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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.
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.
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.
Another internal challenge for Southwest Airlines is the conflicting management style and business operation with AirTran. On top of that, the external challenges such as the increase of competitions and gas prices are some of issues f...
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,
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.
Even though Southwest offers no-frills, there is still a high degree of customer satisfaction that continuously builds customer loyalty for the company. As mentioned, Southwest offers low prices on their airplane tickets. Also, Southwest is renowned in the airline industry for its short turnaround time on arrivals and departures. And since people's biggest concern nowadays is money and time, having low price airline tickets to cater their traveling needs in a shorter period of time will surely satisfy them. Moreover, aside from the low prices offered, what attracts to customers is Southwest’s way in dealing with them. The employees of the airline treat their customers well and really listen to their needs.
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.
Since CEO Gary Kelly took the reins of the company back in 2004, Southwest has maintained and enhanced the company’s ability to offer customers a great flying experience for low fares. This effort start early in Mr. Kelly’s tenure when he identified four success factors
There are few things that are impressive about Southwest Airlines first one is how they treat the employees. For Southwest Airlines employees are first and customers are second. If the employees are treated well that will bring in happy customers. Next is that Southwest is not only with their low prices but is able to create a competitive advantage by offering a fun and humorous experience when flying. Finally another impressive fact is when Herb Kelleher’s retire from CEO position yet remained a Southwest employee till July 2014. Even after the retirement he was still active with the Southwest Airlines that reflected his enthusiasm and dedication for the
Mason, K. J. (2001). "Marketing low-cost airline services to business travellers." Journal of Air Transport Management 7(2): 103-109.
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.
Freiberg, K., & Freiberg, J. (1996). Nuts! Southwest Airlines’ Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success. Austin: Bard Press.
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/