EASY BUSINESS : SUCCESS BUT NOT SO EASY

Easy Business :
In 1995 a young serial entrepreneur called Stelios Haji-Ioannou created a revolution in airlines companies by creating Easyjet based on a “low cost, no frills” philosophy, which was in a way a war declaration to the travel agencies and to the airlines competitors. But for the customers, Stelios, as he likes to be called, is seen as “the pioneer", the rescuer of millions customers, “who made flights as affordable as a pair of jeans”!

In 10 years, Easyjet became a successful business model, and from 3 millions people carried in 1999 it went up to 37 millions in 2006.New application for the e-business in 1999 their on line booking became a real success. If in 1999 50 % of the bookings were done through the website, in 2004 the rate went up 98,9%.

The “Low cost-no frills” philosophy has been used to create 16 other new business opportunities in different fields such as travel, leisure, personal finance, car renting, food service….Used as an easy replicated concept, the word "easy" became the leitmotiv in the expansion of the group as well as the group trademark which is now licensed to all of the easy branded business. The brand is also an excellent source of revenue for the group, as a franchise and as a property to protect against the website name thieves.

The prosperity of the group is due his creative and charismatic owner. Real celebrity in the UK, Stelios managed in 2006 to win awards for the user friendly way of booking through his easyjet.com website as well as being personally awarded by a knighthood from Queen Elisabeth II for services to entrepreneurship.

Private owner of the Easy group, Stelios is both manager of Easyjet,and now, more the manager of the brand.
He continues to expand the brand business by creating new easy branded ventures with unequal success.


Easy group : easy way to cleverly save money

As per the following table, the Easy group success is linked to his way to create win-win situation for the 4 business partners by solving specific problems for them:

Customers
- Cheap booking “Easyjet.com, easycruise”
- Self booking (all)
- Novelty in services (easy internet café)
- Save time and money
- Offering valu for money
Suppliers
- Lower fixed-cost
- Maximize customers number
- Good and fair quality of service
- Easy group trademark
- Yield management
Partners
- Opportunity to experiment new business field (eg : website and easyjet)
- Can fight against leader big firms
- Easy group philosophy
Owners of the business
- Brand management
- Creativity and innovation

For Easy group the problem is now to expand his business by avoiding mistakes in the choice of the new fields they decide to invest in.Since 2004 the Easy group seems to have rushed towards new business opportunities without taking care of the real issue about perfect fit between the brand and the business.

The failure of Easy car , Easy cinema, Easy internet café and Easy music could damaged the brand image and loyalty if Easy group does not select more cautiously.

Even if the Easy group has created his own “selection system analysis”before deciding any investment, the group has still to be aware of the quality level the customer expect to find in any Easy business, in order not to go below this line. The future and financial wealth of the business could rely on quality the customers could expect from the brand.

Nowadays , the sustainable developpement is an important asset to take good look at in order to protect both the environment and the Easy brand image from which their benefits rely on.It is important to build strong brand values not only for customers but also for the partners and Easy staff members.