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- Place/Distribution strategy
- Promotion strategy
| CRITICAL ANALYSIS
This section talks about the marketing strategies of and practices of southwest airlines which made a great airlines business pushing productivity and service excellence. It also mentions about the distinctiveness of the airline from other competitor i.e. JetBlue. Southwest airlines positions itself as the only short haul, frequent, low-cost carrier airline. The low fares states the special attribute about the brand which in turn is its value proposition. It basically targets those segments which demands for short haul direct flights with the lowest air fare in the market. Their fare is always reliable and constant throughout all demand variability making them the brand which sticks to its positioning and the goal of being the low cost airline. The airline majorly targets business travelers mainly between the age of 30-49 and vacationers who are basically not willing to pay much, are price sensitive and do not expect luxurious facilities. The airline is a moderate one, it does not offer assigned seats, no food and just a pack of snacks, no luggage transfers to another airlines but at the same it takes care of its positioning, with the low air fare it offers two free check-in baggage which no other US domestic airline compromises (‘Bags fly free’ marketing strategy). Not assigning the seats helps in one manner, if an airplane is switched with another Boeing 737 with not the same assignment of seats, they do not need to worry about it since the passengers can grab a seat wherever they want thus not needing to extend time due to the ruckus for the airplane to stay at the airport which would lead to an extra fee charged to the company because at the end of the day, it needs to manage its cost too. About the marketing mix, the product offered by southwest comprises of short haul direct flights within US, a no frills airline with no inflight entertainment, basically offering lowest air-fare. Comparing to the other airlines all around the world offering magnificent airport lounge services, flier programs showing the legacy of the brand and charging a fee for baggage, this airline provides complimentary baggage which helps it positioning itself. The product also focuses on the courteous approach of the staff with the ‘always say yes’ attitude creating memories for families and exhibiting a stress-free environment. The pricing strategy of the brand focuses on presenting itself as a low cost airline, this positions it in such a way that they keep their air fares for the lowest price in the market. The airline also stresses on ‘no fee’ attitude which offers no or negligible fee for last moment changes in the plans of the traveler and its focus on free baggage. The airline focuses on cost leadership and dynamic pricing, where the price offered varies with occasion of travel but at the same time makes sure the price offered is lowest of all competitors. Place/Distribution strategy the airlines focusses on minimum dependency over the third party for booking tickets. This helps in controlling the cost and price since both of them increase via GDS systems and third party bookings. The airline has its presence in over 41 states in US, Central America and Mexico. Social Media is the main Hub for Southwest Promotion strategy. The airline having an advantage of being a low fare provider never lies behind in advertising, it comes up with campaigns such as ‘grab your bag, its on!’ over the television. It uses social media to advertise its latest offers, always increasing the passenger traffic. With positioning itself, it focuses on few core competencies for the same that empower it to have such fares. it has the quickest turnaround time which reduces the airport charges (just 25 minutes), short haul flights with point to point link, only Boeing 737 airplanes for low maintenance cost, the brand believes in courteous customer service instead of offering other facilities such as flight entertainment, no business and premium fares. JetBlue is a major competitor of Southwest airlines, both being low-cost carriers. JetBlue positions itself as the server of ‘undeserved customers’ as it terms them, those who are looking for better facilities and features in a flight at a low price which the other low cost airlines are unable to provide. The airline targets families, chiefly men and women of age 45-64. It targets high class people even though they offer low cost tickets believing that they it makes no logic paying more for an air ticket when the airline can provide a similar extravagance at less price. The product offered by the airline is low air fare flights with great inflight and airport entertainment facilities at a reasonable cost. The price offered by JetBlue is certainly higher than Southwest even though both tend to be low cost carriers, agreeing to the fact that JetBlue offers luxury facilities at a lower price. Also, unlike Southwest this airline does not allow complimentary check-in baggage and requires a fee. For promotion, JetBlue engages itself in programs, celebrity sponsorships to attract families and to strengthen them to go on a vacation. At the same time, Southwest spends less on promotion the way JetBlue does since it focusses on maintaining the revenue levels being the lowest fare carrier. The presence of JetBlue and Southwest is nearly the same both concentrating on similar US states, the Caribbean and Mexico. Given Below is the perceptual mapping for Southwest and its Competitors. Perceptual map of Price versus Customer satisfaction: Southwest airlines is a more customer oriented brand, it focusses on ‘never say no’ attitude and believes in providing courteous service to the business travellers and creating memories for the vacationers, this leads to high satisfaction levels amongst the travellers. Whereas, JetBlue is a great Customer oriented provider too but it has not been able to match the standards of southwest, the staff friendliness and courtesy, also, the travellers pay more for JetBlue and the brand focuses on more on inflight entertainment and facilities. Perceptual map of Competitive edge versus Operating efficiency: Not having many other criteria to focus on, southwest being a clear-headed airlines is able to carry day-to-day operations in an efficient manner. Reports tend to say that parameters such as delays in flight, convenience etc. are used to judge the efficiency and southwest has a better record for the same than JetBlue which has issues with baggage and On-time arrivals and departure. The above report shows that the growth of JetBlue is more than that of southwest but southwest being an established brand with clear positioning earned higher profit. Download 80.8 Kb. Share with your friends:
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