
Maintaining the tag of ‘world’s largest sandwich chain’ comes with much work in product innovation and marketing for Subway. This global brand has a loyal customer base in over 100 countries and has been constantly winning hearts and tummies since 1965. However, the brand made its major marketing breakthrough in 1985 with the “Subway Club” campaign, followed in 2007 with “Five Dollar Footlong.” However, what goes into making these campaigns work worldwide is a valuable lesson for all restaurant chains to find success in their marketing. Let’s analyze all the important elements of Subway’s marketing strategy.
Subway’s marketing strategies often focus on value propositions, such as the affordability and customization of their sandwiches. Campaigns like “Eat Fresh” emphasize healthy eating, catering to a growing market segment that values nutrition. Another critical aspect of Subway’s marketing strategy is the use of the Subway sandwich artist concept, which personalizes the customer experience by allowing them to watch their sandwich being made to their specifications.
Understanding and implementing Subway’s marketing strategies can provide valuable insights for other restaurant chains looking to enhance their own marketing efforts.
Essential Elements of Subway Restaurant Marketing Strategy
1. Brand Positioning and Messaging
Since its inception, Subway has worked to build a brand around offering healthier options than traditional burger and fries joints. Their slogan, “Eat Fresh,” was launched in 2005 to promote Subway’s fresh and healthy options. They have even made it a house rule to make delicious sandwiches in front of customers to showcase crisp vegetables chopped daily to complement the aroma of freshly baked bread. This Subway marketing strategy is designed to distinguish the brand in the fast food market and attract health-conscious consumers.
Subway marketing focuses on transparency and quality, which has been integral to their business development. By highlighting the freshness and customization of their products, Subway effectively appeals to a wide audience looking for healthier fast food alternatives. Understanding Subway’s marketing strategy provides valuable lessons for any business looking to succeed in the competitive fast food market.
Besides promoting freshness, Subway empowers its customers to customize their meals, giving them control over what goes into their food. Subway makes customers make healthier choices by choosing their bread, protein, veggies, and condiments as ideal health-conscious individuals.
2. Advertising and Promotional Campaigns
Let’s see how Subway’s marketing plan uses advertisements and promotional campaigns in various ways.
National Advertising:
Subway is known for its creative national advertisements, most aired on primetime, sports, and cable networks. If you notice, all their ads focus on freshness and customization, with humor and catchy jingles. Their advertising strategy is designed to meet market demand by promoting submarine sandwiches as both delicious and customizable. By highlighting nutritious meals, Subway appeals to health-conscious consumers looking for a quick yet healthy option.
Subway sandwiches are marketed not just as nutritious meals but also as affordable choices. They use pricing strategies like competitive pricing to ensure they remain accessible to a broad audience. The focus on freshness, customization, and affordability has helped Subway maintain a strong presence in the submarine sandwich market.
Subway restaurant marketing also targets budget-conscious consumers through radio ads. Catchy slogans and jingles vividly describe the freshness of their ingredients, making listeners imagine the taste and texture.
Celebrity Endorsements:
The Sandwich Giant ad campaign features reputed athletes and sportspersons such as:
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Steph Curry (NBA star)
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Serena Williams (Tennis Queen)
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Tom Brady (Football quarterback)
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Megan Rapinoe (Soccer star)
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James Richard Garoppolo (American football quarterback)
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Wardell Stephen Curry II (Basketball player)
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Kevin Michael Harvick (car racing driver)
The marketing plan for Subway restaurants to influence customers through athlete-studded advertisements brings enormous profits to their bottom line.
Limited-Time Offers and Specials:
Subway frequently uses limited-time offers (LTOs) to promote new menu items or to introduce twists on existing favorites. The deals extend to Buy One Get One (BOGO), discounted combos, and app-exclusive deals.
For instance, Subway launched the “GoodComesBack” campaign on 1st Nov to celebrate World Sandwich Day with a BOGO offer.
