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Case Study Write-up: Southwest Airlines


Question one
To ensure sustained success in the ever-competitive air travel industry, the Southwest
Airlines has initiated different promotion campaigns that aim at increasing the customer base,
as well as retaining the existing customers. The promotional mix of the company comprises
sales promotion, advertising, and public relation programs.
The integrated marketing communications of Southwest Airlines has various promotion
elements. A promotion seeks to send the companys message to people through development
of an interaction platform. In order to develop a rapport between the airline employees and
the customers, the company has nurtured a humor culture. The airline encourages its
employee to love fun, be free with the customers and adopt a servants heart. Employees of
the Airline maintain its customer allegiance by joking with customers. This serves as an
effective promotional element in the companys marketing campaign. When customers are
treated well, they develop a lasting touch with the company that leads to the companys
success. The company can earn success by placing customers at the center around which all
other operations of the company revolve. Open communication also helps employees to get
complaints from customers and act on them thereby improving the service delivery of the
company.
A promotion is distinguished by its uniqueness from others and is designed in a way that it
can remain in the customers mind. Southwest Airlines reaches its customer through the social
media. The company remains in touch with the customers in social sites like Facebook,
Twitter and LinkedIn. A promotion seeks to reach people using all the possible available
avenues. As a way of company differentiation, Southwest Airlines has adopted a Ding
sound. The sound is used in the companys adverts and inside its planes before the captains
make any announcement.
Furthermore, the promotion is characterized by giving customers extra benefit that they do
not get in the normal business operations. Southwest Airlines allows its customers to take
with them pets at the cost of $75 each way through its P.A.W.S. program. This is against
the policy of many airlines that do not allow pets on their airplanes. Southwest Airlines also
allows customers to take two bags free per customer. Many airlines charge about $25 per
checked bag. Using this approach, the company has sustained a marketing campaign to
encourage the customers to take bags with them.
Finally, a marketing promotion has a long lasting impact in both the lives and minds of the
communities, which it serves. Southwest Airlines has endeavored to reach the community
through its Adopt a Pilot campaign. The campaign entails giving out its pilot to the
classrooms across the country for a four-week period. The pilots maintain communication
with students while in their flights. Through this initiative, pilots help to publicize the
company and to enable the company to reach both parents and students.

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Question Two
Contemporary marketing strategies have shifted focus from service or product orientation to
the customer orientation. The success of a business depends on the degree to which it meets
the needs of the customers. One way of understanding customers needs is by encouraging
them to talk. When customers give their complaint, the company is given a chance to
improve its services. The best way of encouraging customers to speak out is by creating an
ambient environment between the employees and the customers.
By engaging in the entertainment performance with the customers, the Southwest flight crews
create a good environment where they can reach up to the customers and understand their
preferences and needs. The aim of the promotional campaign is to inform the customer that
they can get their needs fulfilled in the best way by the company that is conducting the
campaign. As such, Southwest Airlines stands a good chance of designing its marketing
campaign by first understanding and identifying the needs of customers that it serves.
In addition, joking with the customers helps to give the customers as sense of belonging and
attachment to the company. This goes a long way in creating strong allegiance to the
company. When talking to customers, employees develop friendship, which helps to break
the gap that exists between the company and the customers. Customers tend to trust a
company that is friendly, and that seems to care about them. Earning trust from customers is
very important in the promotion campaign. When the customers, have trust in the employees
they tend to consider their services more, and they look for the companys advertisement in
the search for the new products. This lowers the cost that the company has to incur in trying
to attract them. Therefore, by developing a rapport with the customers, Southwest Airlines
does not only cut the advertising cost but also it gives its customers an attachment to the
company.
Besides, Southwest Airlines has established itself as a low cost airline company. Reaching
out to the low-end market requires the company to let the customers know and feel that they
are valued. One way of showing customers that they are valued is by engaging them on the
companys strategies and soliciting for their opinions and thoughts. The flight crews show
that the company values its customers by entertaining them. When customers feel that the
company values them, they are likely to be loyal to it. Southwest has been able to remain
profitable and even perform well even during the global financial crisis. This is attributed to
loyalty that customers accord to the company and the manner in which it has positioned itself
as a people-oriented company.
Lastly, the companys reputation is determined by the manner in which it handles its
customers. The major aims of the marketing promotion activities are both to inform
customers about various services or products as well as maintaining the companys image.
The flight crews help to maintain the reputation of the Southwest Airlines all-high by joking
with the customers and having time for them. When a company has a good reputation, it
becomes very easy to launch a promotion campaign because customers consider and believe
it is issued in good faith. Therefore, Southwest Airlines reputation, which is vital in the
promotion aspect, has been developed through customer entertainment and engagement.

