Ryan Air Marketing Plan

- What do tidy sum deal of Ryan direct? Consumer Behavior - Date October 15th 2012 - shelve of contents initiation3 The look for programme4 Sample description4 manner for audienceing4 query structure4 Step 1 Collect pictures5 Step 2 Interview manner5 Step 3 model symbolize5 Step 4 Combined concept function5 Step 5 Consensus map5 Step 6 Communication idea6 The rational maps7 Dutch consensus mental map7 Romanian consensus mental map8 Combined consensus mental map9 Communication idea10Olympic Games 201210 TV Commercials10 Nadia Comaneci on Romanian Traditions11 Marian Dragulescu on Romanian Scenery11 Larisa Iordache on Dracula11 Camelia Potec on Romanian volume11 Flags and banners11 Printed advertizing12 Conclusion and discussion13 Conclusion13 Discussion13 Future research13 References14 Websites14 Articles14 Appendix15 Interviews by Cristina Bataga15 Interviews by Jessica van der Hoeven17 Interviews by Ella van Leeuwen22 Interviews by Mehdia Shireen Talib27 Introduction With this paper we volition offer insights in cross come on perceptions and attempt to create a perceptual map for a precise inciter.To choose a snitch for this denomination we had a assembly discussion approximately which rat we theme would be interesting to evaluate and analyse. subsequently considering several(prenominal) options, we pertinacious that we precious a daub which is relevant at the moment, since this would make it easier for our lead officipants to evaluate. after discussing multiple shits we decided to choose Ryanair. In this assignment instrumentalists evaluate Ryanair through questions and conceptual maps. We go forth commencement exercise conduct a simple hearing with the respondents and we leave alone let them draw a concept map afterwards.We testament beg off e very(prenominal)thing in more than than pointedness in the fol disordereding chapters, exclusively first we bequeath elaborate on the punctuate Ryanair. Ryanair is an air line business put in 1985 by the Ryan family and is currently active in 28 countries. Over the past hardly a(prenominal) historic period at that place has been a signifi jakest growth in the enactment of customers, from 4 million in 1998 and 24 million in 2004, to 75 million to date(Barret, 2004 and Ryanair. nl). Ryanair is well known for their first gear offers. The average impairment of a course with Ryanair was 38 euros in 2004. The Guardian even presented an article last year, which stated that the last-place ticket price of Ryanair this summer was only 12 euros.Ryanair has a team of over 8500 people, which is actu in solelyy unfeignedly low for the amount of passengers they transport every year. All these passengers be transported by one type of planing machine, the Boeing 737-800. Ryanair its outline is to offer the lowest price at all age on all routes and provide an flashy and convenient serve up (Ryanair. nl). To accomplish this strategy, they maintain a cer tain business model. This business model is prep ar up by 10 key points. The first point is operating from secondary airports. Secondary airports be (unknown) small airports which arrange for low airport fees.The second point is the lowest ticket price, which ca manipulations high intensity of passengers. The third point is standardized fleets of the Boeing 737-800, which gives them bargaining power with the suppliers. what is more, in that respect atomic number 18 no meals on board, goose egg is free, low commission for travel agents, Spartan headquarters and there is a single-class which all helps with saving cost. Lastly, there atomic number 18 no unions and there ar high powered incentives (Casadesus-Masanell and Ricart, 2010). Precisely this strategy in combination with the business model Ryanair drills, makes it interesting to analyse Ryanair. Does this strategy really work?Do customers really return Ryanair is the brassyest oxygenizeline? Do customers really th ink Ryanair provides a convenient service? These are all questions we punctuate to figure out in this assignment. At the end we will conclude if the strategy social functiond by Ryanair is the right one, or if Ryanair should change or restate its strategy. This report will consist of chapters explaining the research digit and the results we constitute. The first chapter will discuss the sample utilize for our research and the method for interviewing. It will explain round the various methods for interviewing and substantiate our decisions.The second chapter will discuss the fall guy consensus map. It will explain how we came to the consensus map and how the information provided by the interviews will be habitd as an input to make the speck consensus map. After creating the last(a) examination brand consensus map, we will deal out a closer look at the brand consensus map to summon up with solutions, improvements and or changes that Ryanair should take. This communicatio n idea will be discussed in the last-place chapter. 