Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
RYANAIR’S MARKETING BOSS wants to position the budget airline as a brand that’s liked by consumers – but “absolutely not loved”.
Speaking at a Retail Excellence Ireland conference this week, Kenny Jacobs said the low-cost carrier, which is four years into its ‘always getting better’ overhaul, is now “nice enough”.
The marketing campaign was launched in 2013 to help clean up Ryanair’s reputation as a ruthless cost-cutter that cared little for its customers.
Jacobs insisted that it has been a success, pointing to the airline’s rising load factor – a measure of the number of seats filled on a flight – which reached 96% in April.
He said Ryanair’s current marketing strategy is to ”be like Aldi on price, cost and quality, be like Amazon on simplicity, digital and data, and very importantly, execute faster than anybody else. It’s not more complicated than that”.
He added that the carrier is focused on pitching itself as a “functional” brand.
“I want customers to say: ‘Ryanair is brutally efficient, awesome on price … I would now trust them and buy more stuff from them than I would’ve in the past.’
“(‘Always getting better’) is taking away the reasons to not like Ryanair, but it’s absolutely not about becoming loved.”
Prior to joining Ryanair, Jacobs was head of marketing at UK-based price comparison website Moneysupermarket. He also held senior positions at Tesco in both Ireland and the UK.
He said that he still considers himself a retailer “more than anything else” and is “obsessed” with the sector.
He warned the room full of retail bigwigs that too many firms in the industry try to “dance at every wedding” and lose sight of their main selling points.
“You can’t be everything to everyone,” he said. “You can’t say you’re going to be number one on price, number one on service, number one on choice, number one on quality, because that simply doesn’t exist.
“I don’t think it exists in retail and I don’t think it exists as an airline.”
Discount supermarkets
Unsurprisingly, Jacobs said he is a “great believer in discount brands” and is inspired by supermarkets like Lidl and Aldi.
“I am a great believer that the zeitgeist of consumers has permanently changed,” he said. “Being smart with your money is a badge of honour. It used to be a badge of shame.
“15 years ago in Ireland, if you said you’d been to Aldi, it meant times were tough. Now you get the great and good of Dublin 6 and Dublin 4 talking about the wonderful Aldi prosecco.”
He complained that retail prices in Ireland in general are too high, especially compared to the UK.
He said the difference in price for goods between the UK and Ireland should be 8% plus the currency difference.
“We did that analysis in Tesco and I think that’s right. If you’re beyond that, you’re creaming it – potentially ripping people off – or you’ve got something unique that you think is worth paying for.”
Sign up to our newsletter to receive a regular digest of Fora’s top articles delivered to your inbox.
Written by Conor McMahon and posted on Fora.ie
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Thank God for Ryanair….Thank God for Michael O Leary….I wish we could clone him….thank you Michael you’ve enabled me to indulge my passion to travel.
@Kathleen Henderson: He is a parasite business model that sees customers as little more them fodder for profits. Wake up and cop on. He is ruthless and he only cares about profits/.
@Christopher Gardiner: Don’t pay for his services then. The only thing is, hundreds of millions of people are buying his service.
@Christopher Gardiner: ” he only cares about profits” – what else should a businessman care about?
@Christopher Gardiner: I love Ryanair and everything they do! Aggressive and forward thinking. Soon 1 in 5 flights in Europe will be on Ryanair.
I cant believe people still complain about them. They get the job done. If not for ryanair i would not have visited so many places ive been to. They are not emirates. They are a bus in the sky, and they are efficient. We just like to moan like were too good for them, just like he said about people that shopped in aldi during the celtic tiger. Id shop in aldi before tescos or dunnes…
Nothing cheap about Ryanair prices unless you’re flying to Bristol at 06.30! Wouldn’t go near them if I had a choice. I only booked flights last week for later in the year and Aer Lingus were cheaper.
@Mark Gerard Lochlain: then why did you book. Your comment makes no sense lad
@Mark Gerard Lochlain: why didn’t you go with Aer Lingus then?
@Mark Gerard Lochlain: He said he booked flights and Aer Lingus were cheaper than Ryanair. Nowhere does he say he purchased Ryanair tickets.
@Mark Gerard Lochlain: The only reason you will get a good deal from Aer Lingus now is because of Ryanair. I had the misfortune of using Aer Lingus back in the day before Ryanair’s arrival and like many others got fleeced by them.
@Mark Gerard Lochlain: yeah.. off you go… book aerlingus.. put your money where your mouth is
@Ronan Sexton: are you thick? I did book Aer Lingus. They were cheaper as I said xxx
@Lucille Ball: are you a Ryanair trolley dolly Lucille? I did book Aer Lingus and I’ll get a Clodagh McKenna bap en route too! Lots of love.
@Mark Gerard Lochlain: you appear to be the thick one if you can’t pick up on humour lighten up lad.
@Mark Gerard Lochlain: Yes a benefit of AL alright that clodagh sandwich is good. Plus you get more room a lot of times as their occupancy levels are lower in my experience anyway.
@Mark Gerard Lochlain: “Wouldn’t go near them if I had a choice” made it sound as if you didn’t have a choice, but obviously you did if you were able to book with IAG
Airline of last resort for me – but I love the way they let people queue on the tarmac etc no matter what the weather!
