Easyjet Marketing free essay sample

Company name, short presentation and Product Description Identify the product category and describe all the characteristics of this category of product. Describe the product; you need to cover all the elements (core benefit, actual product and augmented product) Easyjet is a low-cost airline with headquarters in Londons Luton Airport. Its owned by EasyJet Holding Limited, whos CEO is Stelios Haji-Jannou. EasyJet operates 580 routes around all of Europe and 104 between Europe and airports in northern Africa. The company sells its own tickets directly to the user trough the Internet and by phone, without the need of requiring the services of third party companies, such as travel agencies. In spite of this, they allow other websites specialized in plane tickets booking (Eg. Edreams) to sell their tickets. EasyJets business model relies on subcontract arrangements for most of the services that the company needs to provide to its costumers. The plane ticket only gives you the right to have a seat, but all the other services that regular airlines would include in the regular fee are not given to the EasyJet costumer. Food and drinks are charged for, the ticket is given to the user for him to print at home, there are no different classes with a variable fee and the seats are not assigned. In contrast with the other low-cost airlines, Easyjet gets to the main European airports, yet, like most of them, charges for any piece of luggage other than handbags. In Spain, they have subcontracted the check in, luggage checking services and ramp services. Nowadays, EasyJet owns 183 Boeing 737-700 planes. By using only one plane model, the company benefits from discounts in mass production with the anufacturers. In terms of marketing, most of the market strategy is based on the image of being allowed to fly simply with a pair of jeans. The first campaign they launched was simply to tag their planes with the companys booking phone number on an orange color. EasyJet has used plenty slogans since it was first stablished and the current one is â€Å"We go, we get back†, which gives us a fresh and joyful im age of the company. 2. Who is the target consumer? Describe the consumer’s profile you think the product is aimed to; use as many variables as possible to be accurate. EasyJet’s costumer base is composed, essentially, of young travelers (interested in the low-cost offer) and professionals with an entrepreneurial profile, intermediate charges and low charges (who’s contracting company is interested in reducing travelling costs). Nowadays, young travellers represent 60% of EasyJet’s costumers. The other 40% is composed of professionals and other travellers. In spite of that, the business-travelling sector has a growing demand of EasyJet services. Most of EasyJet’s travellers are either U. K or Ireland nationals. Lately, the company has developed important marketing campaigns in order to penetrate other European countries in order to augment it’s costumer base. Profile segmentation: †¢ Geographic: Easyjet customers are from all of Europe and Morocco. †¢ Demographic: Young people traveling for pleasure and professionals and intermediate charges. †¢ Psychographic: Lower-middle class. EasyJet is making a strong ofensife to argue to their coustomers that used their service for a business mater, because of this, decides to sell their tickets in travel agencies specialized in this corporate segment, as El Corte Ingles Viajes, Globalia o Orizona. 3. What are the mediums used by the company to reach the consumer? Analyze the promotion mix and distribution channels. The main medium used by EasyJet to reach it’s consumer is the Internet. This is due to the fact that, as we’ve already said, 60% of it’s clients are youg and, therefore, Internet is the best way to penetrate it’s base clients and make EasiJet’s products and promotions known to them. The company is strongly leaning towards ans Internet-based model, as is proved by the launching, in the last years, of business unities such as EasyInternet (business cafes where the clients can connect to the Internet with strongly reduced fees), EasyRentaCar (an Internet car rental service), EasyCruise (cruising service) and some other services (such as hotel room booking). The main markets for EasyJet , such as France, Italy, Switzerland, germany and the United Kingdom, will count, as well, with a campain that combines television ads, outdoor, online media and ofline media. The main channels throu wich EasyJet reaches it’s target audience are: †¢ Online Advertising †¢ Billboards †¢ Video sales promotion †¢ Seasonal deals †¢ Coupon codes †¢ Word of mouth 4. Identify max. 2 competitors and compare their products with your (actual and augmented product elements) The mainly competitors that Easyjet has are Ryanair, the most directly, and looking in the Europe market, Germanwings, a company from Germany, its maybe another of the competitor, not as directly as Ryanair is. Talking about Ryanair, a company that has a lot of troubles in this moments with critics for some possibles low controls and low levels of security in their flights, es an airline that establish some consolidation as the principal in this model of the low cost, maybe the most controversy in this moments, with a president that