1. Research design Sample description When we were discussing the brand Ryanair, we came to the conclusion that the sers are predominantly young people with small bud subscribes. We essentialed to create the concept maps found on the thoughts of users, rather than on people who are little probable to use Ryanair. Because of this reason, we chose to use HBO and WO students for our sample, as we think they fit in this profile. They are relatively young and urinate no full time jobs, so they book budget restrictions. All four element of our group selected respondents from their own social environment. In total 15 respondents participated, all of them were Dutch. The range of the age of the respondents is amongst 18 and 26 geezerhood old.The experiment had a total of 7 male respondents and 8 female respondents. Method for interviewing To create brand concept maps we can use several techniques. One approach is the Zaltmans illustration Elicitation Technique (ZMET), which uses qualitative research techniques to identify key brand affiliations and then uses in-depth interviews with respondents to un check the associate between these brand associations (Zaltman and Coulter, 1995). This is a really thorough method due to its multiple uses of qualitative research techniques to tap both verbal and nonverbal aspects of consumer thinking.However, this method knows in any effect some barriers as it is difficult to deal and the march is labour intensive. Other drawbacks of the ZMET are its accessibility and ease of administration. Due to these demerits of the ZMET, we chose for a more loving and standardized method for producing brand maps. The Brand Concept procedures (BCM) approach. The Brand Concepts Maps (BCM) method is used to elicit peoples noesis nearly concepts and how they are connected with each other. This method is easy to implement, flexible and can be make in an unstructured procedure .The respondent has to draw their own map with only few instructions from the researcher (John et al. , 2006). We used the unstructured procedure of the BCM method, where the respondents strike to draw their own map to aim their associations with the brand and how they are tie in to each other. To identify key brand associations, we used the funnelling technique in the first interviews. This method consists of a series of questions that aim to get the respondents discussing a particular topic. The first questions in the interview are very broad and astir(predicate) the topic in general.After the general part, the questions become more concrete and specific. Allowing the respondents to be prompt and to give their opinion about very specific items within the topic. Research structure As mentioned above, we used the BCM method for creating individual(a) maps and eventually the nett brand consensus map. This method will deliver a consensus brand map, which identifies the intimat ely significant associations that consumers connect to the brand and how these associations are interconnected. We return chosen for this method because of the ease of use and the standardization of this method.Since the mapping format is very structured it does non take that much time of our respondents to fulfil this stage. Also the aggregation mould is more accessible. To obtain a consensus brand map we make use of decision rules, which is less time consuming and does not require specialised statistical training. In the following paragraphs we will explain the whole process in detail and explain more about the techniques we used. introduce 1 The elicitation stage In this first stage our oddment was to find significant associations with the brand Ryanair. accordingly, we created a survey and interviewed 15 HBO and WO students.The survey existed of 17 open stop questions. Our purpose was to make these questions as objective as possible, to ensure we did not bias our inter viewees. For event, we tried to cover both collateral and ostracize associations. The structure of the questions was very underlying, and easy to understand. We used the funnelling technique to structure our survey. With this technique the questions in the survey go from general to more specific, creating a metaphorical funnel. This survey gave us insight in the most salient associations with Ryanair (see appendix 1).After collecting the data from our survey, we created a list of the most mentioned associations. An association was added to the list when at least 50% of the participants mentioned it. This resulted in a list with 16 associations. The associations can be found in appendix 2. On this list is besides the association heady. Many of our respondents mentioned this tidings in the survey, that during the mapping stage we found that it was unclear for respondents in which con textual matter it should be dictated. on that pointfore we decided not to use this leger in our final consensus map. Figure 1 BCM employment Stage 2 The mapping stageIn the second stage we arrive asked the respondents to create individual brand maps for Ryanair. We used the same sample as in stage 1. We explained what a brand map is and showed them an example of a brand map for Volkswagen, which is shown in figure 1. We gave the respondents the list of associations with Ryanair that we defined in the elicitation stage and explained that they could use as many of the associations as they hopeed, and they could withal add any associations they thought were missing on the list. Furthermore, we explained the collar different levels of connections between the brand and the associations.We asked them to put the number 1,2 or 3 abutting to the line, indicating the speciality of the tie, 1 meaning a easy link and 3 a strong link. After this instruct procedure the respondents were given a blank piece of paper with the intelligence agency Ryanair in the middle. Participa nts could take as long as they motiveed to complete the brand map. Finally, they were debriefed and thanked for their participation. Stage 3 The aggregation stage. In the final stage we