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Southwest airlines marketing case study
The role of marketing in public relations
Southwest airlines marketing case study
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1. Describe the various promotion elements that Southwest Airlines uses in its integrated marketing communications.
Southwest Airlines has effectively used a variety of promotional elements in its integrated marketing communications, making it one of America’s largest airlines with 3,300 flights a day to 72 domestic cities. Southwest Airlines has used all four possible elements of the promotion mix: advertising, public relations, personal selling, and sales promotion, but has focused primarily on advertising and public relations to add value to the product offered to customers. Its focus on advertising and public relations is directly related to its large size and it’s nationwide reach. Also, advertising and public relations are the most cost-efficient methods of promotion, and an airline as large as Southwest is forced to have promotional elements that benefit from economies of scale.
Advertising: As one of the largest domestic airlines, Southwest Airlines has an enormous advertising budget to sustain its presence and increase its market share through focusing on the benefits of flying Southwest over its competitors. Southwest recognizes that flying is no longer a pleasurable experience for many customers, even on Southwest, historically a budget airline. Even though Southwest is often regarded as a no-frills airline, it still attempts to build goodwill from its customers based on its advertising. Of the $249 million it spent on advertising in 2011, Southwest Airlines is unique in that it does not sell additional ad space on the exterior of its aircraft. Many domestic airlines have begun selling aircraft exterior space as a way to increase revenue, but Southwest Airlines insists that it wants to keep its product and advertisi...
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...dentity as a budget-friendly airline that still has a human side – fun, caring, and conscientious – otherwise, it may fall onto the same ills of the rest of the airline industry.
Works Cited
Carey, Susan, and Jack Nicas. "United Continental, Southwest Report Higher Profits." The Wall Street Journal [New York] 23 Jan. 2014: n. pag. Web. 12 Apr. 2014.
Nicas, Jack, and Susan Carey. "Southwest Airlines, Once a Brassy Upstart, Is Showing Its Age." The Wall Street Journal [New York] 1 Apr. 2014: n. pag. Web. 12 Apr. 2014.
Nicas, Jack "As Southwest Goes Mainstream, Will Direct Flights Go Extinct?" The Wall Street
Journal [New York] n.d.: n. pag. 2 Apr. 2014. Web. 12 Apr. 2014.
"Southwest Airlines" Hoovers.com. Hoover’s Inc, 12 Apr. 2014. Web. 12 Apr. 2014.
“Southwest Airlines ” Standard & Poor’s 12 Apr 2014: n. pag. S&P NetAdvantage. Web. 12 Apr. 2014.
Spirit makes our fares so low because they know that draws in the attention of the consumer. Once they have your attention you’re shocked at the price so you go for the deal, oblivious to the fact that you walked into their trap. Southwest’s symbol for shareholders is LUV while Spirit’s is SAVE. They are not the only companies to start to enter into these paths. Hotels, rental cars and cruises are all faced with the same choice to embrace the LUV or the thriftiness with SAVE (Elliot
The U & T Labor Relations Consulting Firm works together with clients to provide expert, professional advice to solve labor relation and human resource problems within an organization. U & T strives to cater to meet the specific needs of the targeted company. Our consultants work one on one with the clients to identify the key needs of the organization, prescribe labor relations interventions, and explain to our clients how to implement them. Labor costs can charge a company over half of what their operating expenses are for the financial year. We help our clients retain a competitive advantage by helping to reduce labor costs while increasing productivity within a company. Any company can become successful when labor costs are managed. U & T provides services that include analyzing labor costs, administer labor relations training, advisement and administering of collective bargaining agreements, and mediation.
Mason, K. J. (2001). "Marketing low-cost airline services to business travellers." Journal of Air Transport Management 7(2): 103-109.
Despite its growing domestic network, the company didn’t offer international flights until July 2014, and even then, it only offered limited destinations (“Southwest Corporate Fact Sheet,” n.d.). Furthermore, the company’s reliance on a single aircraft is cause for concern. Southwest Airlines was also weak with technology utilization initially but has since turned this into an asset, as described later. Finally, the company has a limitation with providing customer perks due to its low-cost operations (Ross & Beath,
It is evident that the greatest strength that Southwest Airlines has is its financial stability. As known in the US airline industry, Southwest is one of those airlines who are consistently earning profits despite the problems the industry is facing. With such stability, the corporation is able to make decisions and adjust policies, which other heavily burdened airlines may not be able to imitate.
