This blog post will discuss Ryanair’s investments into the world of digital marketing and with the aid of literature, I will evaluate the effectivity of their website design marketing initiatives. Although Ryanair has created other digital marketing strategies, I will only be discussing their new website strategy.
Ryanair’s old approach
Ryanair is infamous for providing low cost airline services. The companies past marketing strategies where centred around the concepts of solely providing no frills low price travel. The incentive behind this strategy is to encourage consumer to save money by checking in online. Ryanair’s service proposition state “we offer significant discounts as long as you follow our rules which in turn allow us to cut expensive overheads”. Despite the negative scandals in recent years surrounding the businesses low cost concept, Ryanair CEO Michael O’ Leary has managed to beneficially use the allegation made against the company to reiterate the companies core objectives to provide consistently low prices (Kitching, 2014).
Ryanair’s new approach
As competition within the airline market begins to increase, Ryanair has been left to evaluate their customer service strategy, which could be described as poor and uncaring. The company also felt it needed to address its somewhat outdated website experience (figure 1), which has be considered ineffective in a generation of e commerce and mass internet usage (Paul McGarrity, 2015).
Figure 1. Ryanair old website
Website design
Different companies consider different factors to relate to their consumer when creating their websites. The most important factors to consider when creating an effective website are usability and accessibility. The theory behind usability is simple, it is all about creating a simple functional and elegant design that allows consumers to navigate through online content effectively. Accessibility in relation to website design refers to the creation of a concept that provides, the equal access to information and functions to everyone that uses it (Damian, 2009).
An article entitled DISADVANTAGES OF A BAD WEBSITE LAYOUT DESIGN, additionally discussed some other attributed of a bad website design and the way it could affect a companies business (Littleblogger.net, 2014). An example of a bad website design was discussed in this article entitled, WHAT WENT WRONG WITH THE MARKS & SPENCER WEBSITE REDESIGN THAT MADE THEM LOSE SALES? and talks about how easy it is for even established companies such as Marks and Spencer’s to get website design wrong (Digital tonic, 2014).
As shown in figure 2, 3 and 4 in contrast to figure 1, Ryanair has drastically changed it website layout is no longer clutter with disorganised content and the information and function seem consistent on their Great Britain, France and Italian websites. With the above factors taken into consideration I feel their new website has successfully implemented a new website design.
Figure 2. Ryanair’s English website
Figure 3. Ryanair French website
Ryanair 4. Ryanair Italian website
The companies aim was to improve the functionality of the brands website and was made to resolve issues associated with the brand unfriendly and approachable custom; this was achieved as the company saw a 32% increase in profits, from their new technological initiatives (Topham, 2014).
In conclusion the strategic choice to enter the world of digital marketing is definitely an initiative that requires a lot of secondary analysis into the most appropriate conduct for an effective website because even the most established companies such as M&S can get website design wrong.
Source:
CHRIS KITCHING. (2014). EXCLUSIVE: No more Mr Meanie! Ryanair’s famously combative boss Michael O’Leary admits he was too extreme and should have been ‘nicer’ to customers sooner Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel. Available: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-2813863/Controversial-Ryanair-boss-admits-no-frills-carrier-nicer-customers-sooner.html. Last accessed 19/04/2015.
Digital tonic. (2014). WHAT WENT WRONG WITH THE MARKS & SPENCER WEBSITE REDESIGN THAT MADE THEM LOSE SALES?. Available: http://www.digital-tonic.co.uk/digital-tonic-blog/went-wrong-marks-spencer-website-redesign-made-lose-sales/. Last accessed 19/04/2015.
Gwyn Topham. (2014). Ryanair puts 32% jump in profits down to being nicer. Available: http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/nov/03/ryanair-raises-profit-surge-winter-bookings. Last accessed 19/04/2015.
Littleblogger.net. (2014). DISADVANTAGES OF A BAD WEBSITE LAYOUT DESIGN. Available: http://littleblogger.net/disadvantages-of-a-bad-website-layout-design/. Last accessed 19/04/2015.
Paul McGarrity. (2015). Why Ryanair Is Investing In Digital Marketing. Available: http://www.octavedigital.co.uk/2014/05/why-ryanair-is-investing-in-digital-marketing/. Last accessed 19/04/2015.
Ryan, Damian; Jones, Calvin (2009). Understanding digital marketing: marketing strategies for engaging the digital generation. London: Kogan Page. 40.