”Catch flights, not feelings”: A Qualitative Content Analysis of the Marketing Communication and Brand Management of Ryanair on TikTok and Facebook

Sammanfattning: Due to the fast paced digitalization, marketers are met with higher demands in order to adapt to new contexts for marketing communication and brand management. The social media platform of TikTok is relatively new and rapidly expanding, creating both opportunities and risks for brands. One of the brands who have seized these opportunities is Ryanair, who have attracted 1.6 million followers under the course of 1.5 years of presence on the platform. Little research has been done regarding this new arena for marketing communication and its circumstances. This thesis has the aim of interpreting the marketing communication of Ryanair on TikTok, by comparing it to their marketing communication on Facebook. In addition, the research has the objective to gain insight into the consequences of this marketing communication in regards to the user opinions of the brand. The methodology for the research is a qualitative content analysis which was conducted abductively. The empirical material for the analysis was social media posts and comments that were sampled from the Facebook and TikTok pages of Ryanair. The findings show that the type of content, tonality and intentions differ between the two social media platforms. In the case of Facebook, a more formal and information based communication was identified. This type of marketing communication was concluded as less likely to contribute to the positive opinions of the brand. As of the platform of TikTok, a different approach was identified where the posts were seen as informal and rather created to amuse the users in a contemporary manner. This analysis further found that the contributions to the brand were moderate, yet higher than those of Facebook. The research illuminated the importance of corporate adaptability to different platforms and target groups, thus indicating a need for further research in the area.