Branding Easy Jet

Contemporary Brand Management

Coursework - 2006

Index 1

Background 2

2. Brand essence 4

2.1 Easy Jet Brand Survey 5

2.2 Easy Jets Personality 6

2.3 Brand Pyramid for Easy Jet 7

3. Positioning 8

3.1 Positioning Easy Jet and British Airways 9

4. Celebrity Endorsement 10

4.1 The down-to-earth celebrity 11

5. Online presence 12

6. The future for Easy Jets brand 14

7. References 15

8. Appendix 1 16

1. Background

I have decided to write a report about the Easy Jet brand. This is because the low cost air companies are the new contrast to the major scheduled air companies, and their alliances.

The airline was founded by Stelios Haji-Ioannou in 1995, and the family remains the major shareholder. He controls other separate easyGroup companies such as easyInternetCafe, easyCar.com, easyMoney, and easyValue.

A low-cost/no-frill airline can be described as a company that eliminate unnecessary cost and frills which characterise 'traditional' airlines.

EasyJet keeps costs low by eliminating the unnecessary costs and 'frills' in different ways like:

Use of the Internet to reduce distribution costs: approximately 95 % of all seats are sold over the Internet, making easyJet one of Europe's biggest Internet retailers.

Maximise the utilisation of the substantial assets Maximising utilisation of each aircraft significantly reduces the unit cost.

Ticket less travel: This helps to reduce significantly the cost of issuing, distributing, processing and reconciling millions of tickets each year.

No free lunch.

Efficient use of airports: Using regional airports instead of the major hubs.

Paperless operations.

Fleet uniformity.

The main competitor to Easyjet is Ryanair. But the main competitors to the low cost airlines is the scheduled and charter airlines. A survey done by Mintel International Group Limited shows us what 1,971 adults (UK) had flown on during the previous two years (2002 -2004)

%

No-frills airlines 25

Easy Jet 18

Ryanair 12

Other no-frills airline 4

Charter airlines 20

Britannia 10

Monarch 8

Other charter 6

Scheduled airlines 35

British Airways 21

British Midland 6

Other scheduled airline 18

Don't know/not sure of airline 3

Haven't flown in the past two years 33

I never fly 10

During the last two years, the research has found that more consumers have flown with a low-cost carrier than with British Airways, the national carrier. One in four of all respondents had taken a no-frills airline during the previous two years, while only one in ten adults had taken a charter airline.

2. Brand Essence

When it comes to the concept of a good brand personality, consumers interact with brands and develop a relationship, just as people in life do. By appreciating consumers' values provides a basis for developing brand personalities. M. Blackston (1992) argues: The nature of a relationship between consumers and the brand can be determined through the attitudes and behaviour they display towards each other, in particular:

* How consumers perceive and react to a brand.

* How the brand behaves and reacts to the consumer.

By analysing and reflecting on these variables, a more appropriate brand strategy can result. If the brand has a "character", it could provide as benefit for future relationship between company and consumer. Therefore a high-quality relationship in the service sector (like air companies) could create long-term loyal customers.

To describe Easy Jet's brand personality I made a brand survey of five questions. This was a survey that I individually questioned 30 people. Since Easy Jet is an international company I asked 20 Britons, 6 French, 2 Greeks, 1 Swede and 1 American. They were allowed to fill in as much word as they wanted except for question 5. The result was quite similar from every nation, and the main details have been described under each question, with the amount of people who answered that specific word.

2.1 Easy Jet Brand Survey

1. What is the first that you think about when you hear the name Easy Jet?

A low-priced/no-frills air company - 29

Low quality - 1

2. How would you describe a typical Easy Jet costumer?

Ordinary, easy-going, informal - 18

Price oriented - 13

Enlighten - 5

Middle aged - 2

3. Finish the sentence: People like Easy Jet because it is..........

Cheap