Southwest identified an opportunity within Texas for short distance air service between Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth and San Antonio. These Texas cities were often referred to as one single market area, although they were some of the fasted growing in the nation. Southwest recognized that Pacific Southwest Airlines had a similar business plan in California servicing Los Angeles to San Francisco, so they took this similar concept, and set their goals to provide quick, reliable service that local passengers sought to utilize.

Within this Texas market included two other airlines, Braniff and TI. Both did not originally specialize in short distance air travel, and most short distance flights started at a larger location such as New York and traveled through the Texas cities as a multiple stop trip. Southwest’s choice to enter the market initiated a quick process to implement their strategy. Within 4 months, they would implement a marketing strategy and begin servicing the area. The problem with the Texas market was as soon as Southwest implanted a strategy and promotion, Braniff and TI would closely follow and form a very similar strategy.

Southwest’s third phase of their advertising campaign led to Braniff once again matching the promotion that they are offering, and Southwest’s response to Braniff’s move would help establish southwest as a successful company. Within the Texas market, Southwest has created many strengths that will help set them apart from the current brand leaders. Many consumers are gravitating towards Braniff and TI because their brands are common. Southwest’s SWOT analysis is displayed in Figure 1; highlighting what competitive advantages Southwest possesses that will lead them to creating a brand where current airline consumers gravitate towards and new consumers become loyal.

To respond to Braniff’s latest ad campaign, again matching