is now communed to see on the channel news because he always use the interviews or the conferences because of a problem, as a way to delivered a free advertisement for the company he runs. Ryanair is characterized of delivered a transportation service in a real low cost, but that implicate some additional cost that might reach a price of a regular company, if you use all the â€Å"additional they add†. On the other side we have Germanwing, an airline that was created in 2002. Lufthansa owns One quarter of the company capital, and their tripulation followed the preparation and the courses offered by this airline. It operates on 67 different destinies in Europe, and is now in a expansion process, starting to compete directly with Easyjet or Ryanair. Its clearly impossible to compared some companies that are already with a consolidation in their market target that cost them years of work, like Ryanair or EasyJet, with an emerging company like Germanwings, but its important to stand out the growth this company is having continuously, and they are making a way to be able in a long term to stay competing in this really complex market. This companies named before, offered the same service, low cost transportation, characterize for sell tickets in a really cheap range of price that companies like Iberia or British Airway couldn’t reach to offers. The reason or this is that the costs this companies absorb are a lot higher because the service they sell includes all the â€Å"additional† services the low cost companies sell like an optional to each client. This model of low cost offers low quality in their general services (something that might be improvable), but based in a massive selling amount to reach real benefits. And in this particular moment of crisis, the affluence of passengers that evaluate the price to decide the ticket to buy is even higher. Looking at the main differences between this three companies, EasyJet and Ryanair are the ones that offered a better price, compare with Germanwings, this is clearly related to the market shared they owned. Because the first two are the main ones in this market, can assume lower range of benefit per ticket sold, something that a company in emerging process cant affords. Another primary difference is the benefit they give to their customers. Ryanair is the leading in lower price, taking aside the quality of the offered service, and even because of that they don’t stop increasing their selling levels (with no good explanation). EasyJet is the more complete company, keeping standard levels, characterized for having a medium level of service, with low price and a satisfaction level with a upward trend. And last but not least is Germanwings, characterized because of the comfort they offer to their customers, something hard to offered in this model of companies because they reduce the seats they have because of the comfort they want to offer. 5. Evaluate positive and negative reviews about your product found on Internet. You need to mention all the sources used and links, even if you don’t find reviews or ratings, you need to mention sources. The criticism we’ve seen being made to EasyJet is not based on regular practices of a particular kind, like the example of their main competitor Ryanair, that has criticism and legal problems involving almost every activity they develop, especially in security matters. EasyJet is not as involved as Ryanair in that many troubles, even thou it involves a whole group that offers more than just air transportation, but we will evaluate just this service. In this point of view, the company just has some specific cases of problems, involving some discrimination. Generalizing, they have some particular services in their check in process or in their buying web page that gives them trouble. In our search, we consider that the following articles are the ones that describe in a perfect way the criticism we found: †¢ â€Å"EasyJets flight times mean keeping an eye on your emails† †¢ â€Å"EasyJets passport rule creates a no-fly zone† †¢ â€Å"Double trouble from easyJets in-flight payment glitch† †¢ â€Å"easyJet accused of discriminating against disabled passengers† We always found problems on their accomplishment in the service, something that is a characteristic in the low-cost model, but in order to deliver or establish correctly is a consequence that is important to be able to tolerate. These characteristics are the use of the fuel in the limits of the law (this involves some troubles with the emergency landing because of any unexpected situation in the fly), the higher price they charge if people wants what they consider additional (like luggage checking), and sometimes the total price might be even higher than the ones offered by companies that don’t adopt the low-cost model. But in general terms, the company doesn’t accumulate too many bad critics. Maybe this model is currently not as good as it might be. It definitely could be served in a better way but, in the moments we live today, the price is a primary detail for the decision process of the consumer. Talking about their positive criticism, the company has a lot of good reviews when they involve the project that is being planed for the future, as a company with a balance well structured, a better way of delivering and managing