collected all the brand maps to aggregate them and create a consensus map. The individual brand maps are combined on the basis of the of rules to obtain a brand consensus map.These rules require no specialized knowledge of quantitative or qualitative research methods. Frequencies are used to construct a consensus map, display the most salient brand associations and their interconnections. We enhanced validity of the consensus map by creating inter-subjectivity. We let every team member make their own map based on their interviews. We then came together to compare and discuss the maps. After the discussion we created the final map based on the dress up of rules described by John et al (2006). How we created the consensus map is described in the next chapter, just as the details and description of t he consensus map. . Description of consensus map and picture To create the final consensus map of the Ryanair brand, we used the article about Brand Concept Maps by John et al (2006). Beforehand, we coded the information from each of the individual brand maps in terms of (1) the presence of the brand associations, (2) the might of the link between each association to the brand or to another association, (3) the level at which the association was placed in the map (directly united to Ryanair, or directly linked to another association) and (4) which brand associations were linked above and below each association on the map.There were 2 brand associations that respondents added themselves and were not on the list. None of these volumes were used in more than 7% of the cases, which led to our decision not to use them in the final consensus map. All the coded information was inserted in a table that can be found in appendix 3. base on this table we used a five step process to develop a consensus brand map of the individual brand concept maps. (John et al 2006) Step 1 In the first step we identified the sum total brand associations that we generate to place on the consensus map.To correct the core brand associations we used the frequency of mention and the number of interconnections. If associations were mentioned on at least 50% of the maps we included them on the consensus map as a core brand association. We also included associations if the number of interconnections was equal to or higher than that of other core brand associations. By applying these rules we found 12 core brand associations which are shown the table in appendix 3. Step 2 In step dickens we decided which of the associations should be linked directly to Ryanair.For this step we used the frequency of first order mentions, the ratio of first order mentions, and the type of interconnections. We selected the associations that were mentioned at least 50% of the multiplication as first-order ass ociations of the total times that they were mentioned. We only selected them if they had more super ordinate than subordinate connections. This resulted in 5 associations that had to be directly linked to Ryanair. Step 3 In the third step we placed the remaining core brand associations on the map. They need to be linked to at least one of the first-order brand associations.Important colligate between the 12 core brand associations also needed to be placed on the final consensus map. We made these golf links by first counting how frequently links between specific associations occurred across maps. Then we did a frequency count of how many different association links were noted on one map, devil maps, three maps, four maps etc. We used these frequencies to select which association links would be included in the consensus map. The inflection point occurred at four (see appendix 4). Therefore, we included all core association links found on at least four maps in the consensus brand map.Twelve links met the criteria, eleven of them were links between core brand associations. Step 4 In the fourth step we inserted links between core and non-core brand associations. As found in the previous step, there was only one link between a core and a non-core brand association that met the criteria. Step 5 In this final step we decided on the strength of the links between the associations and Ryanair. There are three levels of connections weak (1), medium(2), strong(3). For each link we computed the mean of the strength. We rounded the number up or passel to the next integer number.All the results of these steps led to the brand consensus map below, figure 2. Figure 2 Final Brand Concept Map Ryanair As we call for mentioned, the thicker the line, the stronger the association. The strength of associations was measured by the number of times an association was mentioned and what the strength of the associations was in the several brand maps made by our respondents. In the centre of the brand concept map you can see the brand Ryanair. The basal associations with Ryanair are sporty, curb service, holiday, disappear only in atomic number 63 and airline.Of these primary associations, cheap, moderate service and airline have the strongest association with Ryanair. Apart from these primary associations world directly linked to Ryanair, some of these primary associations are also directly linked to each other. There is a direct link between cheap and limited service, and there is a direct link between airline and go only in Europe. This means that people associate Ryanair being cheap with Ryanair offering limited service, and Ryanair being an airline with Ryanair only wing in Europe.When we look at the secondary associations that are directly linked to the primary associations, we can see that most associations are linked to cheap. The associations directly linked to cheap are less subject employees, price strategy, price sensitive customers, low drag, low lineament, and no food/drinks. From these associations, no food/drinks has the weakest association with Ryanair being cheap. However, no food/drinks is strongly associated with Ryanair providing limited service. Booth primary associations airline and only evanescent in Europe are strongly linked with secondary airports.Finally, there is a strong link between the primary association holiday and the non-core brand association sun/summer. This means that people strongly associate holidays with sun/summer. 