Selling Your Uniqueness

Southwest Airlines is running an advertising campaign that I love. It’s not particularly entertaining, it’s not groundbreaking in any way, and it’s not going to win any awards. But it’s powerfully effective.

The campaign consists of a series of commercials all pushing the same message: Bags fly free. The beauty of this message is two-fold: its uniqueness and its simplicity.

Southwest’s message is unique. No other major American airline can make the same claim. Not United, not Delta, not Northwest, not US Airways, not Frontier, not even Jet Blue. Granted, Southwest is unique in other ways as well, but in this campaign, they’re stressing just this one.

By focusing on only this one message, Southwest also keeps it simple. One idea. Three words. Easy to communicate, easy to understand, easy to remember. In the cacophony of modern life, when your prospect is bombarded by thousands of sales and marketing messages every day, your message needs to be simple to be effective.

So what’s your uniqueness? Why should your prospect choose you over your competition? What claim can you make (and back up) that your competitors can’t?

And can you say it simply and clearly? Can you say it in seven words or less?

If you can do that, you may not win any advertising awards, but you will win more sales.