Seminar paper from the year 2004 in the subject Business economics - Offline Marketing and Online Marketing, grade: 73% (very good), Bournemouth University (Media School), course: Strategic Marketing, language: English, abstract: Creating a sustainable marketing strategy for Ryanair means to organise its future. To plan the future one has to know the present in a broader perspective. This is the starting point of an environmental analysis, which identifies the internal and external parameters of the particular environment an organisation is operating in (Drohan, 1997) and translates it into useful plans and decisions (Albright, 2004). The environmental analysis gives Ryanair the opportunity to identify the main factors affecting the industry it is operating in and to find its opportunities and capabilities. Above all it is important to answer the question “What business are we in?” by defining the industry the organisation is competing in since this gives the opportunity to identify competitive advantages relatively to others (Kay, 1993). Ryanair is positioned as being in the European low-budget airline industry. This creates a competitor group consisting of other European no- frills airlines and low-budget sub brands of traditional airlines but excludes full-service airlines.