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Lessons from 30,000 feet… (in 2 mins)

Ryanair is, by most customer satisfaction surveys, one of the worst airlines in Europe.

It’s also the biggest. And one of the most profitable.

For decades, the traditional airlines – BA, Lufthansa, Air France – sold a particular vision of flying. Comfort. Service. Status. Complimentary drinks and a warm smile. The message was clear: flying should be an experience.

Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary looked at that playbook and tore it up.

He didn’t try to compete on service. He didn’t try to be a slightly cheaper version of BA. He made cheap the entire point. He stripped the product back to its absolute core: getting from A to B, for as little money as possible. Everything else was an optional extra, and he’d charge you for it.

The critics lined up. The press mocked. BA sneered. Ryanair was cheap, they said. Uncomfortable. No frills. No class.

O’Leary’s response? He agreed. Loudly.

He proposed charging for the toilets. He floated the idea of standing-only seats. He called competitors’ executives names that can’t be printed here. Every outrageous statement generated headlines. Every headline sent people to the website. And every visit to the website ended the same way: people saw the price, and they booked.

“The funny thing we’ve learned over the years is the bad publicity sells far more seats than the good.”

What O’Leary understood, and what his critics missed, was that ‘cheap’ wasn’t a weakness. It was the product. He turned every criticism into a reminder of the one thing that mattered most to his customers: the price.

When BA said Ryanair was basic, customers heard ‘affordable’. When newspapers said the experience was terrible, customers heard ‘but it’s £19.99 to Malaga’.

Today, Ryanair carries over 180 million passengers a year. Its social media team roasts its own customers for fun and goes viral doing it. The weakness didn’t just become a strength. It became the brand.

SO WHAT?

Every brand has perceived weaknesses. Things the competition will attack you for. Things the market might look down on.

The instinct is to hide them. To apologise. To try and close the gap.

But sometimes the smartest move is the opposite. Own it. Turn it up. Make the thing your critics attack the thing your customers love.

Because when your competitor is defining your weakness for you, they’re also advertising it. And if that weakness is the very thing a huge part of the market actually wants, they’re doing your marketing for free.

Ryanair didn’t try to beat BA at BA’s game. They built a game where cheap was the winning hand.

WHAT PERCEIVED WEAKNESS COULD BECOME YOUR GREATEST STRENGTH?