BA vs Ryanair: what difference does brand voice make?

According to Dazed, Ryanair’s “social media represents a bold new era of advertising in which the customer, far from being always right, is a snivelling little worm.” It set us thinking about what difference a brand voice makes.

Charging people for breathing?

 

The British Airways slogan is ‘To Fly, To Serve”. Meanwhile, Ryanair jokes about charging people for breathing, mocks customers for complaining about flights “which no one forced them to book”, and gloats about having window seats with no windows.

Of course, it’s attention-grabbing. But it’s also very clever. After all, passengers aren’t choosing Ryanair because they enjoy the brand experience. It’s purely an economic decision. Being brutally honest about it merely adds a little humour into the mix.

Life is much more complicated for BA. They’ve set a standard they have to try and live up to. Mostly these days, they fail – particularly on short haul. On these shorter flights, BA can, of course, fly, but they don’t have much opportunity to serve much more than the little pots of Pringles everyone else has.

Despite the best efforts of their comms, the BA brand is suffering beside the efforts of their brash and budget rivals.

 

Ryanair have zigged and zagged with their brand voice over the years. From corporate claims of low emissions, which have been banned, to sexist ads featuring their female cabin crew, which have been banned.

Are you beginning to see a pattern?

These days they run a mixture of social media trolling, and super-bland, super-generic TV commercials. For example,

“At Ryanair we love flying you and your family.
Wherever you’d like to go our friendly crew are happy to care for you.
Fly Ryanair and you’ll love our low fares, on-time flights and sunshine destinations.
Don’t delay. Book your summer break today.
Get our low fares before they sell out.
Ryanair. Low fares, great care.”

It’s straight out of 1976 (anyone remember Fred Pontin?)

Meanwhile, British Airways’ latest campaign is the toast of the ad industry. Including a stylish poster showing a baby peering from a window with no words at all accompanying it. Together with a TV commercial with only a few more, “Everywhere we go makes us everything we are”.

It’s fine if everything you are is marvellous but it invites unfortunate comparisons with passengers’ real life experiences.

 

This aspirational approach, ‘going high’ in contrast to the other airlines, is probably the only option for the UK’s flag carrier. And it makes you realise why BA tried to avoid associating its brand with the cheaper short haul market by launching the budget airline GO in 1998. This was absorbed into the EasyJet brand four years later.

So what should BA do?

Probably what they’re doing, on the whole. But it’s worth considering how different channels can play markedly different roles, as with Ryanair. (Although a premium brand like British Airways can’t really afford to be as disjointed.)

In conclusion, the voices of these two brands are always going to be markedly different.

 

But being aware of how they sound in relation to the competition, and how well they match customer expectation and experience is critical.