Officials at Southwest Airlines were delighted with the company’s first-quarter results, noting the marketing department’s stellar performance in highlighting the “Transfarency” campaign and the momentum with the Rapid Rewards loyalty program.
CEO Gary Kelly talked about these themes during the company’s first-quarter earnings call on April 21.
“First and foremost to our people, and the terrific service that they offer our customers every single day, I’m very proud of them,” Kelly said, according to Seeking Alpha. “Our marketing department, in particular, has done a terrific job of distilling our message with our advertising campaign on Transfarency. The customer awareness of the low fare value that you get with Southwest is very high. And that timing of that campaign matches perfectly with the incredible momentum that we have had with our Rapid Rewards loyalty program. So, we have a strong profitable network, we have great service, low fares with nothing to hide. We have an award-winning loyalty program and all of that served up by outstanding employees. So, we are exceptionally well positioned to compete and grow and we intend to keep it just that way.”
What’s more, Kelly said he’s “absolutely delighted” with these results and, “considering the quality of our operation, the hospitality of our customer service and these strong profits, it is absolutely the best start we've had to a year in over two decade. So, I'm very, very pleased. We have low cost and we have a great low fare brand, but we’ve been very pleased with the consistent strong demand for the Southwest product, resulting in yet another record load factor in the first quarter, and numerous other records for that matter. But the point is even in the face of our growth and the intensely-competitive environment, we’re doing really, really well.”
A commercial for the “Transfarency” campaign comprises the following:
“When did paying for airfare become so unfair? At Southwest, we do things differently. So differently, we invented a word for it: Transfarency. Transfarency means we don’t dream up ways we can trick you into paying more. It means respect. Because we don’t just fly you, we like you.”