Ryanair: the brand that shouldn’t fly

Have you flown anywhere on Ryanair? Would you fly with them again? If you’re paying for the flight, and they serve your intended destination, then I bet you would at least consider it.

All these mark it out as a brand in rude health. High market penetration, high levels of consideration. And, let’s not forget, ruthless efficiency in its marketing: spending an average of only €2 per passenger on marketing to fill its planes to an industry-leading 82% capacity.

Image via Juanedc.com, Flickr.

And yet… Ryanair is the brand we love to hate. We hate it for sneaking in extra charges at the end of the online booking process. We hate it for flying to out-of-the-way airports that brazenly claim to be somewhere else (yes I mean you, Frankfurt Hahn). We hate it for being indifferent to complaints and allergic to refunds.

Most of all, we hate it for not caring that we hate it – in fact, for seeming to actively relish its bogeyman status. “No-one likes us. We don’t care.” Ryanair is the Millwall of aviation (but with rather more impressive results).

The curious case of Ryanair’s brand stands as a warning to anyone in marketing not to overestimate the importance of the ‘fluffy’ parts of the marketing mix. Price and distribution, or fares and routes in Ryanair’s case, trump brand equity any day of the week. Sure we’d prefer a warmer, cosier brand – but not so much that we’d pay £20 more to fly with it.

By all means tell me it’s more nuanced than this. Tell me that by courting bad publicity about its miserliness and actively placing false rumours about the introduction of extra charges (most famously the ‘pay to pee’ story), Ryanair is burnishing its low cost credentials and so predisposing us to perceive its fares as cheap even when they’re middling. I would concede that you have a point. But I would still maintain that it’s the reality of the price, not the perception, that carries the day.

And much as I’m tempted, I don’t interpret Ryanair’s recent profits warning as a signal that consumers’ dislike for the brand has finally begun to bite; rather it’s just a consequence of the struggle to maintain fare levels in the face of competitors’ discounting.

Like the bumble bee which, according to conventional physics, should remain land-bound, Ryanair is the brand that shouldn’t fly.

Will Collin
Planning Partner