Mis-leading advertising (RYANAIR AGAIN!)

[shakespeare]

In the news this morning, Ryanair have been rapped over the knuckles for advertising every seat on every flight for a certain price. The catch was/is you can not fly on Friday's, Saturday's, Sunday's or Monday's.

[crewrest]

I think these advert 'raps' are a publicity stunt, you should have heard MOL's 5 minute plug on (BBC) Five Live this Morning.

[twistedenginestarter]

How many times do we have to say this on this channel before Rod Eddington listens???

The BBC compared prices for a flight they wanted to Amsterdam. Easyjet was the most expensive of the three. Guess who was cheapest? Of course - it was BA.

When will Rod understand that BA has to segment its product offering. Certainly keep the premium product at the front. At the back however you have a no-frills operator.

"No you can't do that" you say. "BA can't get its costs down low enough. It'll lose money".

Excuse me - it's losing money in pallet loads already. Worse however is it's losing routes - expensive investment.

We'll never understand why they sold GO so maybe they are simply too unsophisticated to run a complex multi-stranded business.

However in so far as they are offering price-beating offers, even the simplest person appreciates you have got to tell the customers.

Rod if you want to discuss -please drop me a line.
I'll do it for nothing - since you taught me to fly.

[thewwIIace]

and now they are dumping there 'the worlds favourite airline' jargon to become, 'british airways - get to it'
costing min £5 million+ who makes this ludicrous decisions???

[phd]

bang on target twistedenginestarter - BA, BMI and some of the other older airlines suffer from being too conservative in their marketing strategies, when their seat prices are often as low or even lower than those of the supposedly 'low cost' carriers. There was no sense in BA selling-off Go in order to concentrate on being a 'full service' carrier when Go was just starting to become profitable.

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An ounce of action is worth a tonne of theory

[CaptAirProx]

Its the snow ball effect - I think.....

Blogs sees Easy/Go/Ryan etc advert for £10 odd ticket. Rings up and 1 in 10 gets lucky. SHouts to all his mates in the pub about what a great deal he got. Mates then drive passed same advert and think blimey, its true. They ring up BELIEVING they will get the best deal because their mate did, and get shafted over the barrel. They then DON't shout about that ticket down the pub because of loss of face. So its WIN WIN WIN for these low cost guys. If it in your face people will believe it.

The ones who do get a good deal shout out giving free advertisement to the airline, and the ones who get shafted keep quite. All because the offending airlines have created this mind set. When will we (the other airlines) wake up???!!!

[mainfrog2]

I've been saying this for months at BA we don't have a marketing department worthy of the name. We should be plastering advertising all over the place, BA had better start believing they have to fight for the passengers business. They just don't seem to want to get in the ring.

[The Guvnor]

From today's Telegraph:

[quote]£5.3m BA campaign to attract business travellers
(Filed: 09/01/2002)


BRITISH Airways have launched a £5.3 million campaign to persuade business travellers to fly again after the events of September 11.

The sales drive, including special incentives, is being led by a television advertising campaign with the message: "It's better to be there".

"The last 12 months have been extremely challenging and 2002 will be equally demanding," said BA chief executive Rod Eddington. "Our campaign will give a real boost to stimulate the business travel market and is designed to significantly increase demand for premium travel."

The special offers include free car parking at airports and free car hire to cabin upgrades on flights. Members of the airline's executive club who have not flown since September 11 will be offered a bonus of 5,000 free BA Air Miles if they travel between January 21 and March 31 this year.
<hr></blockquote>

[mainfrog2]

Point taken Guv.

Took their time though. (There's just no pleasing me sometimes)

[Peter Skellan]

I live in Hereford which is quite a long way away from East Midlands. However, over the last couple of weeks I have seen a great deal of advertising locally for Go's new base.

On the day of the announcement it made the local radio news as item number two. In town there is a billboard "Go Ski" and a similar "Go Sizzle" advertisment outside the local cinema and main petrol station respectively. Inside the cinema last week whilst waiting for Lord Of The Rings I was regalled by Go's bouncing balls advert.

I noted with some interest that not one but two local Arriva buses are sporting Go adverts. Both quoting fares from £65 to summer Med destinations. The bus-stop outside Boots also has a Go advert. It lists what looks like about 15 destinations.

In my broadsheet newspaper this week I note Go have a special promotion on with discount vouchers to collect. In my wifes paper (a tabloid for heavens sake) there is no special offer but there is a quarter page advert.

The airline have also been on HTV West TV in relative primetime (19:15) recently; albeit advertising their summer programm out of Bristol.

I have seen quite a bit of easyJet advertising recently but not quite as much. I believe that were I to own a satellite dish system and read my wifes tabloid rag a little more often I would have been exposed to quite a bit of Ryanair advertising.

Gentlemen there is a lesson here.

Air travel is becoming merely commodity transport. A bit like cars 20 years ago. Anyone could afford it. Everyones product was just about good enough. BRAND values led by advertising and image making determined which companies sank or swam. Rightly or wrongly - perception counts and advertising moulds perception.

Ask my neighbours who is the biggest local (Midlands) airline and they will say BA followed by Go. Poor old BMI wouldn't get a look in. And thats only a few weeks after Go committing to the Midlands!

PS

[ 09 January 2002: Message edited by: Peter Skellan ]</p>