Not as easy as it looks

Teaching Business & Economics, Summer 2003 by Wilson, Robert

Creating a name for yourself in business is not wholly straightforward.

In his article, Alec Reed has some positive comments to make about the approach to business and marketing adopted by the founder of easyjet, Stelios HajiIoannou. In particular, Stelios' adoption of the prefix 'easy-' looks like a winner when it comes to his company benefiting from a 'halo effect' when building up other lines of business for itself.

However, there would appear to be problems along the way.

For example, there is in the UK a retailer of prints and limited edition art called Easyart.com. This business was set up after June 1999, the month and year in which Stelios' Easygroup opened and registered its first internet cafe.

It seems that, in recent months, Stelios has been wishing to claim that businesses that set up after June 1999 and named themselves 'easy .....' were benefiting from the 'easy' name, and should be stopped from using it. It is believed that at one stage he was ready to go to court to seek an injunction against this art retailer in particular.

According to a report by Ian Watson in 'Scotland on Sunday' May 11 2003, however, Stelios has backed off from making this move, presumably on legal advice to the effect that a victory for him in court was by no means certain.

It remains to be seen just how Stelios would react to seeing the van shown in the photograph. The lettering is orange on white, and the font is highly reminiscent of that used by Stelios' own 'empire'.

It seems, however, that the firm that owns this van is not in any way part of Stelios' own operation. One might reasonably wonder, therefore, what the colour scheme etc chosen for the van is intended to convey and achieve, and at whose expense.

Building and retaining a badge's value can indeed be bothersome and costly.