Marketing And Communication Strategy For Ryanair Holiday Packages

Evolution of marketing

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).

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 19^th century.

Production orientation in marketing- Production orientation in marketing before 20^th 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).

Identify and explain the orientation adopted by Ryanair and provide 2 examples that demonstrate Ryanair’s use of the approach 

Production orientation in marketing

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).

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.

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 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

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. 

Market orientation in marketing

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).

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.

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).

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).

Discuss the four major sets of variables that might be used in segmenting consumer markets 

Societal orientation in marketing

There are four set of variables that might be used in segmenting consumer markets and these are explained below with proper justification:

• 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).  

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

 

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 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).

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.

Situation analysis

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).

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.

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

Political factors

 

Figure: Poster

(Source: Created by Author)

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.

The new objective set can be implemented by targeting the tour operators and selling bonded package holidays alongside its flights.

The selected communication channel that should be used by Ryanair is online as it will help in transforming the market.

“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.

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.

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 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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