Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Integrated Business Communication
Southwest.com is the website for the low cost carrier, South West Airlines. The ‘About Us’ section of this website seeks to create an interaction between the airline and its stakeholders. The sender of this information is the Airline management. The type of information portrayed on the page is characteristic of the management level access. To be precise, the information was written by the corporate communication department of the airline. The sender of the message on this page is the management of the South West Airlines.
The perceived receivers of this information are the potential clients of the airline and corporate audience. In the website, potential clients are targeted. When one opts to use a particular airline, the first thing they will do will be to check its homepage. Potential investors are also perceived receivers because they will want to find out the history of the company before they invest their hard-earned money. Other smaller receivers include new employees, shareholders, and competitors.
The integrated business communication in the ‘About Us’ section combines three key aims of business communication. The aims are to update, inform, and market the company. The link to the ‘What’s new’ section provides the receiver with information updates regarding the company. Therein, there is information regarding new policies and corporate events. The history, mission and vision statement, and ‘Our Purpose’ all serve to inform the receiver of the direction that the company wishes to go.
Anybody seeking to get the baseline information about this company can do it by just clicking on the ‘About Us’ icon. This web page also seeks to market the company from the onset. The page talks about the exemplary service that the company is known for in the aviation industry. It also markets the company’s products and various promotional activities. The media richness of a section depends on how much learning can be pumped through the medium. If users of the medium are able to learn new information more effectively, then the richness of the media is high.
When it comes to the ‘About Us’ page, South West Airlines website offers cues to multiple information simultaneously. Therein are links to various topics that seek to provide more information about the company (About Southwest, 2016). These cues make the webpage less cumbersome while offering lots of information at the same time. If all the information relevant to this section were fitted in a single webpage, its readability would be greatly affected. As a result, the ability of the page to pass information will be greatly diminished due to reduced clarity and visibility.
The richness of a media is also determined by its capability to facilitate immediate feedback and utilization of a natural language. The webpage has a search icon where visitors can key in their query and click on the icon. If the desired information is still not available, the webpage has a phone number and email address where the visitor can contact the company employees for further clarifications. For the provision of feedback, the richness of the media in the website rates high. Utilization of a natural language not only makes the web page easy to read, but also identifies with the readers of a particular society. Based on these criteria, the webpage has an adequate richness of media.
The message is framed so that the company appears to value the client most. All the information from the welcoming message to the company purpose is geared towards making the customer feel treasured. This is achieved, through portraying the webpage from the perspective of the customer. For instance, of all the latest news that the company has experienced in the recent past, it chooses to highlight the piece that shows how the company demonstrates commitment to enhancing in-flight experience.
The history starts with how the founders of the company saw the need to provide high quality services for an industry that was lagging behind in service provision. The page also has a link to ‘Customer Commitments’ whereby past customers give their positive experiences when they flew with Southwest Airlines.
The key opinion leader in this website is Gary Kelly, the CEO of Southwest Airlines. At the top of the webpage is a link to ‘Gary’s Greetings’. Therein, the CEO talks about the commitment of the airline to offering impeccable services. He also reaffirms the company’s culture of treating its clients as the top priority. The theme of the CEO’s message seems to be in line with how the general message of the ‘About Us’ section is framed. The webpage also has a section for rapid rewards whereby the best performing employees are recognized. These employees make their contribution regarding how fruitful it has been working with Southwest Airlines.
The word choice of this webpage needs improvement to assume a more catchy perspective. The words used are just flat and hence a low sense of appeal. This choice of words is of words counterproductive in the web page whose function is to market the company. Instead, the writers should have considered using catch phrases. The appearance of a certain phrase severally finally turns into a catch phrase and readers can easily relate to the message. It also makes the message musical, hence increasing its readability.
References
About Southwest. Southwest.com. Retrieved from <https://www.southwest.com/html/about-southwest/index.html?int= > accessed January 18, 2017.