Lots of free press, 12-28-07 USAToday Money headline:
Southwest hopes changes add up to ch-cha-ching
By Dan Reed, USA TODAY
DALLAS — When Marc Belsher tunes in New Year's Day to watch Southern California play Illinois in the Rose Bowl, one big question is who will win? Another big question: Will he change his travel habits?
In one of Southwest Airlines' (LUV) biggest, most concentrated advertising blitzes ever, the Dallas-based discount carrier has paid millions for TV advertising time on the Orange Bowl and other big college football games through the BCS championship on Jan. 7.
The carrier won't say how much it's paying, but its primary aim is to go after as never before business travelers like Belsher who rarely, if ever, fly the airline that boards more passengers than any other in the USA. For Southwest, attracting more business travelers is central to its push to generate $1 billion more annually by 2009 to meet rising operating costs and ensure continuation of its 34 consecutive years of profitability.
But the task won't be easy for the 36-year-old carrier, which is in the process of tweaking the no-frills, egalitarian approach that revolutionized air travel in the USA. It has few of the tools that conventional carriers do for attracting perk-conscious business travelers: first-class seating, assigned seats, in-flight meals, hugely attractive frequent-flier programs, airport VIP clubs and international flights.
"I avoid Southwest at all costs because I can't stand their cattle car approach to boarding and seat selection," Belsher says. Southwest's open-seating process simply adds too much stress to his already stressful travel life. "I hate chaos, and that is the word I associate with Southwest Airlines."
The Southwest football advertising blitz doesn't abandon pitches to the legions of leisure travelers who love its cheap Wanna Get Away fares, or who have loaded its innovative Ding software on their computers to alert them whenever the carrier cuts the price on flights to their favorite destinations.
But the message is being tweaked to target business travelers more. Irreverent humor will remain a staple, but more of the jokes are being transplanted from the home or the social settings to the workplace.
Thus, in one new TV spot already airing in the West, a group of people begin talking about fun ways to kill time during a long stopover in Phoenix after they're told by their boss that they'll be flying on business cross-country on Southwest. Their boss, however, straightens them out by noting that Southwest now has lots of non-stop flights, negating the need for such stopovers.
A tough sell for some
In Belsher's case, Southwest faces a tough sell. He spends about half his time each year traveling on business out of Portland, Ore., and prefers Alaska Airlines (ALK). But when he goes someplace that Alaska doesn't, Belsher will fly on Delta(DAL), Northwest (NWA) or American (AMR), but never on Southwest.
Bob Jordan, Southwest's executive vice president for strategy and technology, concedes that the USA's largest domestic airline may never be able to win over some business travelers like Belsher. But it must do more to attract as many such travelers as it can, he says, because they pay more for their tickets, even on discount carriers such as Southwest.
"We're in the middle of rebuilding Southwest Airlines," Jordan says. "You've got (nearly) $100-a-barrel crude out there. You've got customers who expect more and more. You've got an economy that's a little soft right now. You've just got a lot of things that say we need to change."
The trick, he cautions, will be to "make sure that we're changing the right things" without damaging the core elements that have powered the maverick airline's unequaled success.
In setting the goal of $1 billion more in annual revenue, CEO Gary Kelly is excluding any additional revenue it will generate just from putting more seats up for sale. That means it all must come from ancillary sources: selling more hotel rooms, car rentals and vacation packages through its website; partnerships with other airlines; and persuading some travelers to pay a little more for preferred treatment.
Much of the Southwest strategy has unfolded in the last few months as the carrier has made changes to the formula that has made it the rare success story in the U.S. airline business. Some of the recent tweaks, and how they could help snag business travelers:
• Boarding. Southwest doesn't assign seats, so being first to board means getting that preferred seat by the window or aisle or in the exit row and finding space in the overhead compartment. But, since Nov. 8, instead of jostling in line with other passengers for up to an hour to be among the first on board, travelers get assigned a boarding number upon checking in, and then are called to board in a more orderly fashion.
Those paying the highest fares and very frequent fliers are guaranteed early boarding numbers, and others can snag a good boarding number by checking in online up to 24 hours in advance.
• Gate remodeling. Southwest has no VIP lounges for business travelers. But it has moved lounge elements — big, comfortable chairs and workstations where travelers can plug in, power up and log on while they wait — to the gate area. It's spending $35 million to remodel more than 400 gates nationwide.
