Marketing Programs : American Airlines

Currently, Southwest Airlines Company achieved the higher net income in 2013 and widened its field of operations by the integration with AirTran Airways. It seems Southwest’s business is going pretty well. However, there are numerous problems from competitors who will cause negative effect on Southwest’ market leader position and market shares. This marketing plan will make a careful analysis of the current activities of Southwest Airlines Company, and then this marketing plan will create how the company develop Southwest’s market leadership and higher market shares within 5years.

According to MBASkool (2015), a SWOT analysis has been completed to show some of the opportunities and threats that American Airlines faces. They are listed as follows:

The target demographic for Southwest is very broad. The fact the airline has a brand that appeals to price-conscious travelers who do not mind the airline’s no-frills philosophy means it attracts lots of small business owners, young adults, middle-class families, and those who are traveling a short distance. Southwest operates a simplified airline to keep costs down. It only operates one type of aircraft, and its no-frills plan includes no assigned seats or class seating, no meals, and no onboard movies. The company has a strong emphasis on customer service and a differentiation strategy to keep customers happy and loyal. When hiring for customer service positions within the organization, Southwest focuses on attitudes rather than skills and encourages peer hiring. This strategy helps the company identify those who fit the organizational culture and who are most likely to further the company’s philosophy of

United Airlines and Continental Airlines, two major airlines companies, agreed to a merger that would create the world’s largest airline. Such important deal has a lot of problems to be dealt with, from technical, for example how to put the companies databases together, to more fundamental, like how the company should be ruled.

The economy class is targeted at the leisure travel segment and the low cost business travel segment.

Southwest Airlines is globalizing their company in order to reach a bigger market, and become competition for other companies. Southwest Airlines has already conquered the domestic market beating American Airlines, United, and Delta according to Fortune. Access to a new market is what motivated Southwest to globalize, they are expanding to the south of North America, with their new assets found in their acquired airline AirTran Airways (LeBeau, 4) . Southwest Airlines has brought low rates and a great experience to the domestic market, which was warmly received, they now plan to dip into global market to bring better service to all.

Intangibility means the incapacity to assess the value gained from using an intangible service where it can’t be seen, touched, tasted, smelled or stored (Palmer, 2000). In intangibility there are two different aspects that could be looked into which is the search quality and experience. The search quality is when they observe the product without experiencing it at first hand. In reality they would know what they would want to rent like for example kayaks, canoes or a motorboat by only looking at it but have not experienced it yet. The experience is when the customer has rented the tangible product and has had an experience using it while being able to assess whether it is satisfactory or not. Once the service rented is satisfactory, the customers would tend to return to the same place as they would have confidence on the service obtained. Services are harder to market to potential customers compared to goods as there is no physical evidence to showcase. This is where the advertisements, brochures and customers word of mouth play a big role. The advertisements and brochures has to be crystal clear and direct to capture the attention of potential customers, giving them an idea of the services that might be purchased, which in this case is rental of various boats.

American airline industry is steadily growing at an extremely strong rate. This growth comes with a number economic and social advantage. This contributes a great deal to the international inventory. The US airline industry is a major economic aspect in both the outcome on other related industries like tourism and manufacturing of aircraft and its own terms of operation. The airline industry is receiving massive media attention unlike other industries through participating and making of government policies. As Hoffman and Bateson (2011) show the major competitors include Southwest Airlines, Delta Airline, and United Airline.

American Airlines is looking to expand its market to more wealthy consumers by offering an excusive line of aircraft consisting mostly of first class and business type seating. This new model will be labeled under the title “Elite” and would market routes to and from major city hubs during heavy business traveling hours. American Airlines will position this service as the, “Black Jet” since that would be the standout feature of the aircraft. American can take advantage of its existing market base along with its frequent fliers to sell the experience of a flight experience beyond maximizing passengers. The target motto would be a “flight redefined.” American Airlines Elite would target business, first class, and frequent flying travelers.

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

• Standards gap – This indicates the difference between the service provider’s perception of the customer’s expectations and the customer service standards it set.

Best practices are techniques or methods that lead to better results and improvements in things such as ethics teamwork motivation or other things that keep a business going smoothly. These practices utilize all the knowledge and technology advances that one has to conquer success in the given field. The term of “Best Practices” is used often times in healthcare education systems project management as well as government administration and several other organizations. These things make certain businesses become the best in class or the ideal for its category. Examples of best practices are but are not limited to things that deal with price, employee perks or how happy the employee is, motivation,

The marketing concept rests on four pillars:  target market, customer needs, integrated marketing and profitability.

It has announced that 2011-2012 was a 24th consecutive year of profit for the Emirates Airline and the group. At present, the airline covers 72 countries with 122 destinations and has around 190 aircraft, while it network is escalating continuously. More than 1,200 flights leave to destinations into six continents.

Qns: Discuss the 4 major characteristics of services and the marketing strategies available for the service organization.