3. Communication appraisal The conclusion we derive from the Ryanair consensus map is twofold. On one side there are very strong, compulsory associations with Ryanair. We classify Cheap, air hose and Holiday as positive because these match the strategy that Ryanair carries. Ryanair wants to be a cheap airline that is convenient and easy to use. This strategy has definitely reached our sample of the population.Besides that, we think that Holiday is a positive association . When consumers think of planning a holiday, there is a queen-size chance they will think of Ryanair, and book a flight with them. It is an important goal for brands to be in the consideration set of consumers(Avery et al, 2012). Based on our consensus map, we can state that Ryanair achieved this goal. On the other side, our respondents also have negative associations with Ryanair. They associate cheap with low woodland, low comfort and less certifiable employees. Strikingly, there are no positive associations with cheap.This is definitely a point of improvement for Ryanair. At this moment cheap is associated with negative aspects. Ryanair could turn up to change this in a positive carriage towards cheap by emphasizing the advantages of cheap. Also, there is a strong association between cheap and limited service. This can be seen as an negative aspect. However, we do not find this association emerging, it is well known that Ryanair indeed offers less service to its customers. It is part of its strategy to offer low prices to their customers. In the following paragraph we will elaborate on wherefore and how Ryanair can change its strategy in more detail.Why Change the Current Map As explained in the last paragraph there are several negative associations with Ryanair. We found out that not all these associations were based on experience though, since some of our participants never used Ryanair out front or they experienced low comfort on some flights, but not all. Another point is that they associated Ryanair with less qualified employees because Ryanair is a cheap airline, but they do not know the background of the employees and in some cases they never discover a difference between the employees of Ryanair and competitors.Like mentioned in a previous chapter, Ryanair its strategy is to offer the lowest price at all time on all routes and provide an inexpensive and convenient service. This means that they do not want to be associated with inconvenient service or uncomfortable consumers. They mention their service as inexpensive on the other hand, so they know that their service is not as right as most competitors. So, the main reason why Ryanair should want to change the final brand map create above is the particular that they do not want to be associated with low comfort and less qualified employees.And that the associations cheap is a positive associations, but it is linked only to negative associations. How Change the Current Map One of Ryanair its goals is to provide their customers with the cheapest flights. Since everybody associates Ryanair with cheap, they seem to have reached this goal. Since we do not want to change this association we have to come up with a plan to change their quality/comfort/employee image without Ryanair becoming more expensive. As mentioned before, our consensus map shows a negative status towards cheap, one of the main attributes of Ryanair. If we can change this ttitude, this will have a posi tive influence on the overall attitude towards Ryanair. For this purpose we decided to use the TORA model. The basic belief of this model is that behaviour(using Ryanair) is a function of a persons attitude, in this case attitude towards cheap. This multi attribute model for molding attitudes consists of 3 important steps. First we will explain these three steps, and how they apply to Ryanair. 1. ever-changing a specific component belief. In this step the believe about the specific component cheap is tried to be changed. In the case of Ryanair, this should be done for the component service.Ryanair is assumed to have low service and less qualified employees, because they are cheap. As these beliefs are very subjective or even false, Ryanair should use their campaign to change these beliefs about service and quality of employees. 2. Changing the importance a consumer assigns to an attribute. The most important attribute of Ryanair is that they offer cheap flights. If customers tent f lap cheap they will save money that they can spend on their destination. This is a very important feature of Ryanair, and they should estimate to get consumers to change the importance they weigh to this.When a low flight price becomes more important for consumers, they are more likely to choose Ryanair, as this airline is one of the cheapest in Europe. 