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MARKETING
A Sub Set of Selling
Steve Thomas is manager of market analysis and planning for Subway International in Milford
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Business New Haven
9/6/1999
By: BNH
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How long has Subway had its campaign focusing on the relative nutrition of its sandwiches?
We started talking about low fat items on our menu in January 1997.
Is that the major thrust in your marketing now?
It's part of the major theme; it's not exclusively all we talk about in our marketing communications. We certainly talk about the nutrition of things here at Subway, but we're also focusing on talking to families right now with our kid's-meal program. From time to time, especially toward the end of the year, we want to make sure that people know that we have tasty, more indulgent items on our menu, such as our steak-and-cheese sub, as well.
Are marketing decisions made on a national level at your headquarters in Milford for all the Subways across the country?
We mostly handle all of the national-level marketing planning, so whatever we develop is what you see on network TV and in our stores across the country. But we don't make decisions like that without talking to consumers first. We did that, going back to 1997, and we learned that low-fat offerings are significant to a pretty significant percentage of the population of America - a larger group than we originally had thought. We knew that consumers' perception of Subway was a positive perception, that we were thought of as a high-quality restaurant that offers a freshly made sandwich that's made right in front of you. I think the real key for Subway, though, when it came to talking about items that were low in fat, really was the credibility of the sandwiches that are the under-six-grams-of-fat sandwiches. For example, the turkey sub sandwich has always been on our menu; it's not anything that we had to concoct just to be able to say that it was under six grams of fat. There are other fast-food chains that over the past decade have tried to do similar types of marketing, but they just haven't worked - for example, Taco Bell's experience with the Border Lights.
Is most of your marketing based on consumer research?
Yes, it's based on a lot of consumer research. Inevitably, what makes it to the air is decided by a board of trustees which is made up of franchise representatives from around the country. That's who my group reports to. A lot of the marketing is all about development of new products, but new products are tested with consumers before they make it to the forefront of the national marketing message. We also keep a pretty close watch on what's happening in the fast-food industry as well.
What are some of the trends you're seeing in the fast-food industry right now?
I think there's definitely a trend toward increasing the competitiveness of kids marketing. You hear about the long-term alliances between Disney and McDonald's, and certainly Burger King has been really active. I think that most major chains realize that it's really critical to your success to attract families. And to be able to attract families you have to have a solution for the children in the family, which means an acceptable meal that has some property that's tied into it and some cool toys. I think the stakes of that part of the business are being elevated all the time. I also think we see, across the industry, an expansion into non-traditional locations. You see a lot of smaller locations opening up, like a McDonald's Express, or other places that are opening up in [convenience] stores and gas stations and things like that, that are using sites that are not as large as your typical restaurant is, but they're figuring out ways to get in there. So, that's definitely a trend, too.
The family marketing for Subway is your 'Blue's Clues' tie-in. How long has that been going on?
We've done two programs with Blue's Clues so far. We did our first one in May 1998, and that was the most successful kid's meal we had ever done. We did the second one in June of this past year, and that was actually a program with some other properties that are with Nick Jr., which is Nickelodeon's daytime preschool programming. Blue's Clues was one of five toys we featured in that meal. This coming October we'll be doing another Blue's Clues promotion.
With Subway's expansion into foreign markets, will your group be handling that marketing as well?
We do a little bit for the other countries, but our primary focus is on the United States and Canada.
How effective have Subway's marketing efforts been thus far?
They've been tremendously effective over the past two years-plus. We reversed our negative sales trend toward the end of 1996, and we've seen sales grow steadily since then.
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