Promotional Activity and Pricing - Essay Example

The firm also offers amenities to its customers to meet their entertainment needs. In addition, Southwest Airlines serves its customers by providing Business Select, WIFI, Mobile Access, and Early Bird Check-In facilities. Southwest Airlines has designed special provisions for customers who are aged 65 and older, and extreme facilities are also offered to kids and disabled persons (Seniors: Southwest.com). The company has also arranged high-tech facilities for providing boarding passes. The customers can receive boarding passes from the Skycap Counter (situated in selected locations) and check luggage four hours before the scheduled departure. The competitive promotional packages include low costs and customers’ loyalty. Since Southwest Airlines avoids too chianuri facilities, it can cut down the passenger charges which in turn assist the company to achieve customers’ loyalty. The efficient managerial strategies of the company have assisted it to design a competitive promotional mix that effectively meets customer interests.

Wilbur L. Schramm proposed an original model of the communication process in 1954 which depicts the information flow in a system. The Scars model is just an extension of the Shannon-Weather transmission model of communication that proposes six elements of communication such as source, encoder, message, channel, decoder, and receiver. In addition to these elements, Schramm’s model suggests other two concepts such as feedback and field of experience. According to Schramm’s model (as cited in Scannell, 2007, p.210), encoding plays a crucial role in the communication process as it is the first step that converts the thought into the content. This model says that the information is of no use if the recipient is not able to decode what the speaker intends to convey. Hence, Schramm’s model stands on the strength of the principle that encoding and decoding are the two basic elements of a communications system since effective flow of information between two individuals is not possible without these two. Based on this model, one can explicitly say that Southwest Airlines has effectively established a communication system in its promotional mix. For instance, as the company deals with segment-focused operations, it can identify domestic needs and serve the local population well (Europe Low-cost). The domestic operations aid the company to avoid cultural barriers I the communication process; it enables the company to effectively practice its promotional mix by enshrining an effective flow of communication between customers and airlines management. In addition, the customer feedback collection process also contributes to effective information flow.

Like Southwest Airlines, many other air travel companies also offer additional services their customers. It is necessary to take range of things into account while setting prices for the various services provided by the airlines. It would be better to classify the product/service offers into two such as ordinary and luxury to effectively set prices for them. Ordinary products include snacks and other food items while satellite radio and TV facilities constitute luxury products. It is evident that aircraft passengers include low, middle, and upper-class individuals; therefore, airlines companies must meet the interests of every class of people while setting prices for products. Generally, low and middle-income groups tend to choose ordinary products; hence. Hence the airlines should fix lower prices for such products. In contrast, upper-class people like to choose luxury product offerings so that the company can charge higher prices for such offerings. For instance, JetBlue Airways Corporation does not charge for snacks as part of its pricing strategy (JetBlue: Airline information). At the same time, airline companies like JetBlue, Southwest, and Lufthansa charge comparatively higher prices for luxury product offerings.

In the case of Southwest Airlines, the company’s overall charge approach represents a low costs pricing strategy. The company has commenced its operations 30 years ago as a low-cost and no-frills airline. Although the company has grown to be a national airline, it still follows its basic cost structure, and this practice assists the airline to attract more and more passengers. As a part of its low-cost pricing strategy, the company has never allowed meals or reserved seats in advance. To preserve its basic low-cost structure, the company neither maintains several types of airplanes nor offers too many luxury facilities. The main intention of the company is to stay in high-density markets. The company management believes that this pricing strategy would contribute to competitiveness, superior profitability, and long-term sustainability. Modern customers wish to get quality services at lower costs and hence the company still practices its low-cost pricing strategy. Southwest Airlines deals with domestic passengers mainly to avoid additional costs involved in international operations. The airline follows some attractive free baggage allowance procedures that reflect its low-cost policy. The majority of the airlines' companies have increased their charges as a result of rising fuel costs and other related expenditures. Although Southwest Airlines has also increased its ticket charges from time to time, it seems that the company’s charge rate increase was comparatively low. When the September 11 terrorist attack raised crises, Southwest Airlines employees paid back a certain percentage of their salary to continue the company’s low-cost strategy. In short, the overall performance of the company gives great emphasis on maintaining its low-cost pricing strategy.