3. Introducing a new-fashioned attitude in the consumers evaluation process. Like we mentioned before, the overall attitude towards cheap at this moment is predominantly negative. In the consensus map there was not one mainly positive association with cheap. Ryanair should change this attitude and emphasize the advantages of flying cheap in their campaign. For instance they could make the connection between cheap and smart.The attitude towards cheap should change to flying for cheap is smart because it saves you money. Based on these steps we have set up a campaign plan for Ryanair. We will discuss this campaign in detail in follow ing paragraphs. inauguration/ summer 2013 Campaign Ryanair Our campaign for Ryanair is mainly targeted at consumers who do not have Ryanair in their consideration set. This can either be because they dont know the brand or because they have a negative attitude towards it. Our idea for Ryanair is to launch a campaign in the outpouring/summer of 2013 where they try to change consumers perception and attitude towards Ryanair.We decided that the campaign should be launched in the spring/summer of 2013 because this is when most customers start planning their holiday. As we could see in the consensus map holidays are strongly associated with Ryanair, so we believe this is the perfect timing. Since TV Commercials are very expensive, which can increase the costs for Ryanair, and eventually ticket prices. We decided not to use TV commercial messages in our campaign. Instead, we think the campaign should consists of ads and commercials on the internet, where a big part of Ryanairs target a udience is active.When potential customers, people between 18-30, are planning their holiday they will first go online, as this is the main search tool for this generation. perceive an Ryanair advertisement can give them an incentive to book a flight with Ryanair. Advertisements The benefit of using online advertisements is the situation that multiple advertisements can be used in multiple locations. The most important thing about the advertisements is the fact that they have to have a strong message but still needs to be simple. They have to change consumer attitude towards low prices so this will lead to the desired behaviour ,booking a flight.The ads have to be used frequently and placed in the right spots. The advertisements have to be placed on websites which are frequently visited by our target audience. If they click on the ad it should sent them to the Ryanair website. We want to use three types of advertisements one advertisement with a so called emotional appeal, one wit h a two-sided approach and one with a comparative approach. Where each ad unendingly shows the Ryanair logo, and the ad is of all time in the colors yellow and blue. If we use pictures the borders are in yellow and blue, and the text is always in the same blue colour.The main goal of the ads is to try and remove the low comfort and less qualified employees associations out of the customers head and change this into an attitude positive towards cheap. We decided to use the word smart in all the ads, because of earlier mentioned reasons. Furthermore, a lot of our participants used the word smart to identify the customers or founders of Ryanair. The customers because they fly cheap and save money, the founders because they came up with this business idea. Since we heard it multiple times we thought it was a good idea to use this word in the ads.Emotional Appeal ad The advertisement shows a picture of a man standing in the planing machine waiting for the stewardess to put his hand bag gage in the locker above the seatings. The man is tall, wearing a nice classy button down shirt with normal jeans. This shows a man with style, but it does not show too much prolificacy which will clash with the cheap image of Ryanair. Both the stewardess and the man on the ad have a smile on their faces. The text provided underneath the picture says Be smart, save money, fly Ryan Air. This ad will serve two goals.First because of the smiling, prosperous and helpful stewardess it will take remote the negative association people have of less service and less qualified employees of Ryanair. Second, by showing a man where our target audience can relate to and describing him as smart, we make the association of customers of Ryanair are smart. Also it shows that the average customer is very mainstream, so it could be anyone. Two-Sided advertisement The two-sided advertisement should show a negative association of Ryanair, but not the biggest and counter argue with it.What we mean by t his is the fact that for instance secondary airports are sometimes associated negative since they are small and not always close to the city, but it can also be an advantage. Flying on secondary airports means less waiting time for your luggage, less walking time to board, less searching what gate you have to get to and for instance cheaper parking lots. The advertisement shows a small airport on the background. On the foreground it shows the text Yes, we dont fly on main airports, can you come up with the benefits of this? We can * little waiting time * Cheaper parking lots No big crowds Be smart, save time, fly Ryan Air. This ad will serve the goal of showing benefits of flying on secondary airports. Showing customers that it is not only cheaper, but it also saves time and it is customer friendly (less waiting