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Question Three
Southwest Airlines has been able to position itself as the company that concentrates in
catering for the peoples needs. The company concentrates on simple factors, which form a
very important part to passengers during traveling. This helps to reach customers in a way
that other advertisements fail to do. For example, many advertisements concentrate on the
comfort and safety that customers get during flight. Given that most airlines charge $25 for
every bag that, the customer carries; Southwest Airlines uses this as the central theme for its
advertising campaign. This is a good approach because the adverts should mainly be
concerned at showing how the company solves challenges that customers face.
The advertising campaign of Southwest Airlines helps to show that the company cares for its
customers. Many airlines discourage carrying numerous baggage and pets during flights.
Southwest Airlines seeks to reach customers who have been frustrated by paying for their
baggage. Southwest Airlines reaches its target easily through concentrating on one, source of
the customers frustrations. Most people are concerned with the ways in which they can get
good services for their money. Most people also usually travel for vacation, for job purposes,
visiting and for other reasons. When making these types of visits, travelers have a high
probability of been out of home for more than one week. This requires them to carry heavy
baggage. Therefore, any advertisement that promises to cater for the baggage will be very
appealing to the customers.
Moreover, Southwest Airlines advertisements position the company as a company that treats
its customers the way in which they are supposed to be treated through its simple concept like
Grab Your Bag. Its On! The company questions the manner in which other airlines treat
their customers. The company also compares the price charged by other airlines on bags and
its policy taking the first two bags free of charge. Terming charging of the bags as
ridiculous, the company places itself as friendlier to the customers. It intends to prove to
the customers that it has the best services than other airlines. This promotion strategy places
the company in the minds of customers as an understanding company and the one that
facilitate smooth traveling.
Further, the marketing strategy of Southwest Airlines shows its impact on the society. The
company has initiated a program, that is, the Adopt a Pilot program, which is simple, but
has a long run impact on the target group. The company has focused on showing its positive
impact to the society. Through this initiative, it is able to place itself as a company that cares
for the communitys welfare. The company succeeds in showing that it serves its customers
and the community by participating in such initiatives as offering its pilots to volunteer in
classrooms.
Finally, the main theme of Southwest Airlines Co. is to show that it has a place in the lives of
its customers. The company aims at reaching the target market by positioning itself as a
company that has a different business philosophy from other airline companies. Its business
philosophy is to be seen as caring and very considerate to the welfare of the society. The
advertising also aims at including everybody in society including the old and the young. The
company reaches the old in the society through low cost and the young through the social
sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

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Recommendations and Conclusion
Southwest Airlines Co. is the largest low carrier airline company in the country. The
company has been able to overcome stiff and fierce competition that characterizes the airline
industry in the United States through business specialization. The company focuses on the
low-end market in the luxurious air travel industry. The company has concentrated in offering
low cost air traveling services. As a result, this has made it a preference of many low and
medium income earners in the regions that it serves. The company has also tried to build its
image through corporate social responsibility initiatives such as the Adopt a Pilot program.
Southwest Airlines developed the aforementioned program in cooperation with the U.S.
Department of Education and the Smithsonian Institution of National Air and Space Museum
(PRNewswire).
Southwest Airlines currently flies only one type of airplanes; that is, the Boeing 737 series.
This helps the company to save on cost in terms of mechanic training, spare-parts inventories
and other maintenance issues. This also enables the company to fly its aircrafts in all the
regions without reconfiguration and costly disruptions. Most of the Southwest airplanes fly
from point to point non-stop. This is very convenient to many customers as it saves on time.
Moreover, flights rates of Southwest Airlines used to be at 78% on time performance, which
is a little above the industrial average and some of its competitors (Hunter). However, its ontime performance has recently slumped as it has started serving busier airports like Chicago
Midway, and it has also expanded to more air traffic-jammed routes like New York and its
planes have become fuller (Karp).
Additionally, Southwest Airlines offers better, simple, and basic services. For example, their
airplanes never have assigned sits like other airlines. The sits are also uniform for every
passenger. This means that passengers know exactly what they will get before they book the
aircraft. This helps the company to, unload the flight, restock the plane, clean and board
another flight. Another competitive advantage of Southwest Airlines is its avoidance of
convoluted fare structure. Though, Southwest Airlines does not charge for non-refundable
ticket changes, fuel surges price, and standby ticket charge, it has begun to charge no-show
fees on its cheapest fares, that is, the Wanna Get Away tickets unless changes are made 10
minutes prior to departure (Mutzabaugh).
Although in 2013, Southwest Airlines retained its top ranking for having the lowest rate of
consumer complaints, with 0.34 complaints per 100,000 passengers, compared with an
industry rate of more than triple that number (Hunter), Southwest Airlines has also received
complaints owing to its lineup process. Customers are required to line up as they are been
served. The company can adopt a non-queuing method that is adopted by other major airlines.
The company should implement a new domestic reservations system(Nicas), which
allocates numbers to customers and allows one customer to be served at a time, as its
domestic digital system is somewhat antiquated.
Furthermore, Southwest airline kicked off a new campaign switching its longtime humorous
approach with a new theme Welcome aboard (Elliot). Since its vital for Southwest
Airlines to leverage a brand truth to distinguish itself from the competition, the company is
always looking to reach apogee. The campaign emphasizes its products, loyal customers and
employees that placed the company on a different map.