3. Digital Marketing and Social Media
Subway has dominated its presence on major social media platforms, thanks to its creative content marketing and strategic collaboration with influencers. This approach has significantly boosted the company’s brand and increased brand equity. Unlike traditional advertising, which has its place, Subway’s modern strategies have played a pivotal role in Subway’s success. Their distribution strategy ensures that their content reaches a broad audience, maintaining their competitive edge among fast food restaurants.
Social Media Presence:
Subway has a large audience on Facebook (22 Million) and Twitter (2.2 Million), with high engagement across all social media channels. The brand continuously pushes promoted deals to connect with people and share positive stories to draw maximum sales. Take a look at how Subway has creatively advertised the return of its footlong cookie on Facebook and Twitter, which has managed to draw huge attention.
Content Marketing:
Subway is always creative about marketing its content on social media platforms. It experiments with every new idea that can drive traffic and set examples for other brands.
Its content marketing strategy touches upon all forms of content styles, including:
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Offers and discounts
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Challenge participation
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Reviews and recommendations
Influencer Marketing:
Subways has a strong connection with local influencers to promote its brand. The brand mainly engages with micro-influencers (10K-50K followers) and nano-influencers (<10,000 followers) who often have strong niche followers in the food domain.
Subways partnered with 42 influencers to introduce two all-new Signature Wraps with double meat to their product line. To drive massive interest, the burger chain developed over 100 pieces of content in a single week. The result was surprising. The campaign drove 6M Subways consumers with a 4.67% engagement rate across different marketing funnels.
4. Loyalty Programs and Customer Retention
Loyalty Programs :
Subway understands the value of loyalty programs in incentivizing repeat customers and driving repeat sales to save on new marketing. That’s why it has its own loyalty program, Subways MyWay Rewards, to attract loyal customers.
Customers who join this loyalty program earn tokens or points for every dollar spent on their in-store, website, or apps. Some promotions also include bonus tokens for specific purchases or app orders. Customers can redeem various rewards using the collected tokens on their next purchases. Though the specific redemption rate may vary, typically, 200 tokens translate to $2 in Subway cash.
Customer retention through Email Marketing:
Subway is very particular about customer retention through email marketing. For instance, when you sign up with Subway, you receive a welcome email from the company about your first 250 bonus reward in your account.
Besides welcome emails, subscribers also receive promotional emails regarding new menu items, limited-time offers, special deals, and ongoing promotions. They also run seasonal email campaigns where emails highlight special menu items specific to any particular season or holiday to encourage themed purchases. The best part is that Subway sends automated emails based on customer behavior to drive sales. For instance, customers receive abandoned cart emails reminding them about completing purchases of their unfinished online orders, which is a gentle push towards a healthy conversion.
5. Franchise Marketing Support
Support for Franchisees :
Subway provides comprehensive support to its franchisees to ensure brand consistency across all of its stores worldwide.
For instance, all its new franchisees undergo a two-week training program at Subway’s local training centers. The aim is to educate franchisees on operations, marketing fundamentals, and brand standards to drive maximum sales while standing high on the brand image at the same time. Also, each franchisee receives constant support from a designated Development Agent (DA) who serves as a local on-site representative.
Localized Marketing:
Subway uses a multi-pronged approach to encourage franchisees to engage with community-based marketing and local events. A portion of its central marketing fund is allocated for the same purpose. Best-performing franchisees are even recognized in company publications and rewarded for displaying an excellent spirit in community engagement.
6. Menu Innovation and Customization
Besides marketing, if customers like Subway for two main reasons, those would be constant menu innovation and complete freedom of order customization.
Product Development:
Subway understands how to cater to customers with different dietary preferences. That’s why it offers a wide variety of options. For instance, in response to a growing demand for plant-based alternatives, Subway offers options like Veggie Delight and Black Bean Patty.
For those on lean protein, the Subway menu has a Grilled Chicken Bowl that contains 35g of protein and only 200 calories. Customers like the 6” Veggie Delight for a low-calorie sub with little to no protein (10g).