Since 1987, when the Department of Transportation began tracking Customer Satisfaction statistics, Southwest has consistently led the entire airline industry with the lowest ratio of complaints per passengers boarded. Many airlines have tried to copy Southwest’s business model, and the Culture of Southwest is admired and emulated by corporations and organizations in all walks of life. Always the innovator, Southwest pioneered Senior Fares, a same-day air freight delivery service, and Ticketless Travel. Southwest led the way with the first airline web page—southwest.com, DING, the first-ever direct link to Customer’s computer desktops that delivers live updates on the hottest deals, and the first airline corporate blog, Nuts About Southwest. Our Share the Spirit community programs make Southwest the hometown airline of every city we serve.
The marketing approach of Southwest Airlines is built upon their strong business model. They have successfully managed to target two specific market segments of the airline industry while remaining profitable. Their strategy is simple, to offer frequent non-stop flights with the lowest costs which appeal to both the business and budget travelers. By segmenting their target audience to specific demographics and ticket pricing, passengers know exactly what they are getting for the price they pay.
Southwest has done what others in its industry seem to struggle to do, which is to make flying fun. This has been the cornerstone for how the Southwest operates, thinks, and plans. Many of the policies, procedures, and practices Southwest has used are aimed directly at providing patrons with a unique, fun, and enjoyable experience. This value and the effort Southwest has made to place customers at the forefront of its plans and strategy, has paid off as the company is one of the most popular and well-respected in the transportation industry.
Southwest Airlines is operating in an industry that is struggling to make profits. The slowing economic growth and raising fuel costs are lowering earnings while revenues remain the same. The macroeconomic factors affecting the airline industry include unemployment, the economic growth in the United States, and inflation. With low economic growth, consumers are finding luxury items more difficult to purchase and airline tickets for vacations fall into that category. Unemployment contributes to a lack of vacation travelers since individuals who are not employed do not have extra money for vacation or airline tickets. Inflation also causes operating costs of the airlines to be higher cutting into profits.
Southwest Airlines strategy of focusing on short haul passenger and providing rates as low as one third of their competitors, they have seen tremendous growth in the last decade. Market share for top city pairs on Southwest's schedule has reached 80% to 85%. Maintaining the largest fleet of 737's in the world and utilizing point-to-point versus the hub-and-spoke method of connection philosophy allowed Southwest to provide their service to more people at a lower cost. By putting the employee first, Southwest has found the key to success in the airline business. A happy worker is a more productive one as well as a better service provider. Southwest will continue to reserve their growth in the future by entering select markets only after careful market research.
The mission of Southwest Airlines is a dedication to the highest quality of service delivered with warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and company spirit (Mission…, 2007). The company also provides opportunities for learning and personal growth to each employee. Creativity and innovation is very important and highly encouraged, for the purposes of improving effectiveness. Employees are to be provided the same concern, respect, and caring attitude within the organization that the employees are expected to share with the customer. Southwest Airlines was initially created to be a low-cost alternative to high price of intra-Texas air carriers (Freiberg, 1996). Southwest’s fares were originally supposed to compete with car and bus transportation. It was a little airline, and it would withstand the test of time. As a discount, no-frills airline, it would provide stiff competition for larger airlines. Their strategy was to operate at low cost, offering no food, no movies, no first class, and no reserved seats. They created their own market and provided increased turnaround times at the gate, by avoiding hub-and-spoke airports and opting for short-haul, direct flights. Through this market approach, Southwest has a majority of market share in the markets they serve.
Southwest has comprehensive strategy and they work with harmony. They are low cost airlines which make the customer feel like royalty. Southwest have a winning strategy is proven by their profit year after year even thought they had economy crisis. Since 1973 Southwest reported a profit each year even when they lost billions of dollars from the year 1980 to 2009 because of the low operating cost strategy, low fares and customer service. Since the start of Southwest they have stay faithful of keeping low cost across the industry. Their value in corporate culture reflected through their prices and customer service.
DuBois, S. (2012, February 17). The real threat facing the airlines - Fortune Management. Fortune Management Career Blog RSS. Retrieved April 29, 2014, from http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2012/02/17/the-real-threat-facing-the-airlines/
Karp, G. (2013, December 27). Southwest airlines has a surprising problem: delays and the worst on-time rates in U.S. The Washington Post. Retrieved February 3, 2014, from http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/southwest-airlines-has-a-surprising-problem-delays-and-the-worst-on-time-rates-in-us/2013/12/27/c5063230-6ea6-11e3-a523-fe73f0ff6b8d_story.html
It all started in 1971, when Rolling King and Herb Kelleher decided to challenge the existing rut of charging high prices for air travels. They considered the railways and roadways their competitors and decided to offer cheaper travel for smaller routes. The company was incorporated in 1967, apart from initial entry troubles, Southwest has been the only US airline to have earned profits since 1973. The eccentric company’s outlandish way of conducting themselves has been the sole reason for Southwest Airlines to succeed in a highly competitive and packed industry.