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THE CORKMAN WHO has been recently tasked with taking over Ryanair’s marketing strategy says the company wants to use “digital and data to improve the customer experience at Ryanair”.
Kenny Jacobs was previously chief marketing officer (CMO) of a British price comparison website called moneysupermarket.com. It was revealed in January that the 40-year-old Irishman would become the new CMO for Ryanair, looking at the company’s strategies for marketing and communications as well as sales.
His appointment, along with a reshuffling of senior management at Ryanair this year, indicated a shake-up of how the airline is doing business in the competitive aviation market.
Jacobs will speak about his plans at the Marketing Institute of Ireland’s DMX Dublin conference next week. He said the overall objectives of Ryanair for 2014 is to improve brand perception and loyalty, as well as customer service. They hope to achieve this by “catching up fast on digital” and by becoming a “digtal leader in the aviation category”.
We have already seen some moves afoot in Ryanair to this end. In November last year, it gave its website a facelift to make it a more useful and – frankly, less ugly – experience for customers.
It has also announced seat allocations and a reduction of fees for boarding cards that have to be reissued – both of which it eschewed during its completely no-frills days. In October, Michael O’Leary, the colourful CEO of the company, said introduction of reduced baggage fees, ‘quiet’ flights and a second carry-on bag allowance showed the company was “actively listening and responding” to customers.
As TheJournal.ie asked in November last year, is this a sign of a “warm and cuddly” (self-described) Michael O’Leary emerging, or simply a company responding to consumer pressure and a changing marketplace? The talk from Jacobs is sure to reveal more at the Aviva Stadium, on 12 March next.
Also speaking at DMX are American Apparel’s Ryan Holiday, Tessa Barrera, formerly of Red Bull Stratos, Jonathan Lewis of Channel 4 and Simon Dupuy of Expedia. The full schedule is here.
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More positive steps by Ryanair in looking after customers, a few years ago I never thought id be praising Ryanair..Keep up the great work Michael O’Leary!!!
They seem to be improving, but they still have a sneaky one in place – you can’t pick your seats without paying a fee, so that means any families with kids need to pay extra or risk having them at the far end of the aircraft.
This is not true. If the family are booked under one booking (which is the logical thing to do) then ryanair will seat everyone together space permitting (same as every other airline). Lots of other airlines break up families if they check in late.
If that’s true, fair enough.
My sister-in-law made a trip over with her kids last weekend and had to pay a fee to get seated together. Don’t know the exact circumstances though.
Flew to England in 1974 cost £265 from Dublin with aerlingus one way I have used ryanair to fly all over Europe never any problems you no all the criteria you have to adhere to so it’s up to each person to have boarding passes everything ready then there’s no problems
Flew Ryanair on Saturday return to Birmingham for €20 got the 6.30 flight. Seats allocated telling you what door to enter the plane. Loading was much smoother the staff were very polite and friendly and both flights departed and arrived on time. Have to say the improvements they have made seem to be working was a much more pleasant experience than previous times I’ve flown with them.
Perhaps the new man may be able to throw a little light as to why Ryanair passengers flying from Dublin to a lot of Spanish destinations are paying up to double the price than that payed by Ryanair passengers flying from the Uk to the same destinations? Competition ? . This is hard to swallow considering that the bold Michael hounded the Irish government into dropping travel tax!
4 million people versus 60 million people….market forces at work?
Please Ryanair, take over aer lingus, they NEED you!
Silly
No prizes guessing who you work for
Or you!
And please Mr Ryan Air please don’t ask us to pay €550pp one way from Krakow to Dublin like you did a few years ago.
Horrible airline to travel with.
Rude, arrogant and cheap in every way.
I hope they change.
So you want a polite, humble expensive airline ?
Never had a problem with them. You get what you pay for. Anyway isn’t been cheap a good thing.
Never found them rude arrogant or horrible cant say same for some people who expect to be treated with respect while been obnoxious and rude to the staff (not just in Ryanair )
Ryanair does what it says on the tin. If you aren’t happy with what they offer you can always use Aer Lingus – OOPS! They might be on strike looking for the taxpayer to bail them out (again)
Always fly with Ryanair
Precisely, arrive on time, cheap, efficient. Oh and they don’t strike …
At least the staff are a lot nicer than British Airways. They frighten me a little
Will pay more to fly with anybody else
And better for workers? That’s something they will never go. Sooner walk than fly with then
“Do”
You work for them?
And please start doing flights to Turkey :-)
Too little, too late, Mr Ryanair! You’ve treated us like cattle for far too long. It’s Aer Lingus all the way for me. That odious little man is not getting any more of my money, EVER.
Website has improved no end. Now to get rid of the McDonalds interiors!
The day Ryanair take over Aer Lingus is the day I stop patronising Aer Lingus. You get what you pay for with Ryanair alright. You pay very little. You get very little. Except ripped off at every hand’s turn and if you think this is going to change then you’re mad.
As a frequent user with them,if they continue to just keep doing what they done in mid Dec 13,get me to stansted from Cork for €65 return safely and on time and be all warm and cuddly at the same time you wont hear as much as peep out out of me.
Many bad experiences with this lot. Never understood why staff had to be so rude and obnoxious, came straight from the top I guess. They are no longer the cheapest either, unless they are flying to some porta cabin airport 100 miles from the nearest city. Always preferred Easyjet, proved you didn’t have to be a shower of tossers while still having low fares.
Kenny Jacobs looks a little like Oscar Pistorious…. Now folks red thumb that!
Air travel is a miserable enough experience without having to fly with Ryanair.
It seems like there are a lot of comments from Ryan Aer employees and by and large they seem to be standing up for their employer, and yet my impression.of Ryan Aer as an employer has always been that they have a negative attitude towards their staff. This opinion has been based on industrial relations issues commonly seen in the media. Wether its cabin staff or pilots they all seem to have issues with their working conditions. And yesterday I read that Michael O’leary says that unions can go f##k ! So why defend an employer like that? As far as I can see they are making PR changes that will further inhance their profits and their staff will not benefit. Get them to do the great place to work survey for the craic. !
Tesco misses you Kenny
Ryanair even, not Ryan Aer….and they are a great place to work, don’t work there any more but did for many years. Good payers, good conditions, great opportunities.
Apologies for my spelling error, but if they are such good employers why would there be such unrest with the workforce? I can only give an opinion on what is fact and not on what you say to be true. Especially without the lack of any evidence to support your statement of ‘fact ‘..
I thought this was an excellent as well as useful document to read. We’ve truly enjoyed doing this very cool facts.Nimble Messages
On 3 February, I published a blogpost about the “revolution’ going on in RyanAir http://www.changeagents.ie/change-agents/how-to-lead-a-revolution-in-ryanair
What do you think?
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