Customization Options:
As one of its core marketing mantras, Subway is very particular about customization. It puts customers in charge of tailoring their meals to their dietary preferences. For instance, when it comes to bread, there are numerous choices, such as Italian white, honey oats, wheat, Italian herbs, and 9-grain wheat (for a more fiber-rich option). Similarly, to improve the flavor, you can add your favorite cheese selections, like American, provolone, cheddar, or mozzarella. Not just that, the brand offers a wide range of options in vegetables (lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, red onions), sauces ( mayonnaise, honey mustard, sweet onion sauce, pen_spark), and seasonings (salt, pepper, and oregano).
7. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
Subway’s ESG and CSR programs positively impact communities and the environment.
Sustainability Initiatives:
Subway repeatedly advertises its sustainable sourcing from suppliers who practice sustainable forest management. The brand is also involved in animal welfare. For instance, in Europe, they source 100% cage-free eggs. As per their recent official statement, they are now serving 10% of such eggs in the U.S. and 6% in Canada but are committed to increasing this number to 100% by 2025.
Community Involvement:
Subway is popular for its community involvement through various charities and community events like the Action Against Hunger program that supports organizations committed to offering nutritious food to the food insecure. It also offers tuition assistance to financially challenged bright minds through the iMentor program. It partners them with high schools, nonprofits, and higher educational institutions willing to offer one-to-one mentorship.
8. Competition and Market Trends
Competitive Analysis:
Subway faces direct competition from prominent fast-food chains like McDonald’s, Burger King, and Panera Bread. Still, the brand has managed to establish a solid presence in customers’ hearts due to its core vision of providing healthy, fresh, and customizable food options. While brands like McDonald’s target kids (6-11 years) to drive sales, Subway is more geared towards adults with healthy eating preferences.
Market Trends:
Subway is pivoting towards plant-based options (a recent trend) and offering a wide range of choices to cater to 40% of vegan Millennials (59% women and 41% men) around the globe. For instance, the menu offers Veggie Delight, Black Bean Patty, and salads that readily serve vegan consumer demand for meat alternatives. There is also a trend for a low-fat and low-sodium diet among athletes. Keeping that in mind, Subway offers reduced-fat dressings and leaner protein choices to its customers during customization.
Frequently Asked Questions
Subway majorly focuses on freshness and customization to cater to customers of different dietary preferences. In this way, it positions itself as a healthier alternative to traditional fast-food chains. Working with targeted marketing and indulging in community events also aids its sales figures through brand loyalty and community connections.
Subway takes a multi-channel approach to promote its business. You can find their ads running on TV commercials, social media, and even on the radio to create brand awareness. They also leverage email marketing, local partnerships, influencer collaboration, and loyalty programs to drive repeat business and add new customers to their recurring profit line.
Subway targets a broad audience but mainly focuses on health-conscious consumers who like to eat fresh and healthier food options. The target audience includes busy professionals looking for a quick, customizable meal, value-seekers, and families with children who like to order customized options to please everyone.
Subway’s recent strategy focuses on menu innovation, digital marketing, and sustainable initiatives. For instance, they are constantly pushing online ads to introduce new menu items while subtly focusing on sustainability, such as reducing the use of plastics in the delivery.
The four Ps of marketing mix are product, price, promotion, and place. Subway’s marketing mix focuses on all four aspects.
- Product: the menu offers a variety to meet taste preferences without compromising on freshness and nutritious ingredients
- Price: Subway is known for offering affordable options, like “Five Dollar Footlong,” to offer products at a low price
- Promotion: the brand targets all its campaigns around “Eat Fresh” and signs up brand ambassadors like Michael Phelps and Serena Williams to create a positive image
- Place: the brand has strategic placement of its stores over 45,000 locations in over 100 countries close to shopping centers and transportation hubs
Subway utilizes different marketing channels to reach its target audience. You can watch its ads on national television commercials, across social media platforms, on websites and search engines, and on local channels such as radio or newspapers. Each channel focuses on meeting specific marketing goals. For instance, national commercials might focus on brand image, while social media content aims to drive engagement.
Subway does practice demographic segmentation for targeted marketing. It runs different marketing campaigns for potential customers grouped by their age, income, and lifestyle.