time and no big crowds). Again we try to put a positive attitude toward the association cheap and we use the word smart over again. Comparative advertisement The comparat ive advertisement shows a picture of two airplanes flying in the air next to each other. It shows a clear sky with an orange sun on the background, as a nice summer evening.Both airplanes are Boeing 737-800s. One airplane is a Ryanair airplane and the other is an airplane of one of the competitors, for instance one of KLM Royal Airlines. Underneath the picture it says Can you see the difference? Your pocketbook can Be smart, Save money, fly Ryan Air The goal of this ad is the fact that less quality is associated with cheap. This ad shows that Ryanair uses the same airplanes as some of their competitors. We try to show that Ryanair should not be associated with less quality. We also use the word smart again and we associate Ryanair again with the positive association cheap.Internet Commercials Like we mentioned before we do not want to show any TV commercial during this summer campaign since that will costs too much. Instead, we want think it will be good to have a goldbrick comme rcial for on the internet. This will be used on the Ryan Air website, so the use of the commercial will almost be free of costs. When you enter the website this commercial will pop up and play. There should be an option to close the ad if , to make sure the customers do not have to come it every time they enter the website. This can cause irritation and we do not want to affront potential customers.We want the commercial to be in the same setting as the banner ads. If the commercials and advertisements are consistent this will reinforce the effect they have. Most important for this commercial is to, again, emphasize the positive consequences of flying cheap and linking this with being smart. For our internet commercial we will use the same man that we used in our online banner. This is an ordinary person, where most of Ryanair its audience can relate himself to. Because we want to reinforce the link between Ryanair and the association holiday, the man will be with his family.They check out a luxurious hotel where the employees are very friendly and helpful. The family gets into a car and drive to the airport. There they board on a Ryanair plane. When they board on the plane, the stewards are also very warm and welcoming and helping the family with storing their luggage. The camera zooms out and the final shot is the airplane taking off. On the screen the following text appears Be smart, save money, fly Ryanair. With this commercial we want to make the link between the service in a luxurious hotel and the service in the Ryanair plane.We want to point out that there are similarities between the two, in both cases the employees are warm, friendly and helpful. Furthermore we want to show that by saving money on the flight the family could afford to stay in a luxurious hotel, in other words they were smart because they saved money on their flight in order to stay in a luxurious hotel during their stay. Conclusions To sum up the process to the final brand concept map. We conducted interviews based on the funnelling technique. After this we used the BCM method to come up with our final brand concept map.We found out that there were several positive and several negative associations with Ryanair. specially the fact that the positive association cheap was linked with only negative associations got our attention. We decided that this part of the brand concept map was the part we wanted to change by a communication idea. We came up with an Spring/Summer 2013 Campaign for Ryanair. This campaign would consist of several advertisements and a single commercial we wanted to use on the website. The main theme of our advertisements is to emphasize the positive elements of cheap and to use the word smart in every ad.Linking back to the TORA model we described before, in all the advertisements the steps of this model are taken into account. Step 1 of the TORA model is mainly processed in the emotional appeal ad we described. With this ad we try to chan ge consumers beliefs about the service of Ryanair and the quality of their employees. In the ad we make the association of customers of Ryanair being smart, which represents step 3, making a new connection between the attribute cheap and the (new) attribute smart. These arguments apply also for the advertisement about the benefits of secondary airports.The comparative commercial with another airline is more about changing the importance a consumer assigns to an attribute, like step 2 of the TORA model. When seeing two airplanes next to each other of different airlines, where one airline is much cheaper, the most important feature of Ryanair, flying cheap, is made clear. With this commercial we can try to get consumers to change the importance they weight to the attribute cheap. Finally we showed the purpose of the website commercial, where the purpose is to emphasize the positive consequences of flying cheap and linking this with being smart.Future research For future day research we suggest to have a more varying sample and more participants. We focused on students, which can cause to give an image of Ryanair which is not really representative. Furthermore we would suggest to use the ZMET method instead of the BCM method because the first interview conducted in the ZMET method is much more in-depth than the one we used in the BCM method. We think that the associations with the brand would be different and more representative using the ZMET method. Appendices Appendix 1 Survey QuestionsName Age Gender 1. The first thing that comes to mind when I think of Ryanair is 2. I fly with Ryanair because 3. Ryanair is 4. Ryanair makes me feel 5. I wont fly with Ryanair because 6. When I see a commercial of Ryanair I think.. 