. Increasing accessibility One common characteristic of customer oriented marketing strategy is that they are aimed at making the business to be in a better condition to fulfil the wants and needs of their customers. In the case of Ryanair the best way to do this is by increasing their travel destinations (Harrison, 2013). With an increase in travel destination, they will be able to attend to many customers, which will in return enable them to earn more income. This program will be specifically enhanced by the addition of airplanes. The increase in destinations will also enhance the company’s popularity. References Cadle, J., Paul, D., & Turner, P. (2010). Business analysis techniques: 72 essential tools for success. London: British Computer Society. Harrison, A. L. (2013). Business environment in a global context. Henry, A. (2008). Understanding strategic management. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Kachru, U. (2005). Strategic Management: Concepts and Cases. New Delhi: Excel Books. Schmid, V. (2011). Customer Relationship Management in the Airline Industry. München: GRIN Verlag GmbH. Shaw, S. (2007). Airline marketing and management. Aldershot: Ashgate. Singh, L. K. (2008). Marketing in service industry: Airline, travel, tours and hotel. Delhi: Isha Books. United Nations. (2004). SWOT analysis and evaluation of the GEO-3 process from the perspective of GEO collaborating centres. Nairobi [u.a.. Read More