Does the Marketing Mix Contribute to the Success of Ryanair?

For an organization of your choice, critically assess whether the marketing mix contributes to the success of the organization:

Does the Marketing Mix contribute to the success of Ryanair?
Student ID: 8392312 Course Code: BMAN70441 1. Introduction The marketing mix is an essential perspective in both marketing research and implementation. As the most common concept of the marketing mix, the classification of four Ps (Product, Price, Promotion and Place) is generally considered the synonym of the marketing mix and has been used by marketers throughout the globe since it was first advanced by E. Jerome McCarthy in 1960s (Reid,1980; Waterschoot and Bulte,1992). However, with the development and complication of marketing domain in recent years, people argue that the four Ps theory may not be comprehensive enough for the present business circumstance (Kluyver and Brodie, 1987; Grönroos, 1997; Chartered Institution of Marketing, 2009). This essay is aimed to examine the effectiveness of the four Ps theory through Ryanair's case as well as exploring other factors contributing to the success of this company. 2. Introduction to Ryanair Since its establishment in 1984, Ryanair has grown into the largest budget airline providing air transport service across the Europe (Sakle, 2010). In the last fiscal year, Ryanair achieved a revenue of 4.325 billion Euros and a 25% increase of full year profits (Ryanair, 2012, p.1). On this premise, a question is raised from marketing perspective: does the marketing mix contribute to the rapid growth of Ryanair？

3. Classical definition of the marketing mix The marketing mix has been defined in various ways in the past decades. The concept was first created by Neil Borden, who was inspired by Culliton that marketing executive should be considered "mixer of ingredients" (1948,cited in Goi, 2009, p.2). Borden originally claimed that the marketing mix had 12 components: product planning, pricing, branding, channels of distribution,

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