Cost leadership Differentiation: Organizations compete for a wide customer based on price
Differentiation: Value is provided to customers through unique features and characteristics of an organization’s products rather than by the lowest price.
Focused Low Cost: Organizations not only compete on price, also select a small segment of the market to provide good
Focused Differentiation: Organizations not only compete based on differentiation, but also select a small segment of the market to provide goods and services.
For Southwest to continue to have great success in its competitive advantage, customer satisfaction will continue to be a main priority. The strategy that will assist them in doing this would-be differentiation. Southwest has gained it success on being different from other airlines, by lowering cost, flying to smaller airports that other carriers had no presence in, and it’s no baggage fees. Although Southwest is a leading airline carrier the company is now considering offering more perks to its customers by becoming more innovative with newer planes and offering more inflight services. Michael Levine a professor at NYU, as well as a former executive at Continental and Northwest stated that, “Southwest still has a unique personality, but its flying more and more in formation with the Big three”. (fortune,2015) If they continue to be unique with low cost, but continue to add value and great customer service it will continue to progress as one of the top airline carriers despite its competition.
Debate: Agree or Disagree: Discuss which generic business-level strategy is best suited to keep the company you selected competitive. Offer supporting rationale for your explanation.