You don’t have to like a company to be able to admire it

Take Ryanair.

Michael O’Learly will not know it, or even be bothered by it, but he is a pioneer of Brand Alignment. Ok, so he is an extremist aligner, a fundamentalist, but his brand was uncompromisingly aligned to ‘low cost for the consumer’. The proposition was crystal clear, it was compelling and his processes, product and communication were brutally aligned to it.

Brilliant. Alignment gold.

Ryanair was in an enviable position, leading a new class of air travel, the ALDI of the air, but as we all know something changed that brought it down and you need to look no further than brand alignment for the answer.
Undoubtedly, Ryanair maintained its alignment competence but subtly, OK, not so subtly (‘Anyone who looks like sleeping , we wake them up and sell them something’), it realigned from a crystal clear proposition founded on saving cost for its customers to an internally based one focused on uncompromisingly making money.
The £28m loss announced in the last three months of 2013 proved that the brand was damaged again proving, amongst other things, that the insides of companies always leak out.

Alignment gold turned to dust.

Contrast this with easy jet . They saw the change in consumer sentiment coming and aligned equally brutally but to a different vision. They are now the friendly face of budget air travel and the proof was in the pudding last week when I was greeted by cheerful staff wishing me a pleasant flight and informing me that my flight was on time, scrum free boarding and a much more stress free experience all around.

Easyjet have been rewarded by a 4.1% increase in seats flown and revenue up by3.4%. Fantastic, more alignment gold delivered with speed and no little vision.
Now there is a brand to like and admire.