Service Marketing: Southwest Airlines Service Portfolio

Running head: SERVICE MARKETING
Service marketing
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Introduction
In the current business scenario, there are different factors that should be maintained by
the business organizations especially the service sector organizations. This is due to the reason
that current service sector across the world is highly competitive in nature. In addition, this is
also should be noted that it is important for the service organizations to align their service
elements to that of their external business factors (Plath 2013). On the other hand, the service
offerings should also be flexible enough to cope up with the change in the market requirements
and trends. In this essay, the service portfolio of the Southwest airlines will be discussed
including their core services and their elements (Southwest.com 2018). In addition, the major
two key external drivers will also be discussed that are having both positive and negative impacts
on the business.
Importance of marketing
Marketing refers to the process of determining the requirements and expectations of the
target customers and offering product or services accordingly. In addition, it also refers to the
process of segmenting and target the specific sets of customers whom will be focused and
identifying their key needs and trends. Marketing mix is also an important factor due to the
reason that the elements of the marketing mix helps the business organizations in having a
holistic strategy in catering to the target customers (Tiago, M.T.P.M.bB and Verissimo 2014). It
is also important because marketing mix includes the major elements such as pricing strategy,
product strategy and promotional strategy.

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Company profile
Southwest airlines are one of the leading airliners in the world from the United States.
They are also being considered as the largest budget carriers in the world and were founded in
1967. It is reported that Southwest airlines is having more than 58000 employees across their
operations and daily operating in more than 99 national and international routes. One of their
major characteristics is offering of single type of aircrafts unlike the other airliners, which are
having diverse range of aircrafts (Southwest.com 2018). As of now, Southwest airlines are only
operating Boeing 737 aircrafts, which is helping them in having lower cost of maintenance and
low time consumption in scheduling the flights.
Identification of the core service
The core service of Southwest airlines being identified is offering low cost and low frills
flight services across different destinations. However, there are number of other supplementary
services are also being offered to the customers including the in-flight entertainment, cuisines
and ground services (Dimitriadis and Koritos 2014). The major characteristic of the core service
offering of Southwest airlines is the presence of diversity. This is due to the reason that
customers are given the basic flight services along with the added facilities for a fee. In addition,
the service offering of Southwest airlines can be considered as heterogeneous due to the reason
that core service of them is depended on the service attendants such as flight attendants, air
hostess, ground front line employees and pilots.
In terms of tangibility, the core service of Southwest airlines is intangible, which can only
be experienced and do not any physical evidences. However, the presence of physical tickets and
merchandise provides some sort of tangibility in the service offerings of them. These tangible

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features also provide a source of gaining competitive advantages for the Southwest airlines over
their competitors by means of differentiation (Panda and Das 2014). In addition, core service
offering of the Southwest airlines can also be termed as market oriented. This is due to the reason
that the service elements are being changed in accordance to the change in the market scenario
(Chathoth et al. 2013). For instance, the in-flight entertainment system is being offered by
Southwest airlines after the pilot test being done in 2011. It helps them in effectively aligning
their service portfolio according to the current trend and requirements of the market and stays
relevant in the market.
Identification of the target segments
There are different target segments being profiled by the Southwest airlines for their
marketing activities. In terms of demographic segmentation, the target age groups for them are
between 20 and 50. In addition, the age groups below 20 are also segmented as the secondary
target markets (Cross, Belich and Rudelius 2015). This is due to the reason that children also
travels with their families. This is due to the reason that customers from the higher income group
will opt for the legacy airliners and lower income groups will not have the affordability for the
flight travels. In terms of the geographical segmentation, the major cities of operation for the
Southwest airlines in the United States are being targeted (Chakrabarti and Mitchell 2013). Thus,
the customers willing to have their journeys in between these cities are the target customers for
Southwest airlines.
In terms of the psychographic segmentation, customers with having the sole
responsibility of no frill travels without having the need for other supplementary services are
being targeted. In addition, customers with having least preferences for the complex airport