7. Ryanair looks 8. I believe that other people think of Ryanair as 9. Ryanair is .. compared to their competitors 10. I would choose competitors over Ryanair because 11. I would choose to fly with Ryanair if I fly with(friends/ family etc) 12. I b elieve Ryanair thinks of their customers as 13.The founders of Ryanair are 14. I believe the strategy of Ryanair is 15. People who use Ryanair are 16. People who work for Ryanair are 17. The customers of Ryanair are.. Appendix 2 key out with core associations 1. Holiday 2. Airline 3. Cheap 4. Less qualified employees 5. No Food / Drinks 6. Limited swear out 7. Only in Europe 8. Yellow/Blue 9. Sun/Summer 10. Friends 11. low gear quality 12. monetary value sensitive customers 13. Price strategy 14. Low comfort 15. Secondary airports 16. Smart Appendix 3 contention with core associations Core Associations First-Order AssociationsBrand Associations Frequency of Mention Number of Inter connections Frequency of First-Order Mention proportion of First-Order Mention (%) Subordinate Connection Super-ordinate Connections Cheap 15 46 13 86,7 2 44 Airline 13 16 13 100 16 Secondary Airports 12 13 5 41,7 9 4 Only in Europe 12 12 7 58,3 5 7 No Food/Drinks 12 12 3 25 11 1 Less qualified Emplo yees 11 13 2 18,2 10 3 Holiday 11 15 10 90,9 1 14 Price Strategy 11 9 7 63,6 5 4 Price Sensitive Customers 11 13 3 27,3 9 4Low Comfort 10 15 1 10 9 6 Limited Service 8 16 4 50 4 12 Low Quality 8 16 3 37,5 5 11 Fly with Friends 7 8 3 42,9 5 3 Sun/Summer 7 9 1 14,3 6 3 Yellow/Blue 6 2 5 83,3 2 City Trip 2 2 2 100 2 Airplanes 1 1 1 100 1 Business People 1 1 100 Bad Customer Service 1 1 100 Low Budget 1 1 0 1 Nighttime bookings 1 1 0 1 Eindhoven 1 1 100 Limited destinations 1 1 1 100 1 Customers 1 1 1 100 1 Easy to book tickets 1 1 0 1 Appendix 4 Maps and the number of interconnections Number of maps Number of interconnections 1 23 2 13 3 10 4 7 5 4 (inflection point) 6 6 Appendix 5 Summaries of individual interviews Interviews by Marc Buurman For this assignment I interviewed three Dutch Students * Melvin Loggies, 21 geezerhood old, male * Jesse Driel, 22 old age old, male * Eline Buurman, 19 years old, female I contacted the respondents by phone and asked t hem if they wanted to participate in our research. They all agreed, so I made an appointment with them for the first interview.In the first interview I asked the respondents several questions about Ryanair(see appendix 2). I explained them that they should simply say what came to their mind and that if they had any questions they were free to ask them. After conducting the interviews, that led to very interesting associations, I thanked the respondents and made the appointment for the second interview. In the second interview I showed the respondents a list of 16 associations (which resulted from the first interviews) and asked them if they could draw a mental map for me.As an example I gave them a mental map of Volkswagen. I also told the respondents that they were not forced to use all the associations, and if they thought of any associations that were missing, they were free to add them to their mental map. During the creation of the map I told them that they could also canvass their answers of the first interview, however, no one decided to review their first interview. When they finished drawing their mental map, I thanked them for their effort and wished them a pleasant day. The associations that the respondents gave were quite similar.The main associations that the respondents came up with were cheap, holiday, and Ryanair only flies in Europe. These were quite positive associations. However, the respondents also came up with negative associations like low comfort, limited service and less qualified employees. According to the respondents, the explanation for this is that because Ryanair is one of the cheapest airlines(which they saw as a positive thing), they cant provide the best service and dont have the best employees. The respondents also gave some different associations.For instance, one respondent answered that the first thing that came to his mind when he thought of Ryanair was city trips. This was because he was planning to go on a city trip t hrough Europe and would use Ryanair to fly from city to city. When I asked him why he would use Ryanair to fly from city to city, he simply answered Because they are the cheapest. Interviews by Jesper Vieveen For this research I interviewed four people * Robin Meeng, 22 years old, male * Nick Theisen, 21 years old, male * Sharen Vieveen, 18 years old, female * Kevin Smith, 25 years old, maleI contacted all of them by phone to ask if they wanted to participate in a research I had to conduct for my study Marketing Management, and for the course Consumer Behaviour. I told them I had to interview them twice about the brand Ryanair, they all agreed immediately. During the first interview I asked them questions, you can find these questions in appendix 2. I told them they had to try to come up with as many things as they could think of each question. I asked them if they had travelled with Ryanair before and I asked