In a blitz for business, Southwest Airlines has pulled out most — but not yet all — the stops to let residents know it is “Dedicated to Denver.”
The Dallas-based carrier’s brand and its declaration of “LUV” are everywhere in and around the Mile High City.
Southwest offers free pedicab rides to certain events, sponsors concerts and movies in Skyline Park, wraps parts of the airport with signs, supports Denver’s Road Home, is the official airline of the Denver Nuggets, and last week, opened an outdoor lounge in the heart of downtown.
Then there are the ads and more ads.
Get ready: More efforts are planned to swing Denver customers to Southwest.
“We’re looking at new ideas and new opportunities,” Southwest chief executive Gary Kelly said.
Growth and the high load factor in Denver are counter to other Southwest markets, Kelly said. Denver is “very important to Southwest” as the fastest-expanding market in Southwest’s 40-year history, he said.
Since launching Denver service in January 2006, Southwest has grown from 13 nonstop daily flights to three destinations to 144 daily nonstops to 42 destinations.
DIA market share
(Figures do not include international or regional service)
July 2006
Southwest —2.81 percent
Frontier — 18.02 percent
United — 34.39 percent
July 2007
Southwest — 4.94 percent
Frontier — 18.92 percent
United — 32.79 percent
July 2008
Southwest — 7.96 percent
Frontier — 21.69 percent
United — 29.46 percent
July 2009
Southwest — 13.89 percent
Frontier — 20.53 percent
United — 32.34 percent
July 2010
Southwest — 16.99 percent
Frontier — 16.74 percent
United — 28.14 percent
Source: Denver International Airport
Southwest’s low fares and “bags fly free” policy have attracted customers, and the airline’s ads — on billboards, airwaves and online — pound the message home on what company officials describe as “a pretty modest budget.”
“It’s a very clever tactic on Southwest’s part,” said Susan Jung Grant, an assistant marketing professor in the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Grant said Southwest’s commercials give the same message in different ways, which she called “creative — people are taking notice.”
The ads, even though the frequency is “slightly annoying,” Grant said, put Southwest in Denver travelers’ minds.
“Blitzkrieg” tactic
Southwest’s advertising “appears to be a sound strategy,” said Pallab Paul, a marketing professor at the University of Denver’s Daniels College of Business.
“This is the right time for Southwest to do something because the competition is in disarray,” Paul said.
United Airlines, which is No. 1 in the Denver market, is distracted with its pending merger with Continental, Paul said. Frontier has been finding its footing since being bought out of bankruptcy last year by Republic Airways.
Paul called Southwest’s approach “a blitzkrieg,” which he said a company will do when “there is an all-out war to take the market — that’s essentially what they are doing.”
Still, he warned about a fine line between ads that make people laugh and put the airline’s name in people’s minds, and being overwhelming.
“I don’t think they are at that point yet,” Paul said.
A “different product”
Southwest’s competitors in Denver — United and Frontier — appear unfazed by the ad blitz.
“It’s great that they are stimulating the marketplace,” said Ian Arthur, Frontier’s vice president of marketing and branding.
Arthur said Frontier has “a very different product” — citing stretch seating, live TV and advance seating assignments — from Southwest’s no-frills approach. He also said Frontier has as low or lower fares and travels to international locales such as Costa Rica.
Arthur said the past year has been a time for Frontier to “normalize” operations and renew community partnerships. While Denver is Frontier’s hub, similar outreach efforts are occurring in Milwaukee and the Kansas City area. Frontier had to back off sponsorships during bankruptcy, but remained the official airline of the Colorado Rockies and National Western Stock Show.
Arthur said Frontier also has something Southwest doesn’t — “spokes-animals” — and indicated return salvos in the ad war will begin next year.
United has had a long history as Denver’s largest airline and is well-known, said spokesman Rahsaan Johnson.
“So we rely less on introducing ourselves,” Johnson said, “and more on communicating how we have been delivering value, service and reliability over a long period of time.”
Ann Schrader: 303-954-1967 or aschrader@denverpost.com
