EasyJet: The 'Easy' Way to Succeed

Towards this end, it adopted a number of practices that helped curb wasteful expenses and provided the best possible service within the limits prescribed by cost. Stelios credited a lot of easyJet's success to two strategic imperatives. The first was "sweating the assets", that is making sure the planes were as full as possible and flying as much as possible. His logic was that if one had a fixed asset which cost a lot, it had to work for one. The second was a sophisticated yield management system which could set an infinite number of fares for a given flight, based on the demand and supply position for that flight. The prices for the seats fluctuated depending on the demand for them at a particular time...

The crew wore orange clothes, the planes and the office building were painted orange, and even the trash bags were orange. The neon orange 'easy' brand represented value for money. Analysts felt that this created a theme park kind of atmosphere, and was quite effective as a branding strategy. EasyJet was positioned as the common man's airline. Stelios' heritage as the scion of a Greek shipping magnate stood in the way of creating the image of economy, but he successfully managed to create that impression. He did away with all the trappings of wealth. He replaced all his status symbols with common man's products. He replaced his Porsche car with a fuel efficient Smart Coupe and his fancy Vacheron Constantin watch with an orange (the color of easyJet) Swatch watch...