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Marketing Shorts
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Business New Haven
1/26/1998
By: BNH
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'7/6' Campaign Boosts Subway's Numbers
MILFORD - In 1996, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration ordered restaurants to comply with a court ruling requiring them to support nutritional claims made on their menus. The order threw the fast food industry a curve - 80 percent of major chains had been making at least one claim about their meals' nutritional value.
At least one company, however, saw the new requirements as a marketing opportunity. The Milford-based Subway Sandwich Shops, the ubiquitous (second only to McDonald's in number of franchises worldwide) purveyors of submarine sandwiches, examined its menu and discovered that seven of its six-inch sandwiches contained less than six grams of fat each.
The so-called “7/6” campaign started as the local initiative of a Texas franchisee. The program's success, as measured by both sales and consumer feedback, caught the eye of the corporate marketing department, which modified the campaign and rolled it out nationwide.
For the past year, Subway has been positioning itself as the “healthy” fast food chain, touting its nutritional claims on everything from ads to napkins. (The copyright notices say “Doctor's Associates” - which is in fact the privately held company that owns the Subway trademark and franchises Subway's nearly 11,000 U.S. shops.)
While other chains argue about who has the better french fry, says Michele Klotzer, the company's director of community and public relations, Subway is emphasizing the low-fat options already on its menu - and educating customers about how to cut the fat in their orders.
For additional credibility Subway has allied itself with several national nutritional campaigns, particularly the “5 a Day - for Better Health!” program, jointly sponsored by the National Cancer Institute and the Produce for Better Health Foundation (PBH). The program aims to increase per-capita consumption of fruits and vegetables from 3.5 to 5 servings a day and to help consumers incorporate those recommendations into their daily diets.
According to Robb Enright, PBH's manager of public relations, “Subway is the only major fast-food chain licensed and approved to apply the “5 a Day” logo to those items that meet the program's guidelines.”
Here in the U.S., Klotzer says, Subway plans to continue the “7/6” campaign throughout 1998. Meanwhile, Subway licensees in Australia and New Zealand, among other countries, are developing similar programs to conform to their nations' nutritional guidelines.
Salius Brings Home the Gold…er, Mercury
HARTFORD - In December, Salius Communications, a strategic public relations and marketing communications firm, received a Gold Mercury Award for excellence in new technology-based applications. The award recognizes Salius' role in developing a Web site for MedSpan, a managed care company.
Salius Communications worked with BrainBug, LLC (a multi-media design firm, also of Hartford) to make www.medspan.com a useful repository of health-related information, including an interactive digital scale that calculates healthy weight levels. The site also contains physician, hospital and pharmacy directories; health plan summaries; tips for healthy living; and general information about MedSpan.
The annual Mercury Awards are sponsored by the Connecticut Valley chapter of the Public Relations Society of America.
Obston Pockets
Kangaroo's Corner
BLOOMFIELD - Kangaroo's Corner Daycare Center has retained Andrea Obston Marketing Communications to create, manage and execute its PR campaign.
Scheduled to open this spring, Kangaroo's Korner is a non-profit facility that will provide full or partial day learning and day care for children of all abilities, from six weeks through 14 years. Located in Watertown on 19 acres of rural land, the center features a 5,000-square-foot, handicapped-accessible building.
Visual Concepts
Inks Major Pacts
BLOOMFIELD - Visual Concepts Media recently signed contracts to produce and/or stage: a national road show for employees of Hartford-based IDV North America; a centennial celebration program for International Paper of Binghamton, N.Y.; a customer party at the PGA Show in Orlando, Fla. for Spalding Sports Worldwide of Chicopee, Mass.; and a commercial and an event for the Papermaster for Congress campaign in West Hartford.
Terry Rourke of Deborah Ketai Consulting Services of Seymour contributed to this section.
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