How Southwest Royally SCREWED UP (USP = CRUCIAL)

I was supposed to publish this blog weeks ago, but I guess better late than never… right?

As a copywriter I now have two industries I work with: healthcare and tabletop games.

And given how 180 degree opposite those two are from each other, its not often that I get to write a blog post that is relevant to both groups.

But thanks to the idiocy of the Southwest Board of Directors (or whatever leadership structure they have), I have been given this golden opportunity to speak to everyone!

Hooray!

You see, regardless of what business you are in, it is important that you DIFFERENTIATE yourself from others in your space.

And that isn’t marketing mumbo-jumbo for cut throat competiton.

All it means is that you need to give customers a reason to choose you and not someone else.

There are many different kinds of differentiators:

• Sometimes that differentiator is physical and practical; people choose your health clinic or FLGS because it is in the neighborhood.

• Other times it is cultural; they choose a dentist because they speak Spanish or choose a board game kickstarter because they are a family run business.

• Other times it is ethical; the customer chooses your smaller healthcare operation or your smaller TTRPG publisher because they are morally opposed to the heartless, soul-sucking corporate alterantives

• And the most powerful one is financial; you are at a lower price point than anyone else with a similar offering.

But a lot of the time the most effective differentiator is … what words should I use for this… A) essential or B) experiential.

An “essential differentiator” would mean that there is something different about the product and/or service your provide. At its truest core, it is fundamentally OTHER than any alternatives the customer might have (these are known as unique mechanism. the more your brand has, the better!)

An “experiential differentiator” would mean that even if your produce and/or service you provide is very similar to your competitors, the WAY your provide it is so fundamentally different for your competitors that customers see you as totally OTHER; in a category of your own simply because the experience of choosing you is so much better.

source

Let’s return to Southwest…

So in early March, Southwest airlines announced the following changes:

1. New “Basic Fare” at a low price point

2. Free Bags would only be included for A-List and Business Select card holders.

3. Card holders would be reduced to 1 free bag per person

4. They are moving to assigned seating.

5. Flights credits will expire in 6/12 months

Now, to the outside observer, these aren’t the biggest deal in the world. After all, a lower fare is good, many airlines check bags and assign seats, and it makes sense to have flight credits eventually expire.

But here is the problem…

SOUTHWEST JUST REMOVED 66% OF THE REASONS TO CHOOSE THEMN INSTEAD OF A COMPETITOR!!!!!!

(Which justifies all the “WTF are you thinking?!?!” posts you saw when they announced this.)

They took away MOST of the distinct benefits of flying with them.

People stayed loyal Southwest for three reasons and three reasons only:

1. They could cancel at any time, no charge

2. Two free checked bags

3. If they checked in early enough, they could get a good seat

But now… POOF!… two of those differentiators are GONE.

And even worse, without those differentiators, Southwest is an inferior airline to most of its competitors! They have less direct flights than the big airlines, smaller airlines have cheaper tickets, and the in flight entertainment and food at Southwest is worse, if it exists at all!!!

And while they are prioritizing business class… THEY DON’T HAVE A BUSINESS CLASS… and even if they did it is way, way worse than the business class of more established airlines.

I promise you, with 99.9999999% certainty, that Frontier, Alaska, United, Jet Blue, Delta… freaking ANY OTHER AIRLINE… let out shouts of joy when this policy change was announced. They just saw their feared enemy shoot themselves in the foot, hand, and then pull the lever back as they pointed it as their own head.

In other words, Southwest is committing brand suicide to temporarily please some shareholders.

I, and countless others, immediately made plans to cancel their Southwest card and look for an alternative option. At the moment, it is impossible to tell how many customers they lost, but I am sure the following years will prove it to be disasterous.

But what does this have to do with your health clinic? Or your tabletop game/accessory?

This is a whole other blog post, but in summary: you need to differentiate yourself in the eyes of the customer from every other option at their disposal.

You need unique benefits that only you have that will make potential customers say: “Oh… duh… this is the right choice” once those benefits are communicated to them.

And once you have those differentiators, make them BETTER. Do not take them away; it will feel like a betrayal to your customer base.