From day one, easyJet founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou said his dream was to make the brand a household name in as many sectors and in as many countries as possible.
He certainly succeeded, and has become a household name himself in the process.
In its 30th anniversary year, the easy family of brands now includes not only airlines, car rental and hotels but has expanded into many more sectors with businesses such as easyStorage.com, easyCleaning.biz and easySim.global.
A huge part of the success of these enterprises is the instantly recognisable ‘easy’ name and signature orange and white branding. A stroke of marketing genius, it has become a global symbol of great value for money.
Sir Stelios Haji-Ionnou is offering his mentorship and a cash prize as part of his Young Entrepreneur Awards
Sir Stelios now spends a significant proportion of his time on his charitable foundation.
This includes helping young entrepreneurs to follow in his footsteps through the foundation’s annual awards program, which offers cash prizes of £300,000 to entrepreneurs younger than 35 who started their own company in the last five years and have a turnover of more than £1million per year.
So how did he do it, and what can those starting their own businesses learn?
Here, Sir Stelios offers five nuggets of marketing wisdom.
Pick a great name
At its inception in 1994, the original working name of easyJet was Stelair, a brand extension from Sir Stelios’ existing shipping company, Stelmar.
But Stelios decided he could do better, and started brainstorming words that customers would instantly associate with value for money.
What’s in a name? The ‘easy’ brand is now known by customers all over the world
The easy name was born on the back of a napkin in a bar in 1994.
Sir Stelios first applied it to his airline, and from 1995 onwards to many other easy brands, both through the company’s own start-ups and through licensing deals with carefully selected business partners.
While customers in 1995 may not have heard of Sir Stelios, they certainly welcomed easyJet’s proposition that flying should be affordable – and putting aside his own name, Stelair, in favour of easyJet has worked well ever since.
Thank heavens for a moment of sanity in not allowing myself to be completely self-centred by going down the ‘Stel’ road
‘Thank heavens for a moment of sanity in not allowing myself to be completely self-centred by going down the “Stel” road,’ he says.
Instead the name Stelios is now reserved for his charitable foundation, and will be part of his legacy as an entrepreneur and philanthropist.
He advises entrepreneurs to think hard about what their business offers customers, and how they can reflect that in the brand name.
If the original idea isn’t quite working, then don’t be afraid to switch to a better brand name that makes it clearer what is it that you are selling.
Tongue-in-cheek marketing stunts
Sir Stelios is no stranger to the publicity stunt. In 1998, when British Airways launched a rival budget airline, 10 easyJet staff turned up in their distinctive orange uniforms and boarded the first flight as customers – stealing the limelight from their much bigger competitor in what Sir Stelios describes as ‘A true David versus Goliath story.’
Sir Stelios says PR stunts are a great way for small businesses to gain huge exposure at a relatively small cost.
It is certainly cheaper than paying an advertising agency to mastermind a major campaign. If the PR stunt goes well it will gain much more media coverage – especially today in the era of social media.
Attention-grabbing: PR stunts can be a valuable part of a business’s marketing plan
Boost your profile by entering awards
The majority of profits from Sir Stelios’ company easyGroup are donated to the Stelios Philanthropic Foundation.
It runs charity initiatives for community and environmental causes, as well as providing scholarships to business schools and grants to entrepreneurs.
The Foundation also runs an annual awards programme. This offers a prize fund of £300,000, including a top prize of £150,000, to an entrepreneur under the age of 35 who impresses Sir Stelios with their business idea.
In recent years winners have included entrepreneurs running diverse businesses from Christmas tree farming to conservatory design, to the development of a mental health app.
With these awards we are hoping to the find and support the next big UK business success story
The easy family of brands has won awards over the years, and Sir Stelios recognises the impact these can have on a company’s profile.
Entering the awards will not only give the winner cash to invest in their business, but also the chance to boost their company’s profile and get recognition from industry peers.
The deadline for entries is 29 February 2024, and you can find the full criteria on the foundation’s website: www.stelios.foundation.
‘With these awards we are hoping to the find and support the next big UK business success story and help create new jobs in the UK economy,’ Sir Stelios says.
Be different from your competitors
Part of the reason that the easyJet’s branding is so iconic is that it instantly stands out among other airlines – and this was no accident.
When working with agencies to come up with the design, Sir Stelios noticed that almost all other airlines used some combination of the colours red, white and blue. This is why they were called flag carriers.
EasyJet’s trademark orange colour was born out of a desire not to fit the existing mould.
Sir Stelios also decided that the lettering on the logo would be lower-case, standing out from other carriers’ more formal upper-case designs.
Sir Stelios suggests that entrepreneurs are not afraid to go against the grain. He says they should think about the situations where customers might see their branding – in his case on the side of a plane or on a departures board at an airport – and think about how to make it noticeable.
Standing out: The orange easyJet branding marks it out as different from its airline rivals
Don’t take yourself too seriously
Easyjet’s brand has a strong sense of humour, which has helped it gain favour with customers.
Sir Stelios says this is important, as presenting an image that is too polished and manufactured can make a business seem less relatable to customers.
In 1998, against the advice of his lawyers and executives, Stelios allowed ITV cameras behind the scenes of the easyJet business for the series Airline.
He did so knowing that the show would include some footage where things didn’t go as planned and customers got angry.
Sir Stelios himself was even filmed trying to placate them by offering free drinks on board planes.
But the show was a huge success, attracting up to 12 million viewers and ranking third in the viewing figures behind Coronation Street and Eastenders. This massively boosted easyJet’s brand recognition.
‘It is inevitable that when you become such a strong brand you invite humour and parody. So it’s important not to take yourself too seriously,’ says Sir Stelios.