• Business Select. Paying $10 to $30 more than the fully refundable coach fare will guarantee a spot among the first 15 to board the flight, a free cocktail onboard and extra frequent-flier credits. Not many passengers will pay the extra fee, but a few will, and that will help the carrier's bottom line. Kelly expects Business Select to generate $100 million a year in extra revenue, or 10% of his $1 billion goal.
• New sales channels. Southwest still wants to sell most of its tickets via its own website. But for the first time, it has deals to sell seats through three of the four major computer reservations systems and the travel websites those systems support. That will let corporate travelers view fares and buy Southwest tickets through their corporate travel departments or contracted travel agencies.
• Corporate sales. Southwest has tripled the number of salespeople dedicated to recruiting the travel dollars of large corporations. Going from five to 15 corporate salespeople isn't a big deal compared with what conventional airlines devote to their corporate sales efforts, but it's a big step for Southwest.
One thing that won't be changing is Southwest's open-seating policy, even though company executives recognize that it means it likely will never win over some travelers who insist on having an assigned seat. When the carrier began testing assigned seating more than a year ago, Kelly said it was overwhelmed with pleas from the faithful not to make it a permanent feature.
In an interview, Kelly is quick to note that Southwest has had a loyal following of business travelers dating all the way back to its start-up days in the 1970s flying essentially business shuttles between Texas' three largest cities. Its high-frequency service on those routes — and on virtually all of its routes today — is ideal for time-sensitive business travelers, especially those traveling short-haul routes.
Southwest officials say about half of their passengers and revenue come from business travelers. At the big conventional carriers, typically about 45% of all passengers are business travelers, but because they tend to buy much higher fares, they deliver about two-thirds of those carriers' revenue.
Kelly says Southwest may never get that proportion of its revenue from business travelers. But it needs to try to make them a bigger contributor to the revenue mix than they are today.
Too early to tell
It's still too early to measure the effectiveness of Southwest's new push for business travelers. But some say they are willing to give Southwest another chance.
Anita Madison, a management consultant from Chicago who has logged 2 million miles on United over the years, says she has "only flown twice on Southwest for business or pleasure … because I don't like the cattle-car lineup feeling or the grabbing-any-seat concept."
But now Southwest's changes mean that she "might consider them, as I was very pleased with their service when I did fly them."
Kathleen Buesing, a health care company executive from Scottsdale, Ariz., previously flew Southwest "only when necessary." But she gave the new boarding process a try recently and, despite some initial skepticism, discovered that "people can actually relax until boarding time." Southwest officials also are aiming to keep the loyalty of business travelers they already have, such as Jason Lopez, a San Diego financial services executive who flies Southwest three or four times a week. He has taken a quick liking to new laptop workstations at Southwest's gates.
"I love it," he said in early December while going over daily sales figures online at Dallas Love Field as he awaited his flight home. "My laptop was dead before I got here, so with this being here, I'm able to charge up and get work done now so I won't have to do it when I get home."
Airline economist Alan Bender, a professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, says Southwest is at a crossroads and needs to make some changes.
"But these are just baby steps that they've made so far," Bender says. "There's not much risk in them, and not much cost but, I fear, not much reward either."
The problem, Bender says, is how much change can Southwest make without losing its unique identity and brand. And, he says, it's possible that Southwest could go so far as to offend longtime loyalists drawn by the egalitarian charm and the free spirit that have played a big role in its success. Also, some possible changes carry higher costs, negating some of the revenue benefits.
"Do they offer assigned seats? That slows down (airplane) turnaround times and increases costs," he says. "Do they offer a lounge? That increases costs. Do they offer a first-class section for perhaps a nominal fee? Plenty of other low-cost airlines do that. I think that's something worth looking at."
'Brilliant' changes
Kelly calls the changes that Southwest has implemented or planned "brilliant." But he agrees with those who say Southwest hasn't changed enough. "We need to keep evolving," he says.
One big change in the works is a major overhaul of Southwest's Rapid Rewards frequent-flier program, which tracks the number of segments its members fly rather than mileage. The changes are expected to make the program more appealing to business travelers and may be announced in 2008.
Kelly says the airline is excited about what he calls "tremendous opportunity" to change and improve Southwest. But he acknowledges some risk in the changes: "If some of them don't live up to our high hopes, we'll just redouble our efforts."