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Besides, Southwest Airlines sometimes uses unfair commercials. The message negatively
frames other airlines. It would be recommendable for Southwest Airlines to concentrate on its
strength without giving negative publicity to other companies. For example, the company can
state that it is charging no money for the first two bags without necessarily drawing
comparison with other competitors.
Further, Southwest Airlines spends a great deal of money on its advertisements. Most of the
adverts of the company are run on television. Its quite expensive. A report from Social
Media Today notes that social media is one of the strongest marketing platforms that can be
utilized and which comes at a very low cost (Dragon). It would be recommendable for the
company to concentrate more on social media for its advertising purposes.
In the end, Southwest Airlines has faced several lawsuits, which destroys its image
(Marzulli). This has attracted a great deal of negative publicity to the company especially in
the social media. In order to continue building its name, the company should uphold utmost
business ethics in its advertisements and operations. Ethical values form a crucial part of
success in business; it is the ethical values, which determine the success that a company will
have.

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Works Cited
Dragon, Ric. "The Big Brand Theory: Social Business and Fun with Southwest Airlines."
Social Media Today. Social Media Today, 5 Nov. 2013. Web. 10 Apr. 2014.
<http://socialmediatoday.com/big-brand-theory/southwest-airlines-social-businessand-fun>.
Elliot, Stuart. "Southwest Broadens Approach in New Campaign." The New York Times. The
New York Times, 19 Mar. 2013. Web. 10 Apr. 2014.
<http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/19/southwest-broadens-approachin-new-advertising-effort/>.
Hunter, Marnie. "And the Best Airline in the U.S. Is ..." CNN Travel. CNN, 7 Apr. 2014.
Web. 8 Apr. 2014.
<http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/07/travel/airline-quality-ratings/>.
Karp, Gregory. "Southwest Airlines Struggles with Being on Time. Long-standing Consumer
Favorite, Dominant Carrier at Midway, Adjusting Schedule in Bid to Reduce Delays."
Chicago Tribune Business. Chicago Tribune, 26` Dec. 2013. Web. 8 Apr. 2014.
<http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-12-26/business/ct-biz-1226-southwestdelays-20131226_1_southwest-airlines-spirit-airlines-chicago-midway-internationalairport>.
Marzulli, John. "First Lawsuit Being Filed against Southwest Airlines after Rough Landing."
New York Daily News. New York Daily News, 1 Aug. 2013. Web. 12 Apr. 2014.
<http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/lawsuit-arises-southwest-rough-landingarticle-1.1415309>.
Mutzabaugh, Ben. "Southwest Airlines Begins Enforcing 'no-show' Policy." USA Today.
USA Today, 17 Sept. 2013. Web. 8 Apr. 2014.
<http://www.usatoday.com/story/todayinthesky/2013/09/17/southwest-airlines-

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begins-enforcing-no-show-policy/2824837/>.
Nicas, Jack. "As Southwest Goes Mainstream, Will Direct Flights Go Extinct?" The Wall
Street Journal. The Wall Street Journal, 2 Apr. 2014. Web. 10 Apr. 2014.
<http://blogs.wsj.com/corporate-intelligence/2014/04/02/as-southwest-goesmainstream-will-direct-flights-go-extinct/?KEYWORDS=southwest+airlines>.

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