The Southwest Airlines brand is that of a low fare carrier with the highest level of customer
Question:
The Southwest Airlines brand is that of a low fare carrier with the highest level of customer service ¾ and with fun added into the flying experience. Southwest Airlines strives to provide its customers with a total product experience that includes: check-in, boarding, flying, and baggage claim experiences. In providing this total product experience, the airline desires to fully meet the needs, wants, and desires of its customers. Southwest regularly surveys its customers regarding all components of the product experience in order to foster continuous improvement. Southwest also conducts extensive quantitative and qualitative research to better understand customers’ needs, as well as to explore possible product experiences that the company might offer in the future. Southwest operates on the premise that having new products is what makes a company successful over time. Thus, while maintaining its commitment to low fares, excellent customer service, and fun, Southwest seeks to identify product experiences that its different market segments would like to have. The company then builds those experiences into the ticket price structure rather than charging customers with numerous add-ons. Taking this approach enables Southwest Airlines to better tailor its total product experience to the wants, needs, and desires of its different market segments.
Southwest Airlines, a consistently profitable airline, describes itself as a low- fare carrier with the highest level of customer service and with fun added to the airline. From a marketing perspective this statement could be interpreted as evidence of supporting one of the following observations more than the other three. Which one of the following observations is best described by this statement?
a. Marketing at Southwest Airlines is concerned only with keeping customers happy.
b. Marketing at Southwest Airlines is about generating profit.
c. Marketing at Southwest Airlines focuses primarily on serving customers who cannot afford high-priced tickets.
d. Marketing is a symbiotic exchange between Southwest Airlines and its customers.
Southwest Airlines hires people who are fun-loving and outgoing, who enjoy interacting with other people because putting fun into air travel is an essential ingredient of the company's culture. From a marketing perspective, this is an example of __________.
a. The philosophy that employees will be willing to accept lower wages if they have fun at work.
b. The philosophy that the marketing orientation should permeate the organization, thereby making every employee responsible for customer satisfaction.
c. The philosophy that when interpersonal relations at work are more amiable, everything will run more smoothly.
d. The philosophy that an organization's culture is the primary determinant of its marketing plan.