@Thomas Harrington: That’s dependant on the staff member/team leader in charge of the flight. Shouldn’t put you out on the ramp in bad weather.
@Thomas Harrington: using front and back doors to embark is much more efficient though.
@Thomas Harrington: The tarmac is used to speed up the turnaround over an airbridge. 2 sets of stairs is far more efficient.
Their booking website is way too complicated and full of hidden charges, they try to trick you into. If they were going for Amazon simplicity then they have failed but we all like the prices so we persevere.
@Melissa O’Callaghan: then I don’t think you’ve used the new website or app then. Couldn’t be simpler.
@Melissa O’Callaghan: it can’t possibly be any simpler than it is now.
@Melissa O’Callaghan: best app around by a mile.
I love people thinking differently & getting the job done where everyone benefits.
Michael O’Leary has my vote of he ever runs in an election!
@Ruth Colbert: The country is not a business. Cutting costs and increasing profits is fine for running an airline but we have enough arrogant ego maniac’s in charge without him doing a trump effort with his tweets!!
@Shane Carroll: we’ll have to agree to disagree.
In my opnion, different thinking is required, why shouldn’t the country be run like a business ?
it makes sense to me, we all want Ireland to be successful, it is about balancing books, but you’re right it shouldn’t be for profit where we the people suffer, we are after all stakeholders, if Ireland does well then we should all reap the benefits.
@Ruth Colbert: it should be run as a business in terms of efficiency and value for month
@Ruth Colbert: Because it puts people second and only sees them as things to make profit. If you like being treated like a thing then fine.
….’now you get the great and the good of Dublin 6 and Dublin 4 talking about the great ALDI prosecco’……. Oh that’s a good one……. will someone please ask Ross O’Carroll-Kelly what he thinks?!?
@Neville Patterson: Oh no please. Is O’Kelly plugged into a wall in some college churning out crappy text books?
Ryanair continue to tear-up the good customer-care guide book..
We don’t love u ,and its only our poverty thats keeping u functioning.
@Eilish Deegan: Even if everyone in Ireland stopped flying with them they wouldn’t go out of business. They have bases all over Europe and the UK.
@Eilish Deegan: ridiculous comment
The comment is quite an arrogant and disrespectful one to customers. Pity he can’t be something other than a clone.
A bit of both for me, like & love Ryanair.
I love Ryanair I’d never have got to see places in Europe without them I always say if you abode by there rules you will have no problems getting from A to B I’ve always found the staff very helpful especially when coming home from Malta with my leg in plaster of Paris some more upmarket airlines the staff can be sooooo rude
Don’t stay up with worry about it…we don’t!
Excuse me the people of D4 & D6 remark about the “quality” of the prosecco for the price not the other way around!!!! With regard to airline quality does not exist they are essentially busses
For me it is not about the price – they fly to places where i want to go, directly. Before they expanded to Eastern Europe, I had to change flights, worry about missing the connevtipn etc. If Ryanair shaves off 6-8 hours from my trip, I can put up with a no hot meal on board. As an added “advantage” they have trained me so now I am a very efficient packer, can survive 2 weeks on hamd luggage :)
That’s all well and good, but I haven’t been on a Ryanair flight that has left on time in about 2 years now.
About 10 years ago it was Aer Lingus that always left and arrived late, and Ryanair always left on time due to their quick turnaround at the airport to save money.
I don’t know what’s changed but every flight I get with them now leaves late…the only upside is that I don’t have to listen to that stupid “on-time trumpet” anymore. The downside is that it is harder to book trains and buses at the destination because they can’t be relied upon to be on time anymore.
@Angelic Lestat: How many times have you flown in the last 2 years?
@Angelic Lestat: have a quick look at Dublin airport departures for today and see your comment doesn’t really hold up. I think both FR and EI are similar enough in this regard.
The main change in becoming nice was closing down the bag natzis
They don’t need to worry they will always be consider a crap way to travel. Pretending to be cheap when in fact they are dearer than most other better airlines. They have dragged Aer Lingus down to their level. If people are stupid enough to fall for their lies than they deserve what they get.
@Brendan Keegan: in what way have they dragged AL down? Price? Level of service?
I hope they start flying to Mumbai
Pretty daft comment really, well you know what they say! There is no such thing as bad PR
He changed the airline industry at home and abroad forever. People vote with their feet and Ryanair is clearly a winner. I do despise them a little but I still travel with them when I’m home.
WTF cares what a company PR hack spouts about Aldi. I love the pic of jacobs and the Big Boss man hovering nearby ready to bitch slap him down if he makes a mistake. Michael threw his toys out of the pram because Britain kicked the failed EU experiment out of his cot. No more flights to European destinations in maybe Turkey or Asia billed as Europe by Saint Michael of the Skies. That means your racehorses get cheaper food and a less salubrious stable (Me heart bleeds for you Boss). You got to love modern PR and the fawning press to charachters like Mick who are ruthless businessmen that’s all.
I couldn’t understand how MOL was anti Brexit. Seems like he called that one wrong- from a business perspective.
@Virtual Architect: because keeping open skies would be better for an airline with a base in Stanstead? May has indicated they may pull out of that agreement as well. I don’t think she truly believes that would be a god thing but she has set out her stall (albeit a different one than she campaigned for – personal ego issue?)
have your say