The blog thread is here: http://www.goodexperience.com/blog/archives/010067.php

Ryanair’s website is here: http://www.ryanair.com/site/EN/

Ryanair succeeds because it delivers on its Brand Promise. That Promise is “Lowest fares – Guaranteed.” They make no bones about their lousy service, and do everything possible to reduce costs. And consumers buy tickets! Why? Consumers WANT cheap tickets!

To use the cell-phone example, it might require pointing out a little bit just how wealthy the American consumer is. In Philippines, for example, they don’t really worry about their web-package on the phone, they want to be able to TEXT (not call) their family and friends. What do they want? CHEAP TEXT. In Philippines, communication is a commodity in the purest sense.

In the US, we have added various luxuries to our phones that allow for increased DIFFERENTIATION. If there are only a few luxuries that can be tacked on (and let’s face it, a phone is a phone), there is little to differentiate with. So, the cellular industry tries really hard to not be a commodity market, but really, it is. It’s a race to the bottom if I ever saw one.

So why do I choose T-Mobile? Very simple. The service is no worse than any other company, but it’s dirt cheap for 3000 minutes. I’ve tried them all – all of them drop calls; all of them screw up my bill; all of them lose a voice mail from time to time. As Blaine mentioned, they’re ALL lousy.

T-Mobile Promises a good value. I think they do a decent job of differentiating in the only area I care about, since I can see no differentiation anywhere else. Given a race for the bottom and nothing to differentiate services, the only cellular Promise I really care about is “Low Price.”

One of my concerns is that this happens in every mobile telecom company – whether it be Sprint, Verizon, AT&T or T-Mobile – there are these types of stories everywhere. I have just two questions. First, why do we accept this type of treatment and continue to buy products and services from them and; Second, when are we, as a population of consumers in one of the most economically powerful nations going to do something about it.

To me, being the “Best of the Worst” is no excuse for success. I mean, being the best in the cellular industry is still some of the worst treatment any of us experience. There are many others that parallel this as well. What about the airline industry. Other than the handful of flights that you take that are actually pleasant, the rest are less than desireable but they are the best you can get in that industry. There are many more that parallel this as well.

Would we buy more, absolutely. The research shows it and your read about it every day, people will spend more and be more loyal if these companies would provide the experience and keep the promises they all have supposedly given us. I know i would.