Marketing Southwest Airlines

MARKETING SOUTHWEST AIRLINES

Introduction

Gone were the days when companies used to be product-focused , utilizing salespeople to sell their products to the market without any specific goals in mind . The advent of marketing changed all this and has since revolutionized the manner of marketing certain products and services

This shall look into the marketing strategies Southwest Airlines is currently utilizing to gain a good market share amidst a long list of airline companies today

Southwest Airlines

Southwest Airlines was initially incorporated to serve three cities in Texas as Air

Southwest on March 15 , 1967 , by Rollin King and Herb Kelleher

Air Southwest changed its name to Southwest Airlines In early 1971 and the first flight was recorded on June 18 , 1971 . Over the years Southwest has added improved 737 variants but has stayed within the Boeing 737 family to reduce operating costs . Because this technique simplified training , maintenance , and ground operations , it revolutionized the industry 's approach to building aircraft fleets

In January 2005 Southwest put to rest its remaining 737-200 , the oldest type in its fleet . This event was highlighted with employees wearing pajamas for an early morning flight covering the original Dallas-San Antonio-Houston before returning to Dallas and called this "putting the -200s to bed

Marketing Strategies

Southwest is known for putting value to the most important people , the customers and the employees . The success of behind a company 's success is its people who understand the significant contribution of their company . Southwest believes that with unsatisfied employees may be translated to unsatisfied customers

The company is known for its distinct customer service philosophy Lovelock and Wirtz (2002 ,

. 58 ) made is clear that a good customer service spells a big difference in gaining a good number of customers

Southwest must see to it that despite the large number of airline companies that exist today , customers must continue to fly their airline . This is no easy task considering the challenge of trying to beat the other airlines who may offer lower fares or provide more valuable services

Flying on Southwest is quite different from that of most other U .S airlines such as that tickets are only available and may be purchased from the airline itself . They are not available through travel agents or through common online venues . The tickets may be bought over the phone or via online transactions at the company 's website

Another thing that sets the company aparts from other airline companies is that reservations can be changed at will without corresponding penalties . To an ordinary customer , this service means so much

There 's another way Southwest is doing to gain more customers . It offers Rapid Rewards where customers receive one credit per each one-way ticket ( HYPERLINK "http /www .airfleets .net /ageflotte /Southwest 20Airlines .htm " \o "http /www .airfleets .net /ageflotte /Southwest 20Airlines .htm http /www .airfleets .net /ageflotte /Southwest 20Airlines .htm . This program was eventually modified to provide a better offer to customers who frequently fly the airline company

In February 2006...