In 1994, Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou was 27 years old and on a business trip to the United States. During that trip he flew on a low-cost airline and stayed in a budget hotel for the first time. That experience gave him a simple idea. Why not use the same brand for both businesses?
Later that year, Stelios chose “easy” as the over-arching brand for this brand extension strategy. Until then, he had been using a shortened version of his own name, “Stel”. Had things turned out differently, easyJet might have been called Stelair.
Over thirty years later, easyJet.com remains the best-known easy brand, having carried more than 1.2 billion passengers since launch. The easy family has since grown to include well over 100 sub-brands across many consumer-facing sectors and geographies. More information can be found at www.easy.com.
To mark the 32-year anniversary, Stelios has released a three-minute video telling the story of how the easy brand began, how it grew, and what it stands for today.
Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou says:
“I consider myself fortunate to have had the opportunity to create this recurring income stream from the easy family of brands which I use every year to give back to society. Here is to the next 30 years of the easy family and to a lot more good work done by my foundation.”
Watch the updated video now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHyUyXnzg9Q