them to explain words if I did not understood the meaning of them in car nal knowledge with the question.At the end I thanked them for their participations and I planned a second meeting with them. I did not posit them yet what the second interview was going to be about, the only thing I told them was the fact that it was about Ryanair again, and that it was going to be based on the first interview. During the second interview I showed them their answers of the first interview, I provided them with the list of the 16 associations that came out the first part of the BCM method. I gave them a piece of paper with the word Ryanair in the middle. I told them they had to create a brand concept map with those 16 associations.I told them they did not have to use all of them, and that they had the possibility to ad associations if the wanted. I also gave them their first interview so they could use it if they wanted. Before they started to draw the map I showed them an example of a brand concept map. After they were done with their map I asked them if they were sure this was their final map, the map they wanted to give to me. After this I thanked them for their participation. During the first interview a lot of the answers to the questions involved the word cheap.The main reason why they would fly Ryanair was because of the fact that it is a cheap airline, it saves money during their holiday. Two respondents tried to be very creative coming up with words associated with Ryanair, they mentioned the business strategies, the names of the founders, the colours of the airline and stuff like this. But most of the time all their answers involved the word cheap again. What got my attention was the fact that most of my respondents liked to fly with Ryanair but if the longer they thought about questions the more they came up with negative associations.Mostly not out of own experiences, but out of other people their experiences or out of stereotypes. All of my respondents also associated Ryanair with limited service. Three out of the four told me tha t they did not mind this though, they told me that flying those short distances were not about the service. Interviews by Chantal Verbeek For creating the brand maps I have interviewed four students, two female and two male. They are all four WO students and have a Dutch nationality First I have interviewed the participants by using the survey in the appendix. The purpose of this interview was to identify the core associations with Ryanair.First I told the participants what the purpose of the study was. I told them that me and my group were doing research about the associations students have with Ryanair. Then I told them that the end goal of the research was to create a consensus map. I explained to them the steps we needed to take in order to create the consensus map and what a consensus map is. The interview was relatively basic and no remarkable issues emerged. It was striking that the first association the participants had was cheap. One respondent used the word low budget inst ead of cheap.Most respondents asked for an explanation for the question I use Ryanair when I fly with. As I did not want to guide them to much I told them this question was about the type of travel partner. I did not use examples such as parents and friends. In the answers to almost every survey question the word cheap was used. Other words that were commonly mentioned were holiday, friends, and low comfort. All four participants had experience with flying with Ryanair. They based the answers of their questions on experience. What came forward is that they all used Ryanair because it was much cheaper than the competitors.The respondents thought of Transavia as the main competitor, because this airline is also low budget. Only one respondent thought of Wizz Air as the main competitor. After the interview our group had a meeting to discuss the interviews and decide on which words to use for the brand maps. When this was decided I used the same four respondents to create an individual brand map. First I explained to them again what a brand map is and where we would use it for. After that I showed them the brand map of Volkswagen. I explained that there were three levels of association links weak, medium and strong.I told them how to indicate the strength and referred to the Volkswagen example. If the respondents still had questions, I answered them. After that the respondents started with their brand maps. None of the respondents took longer than 5 minutes to finish. Some had very complex maps, with many interconnections. One participant only linked to Ryanair and did not use connections between the associations. No one had any difficulties with creating the map and the process went very smooth. When the respondents were finished I debriefed them and answered questions if they had any.Some of the respondents were interested in brand maps of other participants. If this was the case I showed them the brand maps of the others. Interviews by Eva Verhulst References h ttp//www. guardian. co. uk/business/2011/may/23/Ryanair-profits-rise-passenger-numbers http//www. airlinequality. com/Forum/ryan. htm Avery, J. , Kozinets, R. , Mittal, B. , Raghubir, P. and Woodside, A. (2012), Consumer Behaviour Human Pursuit of Happiness in the World of Goods, Open Mentis. John, Deborah R. et al (2006), Brand Concept Maps A Methodology for Indentifying Brand Association Networks daybook of Marketing Research,43(November), 549-563