their resources, etc. Sometimes it also reaches some statistics that might be a little surprising, as it is their profitability in Spain, considering the relation between the total profit they had, and the number of airplanes in their float. Something that is not easy to imagine considering that their competitor Ryanair is the fourth in this list, even underneath Vueling. †¢ â€Å"easyJet beats expectations† †¢ EasyJet Corporate results †¢ â€Å"Iberia, Air Europa y Air Berlin: top 3 en facturacion por avion† 6. After this research propose an action to increase sales. You need to justify your proposal. As weve seen thru the analysis of the EasyJet business model, the main target to which the company aims to is a youthful an easygoing costumer that seeks to have a fun time but is not willing to spend a lot of money in order to cover its travel expenses. We have also seen that the main problems that EasyJet (as plenty of the low-cost airlines) faces have to do with the public perception of low-cost model. As word of mouth tells us, EasyJet is grouped with a couple of airlines that are perceived as being a â€Å"necessary evil†. As such, a big amount of costumers trend to require EasyJet services with the resignation of having to deal with all the inconveniences that traveling with these kind of companies supposes. In order to identify these perceived inconveniences, we have to rely on the commentaries that the users emit. Costumers opinion is one of the most valuable set of information that companies tan have, so the first thing we would recommend, in a plan that aims to improve costumers perception of EasyJets traveling service, to create an easy communication channel that allows users to report on the service. These reports can be recompensed with discounts on beverages, food and luggage checking. This wouldn’t just be a way to assemble a better data bank, as it can also be a way to engage the costumer in a direct relationship with EasyJets brand. By using the information we have already gathered so far, we are able to say that the main issue costumers report is the bad experience that traveling in low-cost airlines supposes. This particular problem is hard to deal with, since the uncomfortable situation that EasyJets users tell us about in their comments are due to some of the basic characteristics that makes the low-cost model a successful one. This problem turns into a worst one when it comes to the particular case of the company that interests us, because of it being a solid company in financial terms. Therefore, efforts should be made in order to improve user experience of the service wile retaining the elements that make it a successful business. Some general practices are easy to deal with. One good practice that weve seen being performed by rivaling companies with a similar business model is relying on the crew to create a fun experience by original ways of delivering the classical features of the service. One example of this is delivering safety instructions in the form of a rap. This has been done by companies in the U. S market and it enables costumers to get a brief distraction from the regular stress that traveling imposes on us. One possible variation of this is to deliver safety instructions with a choreography performed by the crew. Both of these practices are a tiny step that, grouped with actions training that helps EasyJets crew deliver better costumer attention, can make a difference on the perception that consumers have of this brand. This is not only due to the word of mouth, but also to the constant flow of free advertising that might be delivered trough social networks such as YouTube, Facebook or Instagram, in which users can upload images of the performances EasyJet delivers. Another good action, to continue in line with these enhancements, might be seasonal campaigns in the form of happenings that can be conformed into viral advertising. One example of this was delivered by the now defunct spanish company Spanair. In a winter flight, the airline had a crew member announce to all the children that were in that flight that Santa had made a visit to the plane and left a couple of messages to them, as well as gifts. The video made for this campaign went viral on networks such as YouTube, giving the brand a presence on the web and also giving a great image of its services. This particular campaign, of course, doesn’t have to be replicated, given that EasyJet’s main costumer profile is young singles and couples without children. Therefore, the model should be adapted to adjust to the sort of clients that a low-cost airline is interested in, but by giving these performances a regular presence and attaching them to the services they provide, their public image might be enhanced. With small actions like these, an already great company might be turned into an even better one with fairly small investment and little to non modification of its business model. Maintaining Internet as their main advertising medium and using it in order to gain better public perception can turn into a successful move by EasyJet. Videos: http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=TTsieCm8n8M http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=Lqh8e2KYIrU http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=DYA_ivyj3kE