South west Airlines - A Service Marketing perspective

1. SERVICES MARKETING
SUBMITTED BY
Gowtham C R
Prem Raveendran
Swagath Narayan
Vishnu R S

2. THE COMPANY
Founded in 1971 by Rollin King and Herb Kelleher.
Gary Kelly is Chairman of the Board, President & CEO
 Headquartered in Dallas, Texas
35,000+ Employees, 87% unionized
Operate more than 3300 flights a day
 $10.5 Billion Revenue/year
 The United States most successful
- Low-fare, high frequency
- point-to-point carrier
Business Sectors
- Passenger
- Freight

3. MISSION

4. 1.PRODUCT
Core Service:
being
transported fast,
safely and
comfortably
Website
Baggage
handling
Reservation
system
On -board
food
On –board
flight assistant
On-board
entertainment
Airport
desk
Call
Centre
Airport
Lounge
Post flight
customer
care

5. OTHER
PRODUCTS
Allows members to
get direct access to
the front of ticket
counter and security
lanes
No fee on
changing the
flight
Low cost option
allows customers
to obtain better
boarding position
Get priority lane
access and priority
boarding
First and second
checked Bags Fly
Free
At minimum
charge provides
satellite based
internet service

6. 2.PRICE
• Branded themselves as low fare-airline
• Charge the lowest possible fare
• Low operating cost
• Flies only one type of fleet Boeing 737 so saves
money
• No meals – no frills, snacks only
• No connection with other airlines
• No baggage transfers to other airline
• Small airports, back gates

8. • Southwest Airlines uses third-degree price
discrimination to fill the plane with
travelers in the most profitable way
• The firm identifies different consumer
groups, in the market, each with a different
demand curve.
 Southwest Airlines recognizes that any
given flights has different types of
travelers
 Business travelers vs. Vacation travelers
• To maximize profit, the firm sets a price for
each group by equating marginal revenue
and marginal cost.
• Depending on the price elasticity of
demand for tickets
 Charge a higher price for business
travelers who have relatively inelastic
demands and vice versa

9. 3.PLACE
Southwest airline focuses only a niche
segment i.e. occasional travelers.
Therefore instead of competing with
large player with international routs
the focus mostly on “point to point”
short trips.
Some examples are:
• Flight to Atlanta
– Chicago to Atlanta
• Flight to Washington
– Orlando to Washington
• Flight to Burbank
– Las Vegas to Burbank

10. Map - Destinations
Flight to Chicago
Atlanta to Chicago
Las Vegas to Chicago
 Flight to Dallas
Houston to Dallas
 Flight to Denver
Las Vegas to Denver
Phoenix to Denver
Flight to Houston
Dallas to Houston

11. 4.PROMOTION
 Direct marketing
- Via Internet – 84% of tickets in 2010 sold
through Southwest.com
- Phone
- No travel agents
 Online booking tool for business travelers
- SWABIZ.com – allows business travelers to
plan, purchase, and track business travel through
their companies web page.
 Online marketing
 Mobile marketing
 AD campaigns

12. Rapid Reward
program to earn free
air ticket
Provide
customizable
leisure vacation
packages
Discount on air fare
for 10 or more
people traveling
together
ONLINE ADS

13. AD
CAMPAIGNS

14. MOBILE
MARKETING
• Book, change or cancel air
reservations
• Book or cancel rental car
reservations
• Check in for your flight
• Mobile boarding pass
• View travel and weather
alerts
• Access helpful airport
information

15. AD SLOGANS
 “Just Plane Smart”
 “The Low Fare Airline”
 “Symbol of Freedom”
 “Wanna get away?”
 “Grab your bag, It's On!”
 “Fees don’t fly with us”
 "There is Somebody Else Up
There Who Loves You"

16. 5.PEOPLE
• More than 35000 employees
create unique southwest
culture.
• Committed to provide
employees an equal
opportunity for learning and
growth.
• Benefits to employees
include:-Profit sharing,
empowering employees to
take decision.
• For Southwest, safety of
customers and employees is
number one priority.

17.  Southwest most distinctive
organizational competency is its
ability to build and sustain
relationships through
Shared goals
Shared Knowledge
Mutual Respect
 Trust its employees and gives
them authority to do their jobs.
 Southwest Airlines has become a
powerful example of “The
power of servant” leadership
principles.

18. .
humor
• Work should be fun ...it can be play . . .
Enjoy it.
• Both at workplace and inside the plane
altruism
• Work is important ...don’t spoil with
seriousness.
• Welfare of people comes first
luv
• People are important...each one makes
a different impact.
• Employee and customer commitment

19. 6. PROCESS

20. Potential failure points
• Excessive waiting time
• Lost Luggage
• Poor in flight service
• Lack of information and
confusion
• Relaxing at airport
• After deplane service
What SW did to avoid that
• Opened express counters.
Low turnaround time of only
12 minutes
• Used RFID technology to
locate bags
• Provide Wi Fi and Free TV,
snacks. Interaction with
customers.
• All information available in
airport and also mobile phone
applets provided
• Plush leather seats provided
• Good service provided till
customer exits

21. 7.PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT
 Unlike other
airlines southwest
do not have seat
numbers. This
enables people to
take their seats
freely with out
much confusion.

22.  The environment
is joyful and the
employees greet
the customers
with joy. Even the
flight instruction
is either sung or
rapped instead of
just reading out.

23.  Free live TV - 13 live channels
and up to 75 television episodes
on-demand.
 Wi-Fi access only for $8 all day.
 Comfortable seats – light E
leather seats, more knee room
and better lumbar support.
 Snacks - Peanuts and pretzels
are always complimentary, as
well as an assorted list of non-
alcoholic beverages.

24. WHY FLY SOUTHWEST?
• Two words. Low Fares.
• We fly tons of places.
• Our Travel Experience:
Simple, Comfortable &
Convenient.
• You’ll earn points for
travel that can really take
you places.
• We’ll treat you like family.

25. THANK YOU