Marketing and Communications Strategies for Subway: A Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Subway's marketing and communication strategies. It begins by defining marketing and product orientations, highlighting their advantages and disadvantages, and identifying Subway's market-oriented approach with examples. The report then examines political and environmental factors influencing Subway's business and consumer behavior. It delves into psychographic and behavioral segmentation, focusing on the most valuable segmentation type for Subway. Furthermore, the report describes Subway's product offerings, pricing strategies, and place strategy. It also reviews Subway's communication campaign, explaining the role of the promotional mix, analyzing specific promotional elements, and discussing channels used to increase market share. The report identifies the key message and target audience of the video campaign and applies the AIDA marketing theory. Finally, it discusses methods Subway uses to gather feedback on campaign effectiveness, concluding with an overview of the key findings.

Running head: MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS
Marketing and Communications
Student’s name:
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................3
a. Describing the marketing and product orientations, highlighting the advantages and
disadvantages...............................................................................................................................3
b. Identifying and explaining the orientation adopted by Subway and providing two examples
that demonstrate Subway’s use of approach................................................................................4
Task 2...............................................................................................................................................4
a. Identifying and discussing one political factor and one environmental factor that could
influence Subway’s business operation and consumer buyer behaviour.....................................4
Task 3...............................................................................................................................................5
a. Explaining psychographic segmentation which differs from behavioural segmentation........5
b. Discussing one type of segmentation that can be considered the most valuable for Subway
to use when segmenting the market.............................................................................................6
Task 4...............................................................................................................................................7
a. Identifying and describing Subway’s product offerings, pricing strategies and place where
Subway’s products are sold.........................................................................................................7
b. Part Two: Communication Campaign Review............................................................................9
1. An explanation of the role of the Promotional Mix.................................................................9

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2. Discuss the promotional mix element of the Subway adopts in the video including
advantages and disadvantages.....................................................................................................9
3. Conducting research and discuss the channels used by Subway to increase its market share
...................................................................................................................................................10
4. Discuss the key message of the video campaign...................................................................10
5. Discussion of the key target audience of the video campaign and the characteristics..........10
6. Using of AIDA marketing theory to explain the video campaign attributing and key
message achieve Subway’s new objective................................................................................11
7. Discussion of one method Subway use to gather feedback on the effectiveness of Video
campaign....................................................................................................................................11
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................12
Reference List................................................................................................................................13

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Introduction
Providing an overview of Subway
Subway is an American fast food restaurant which was established in the year 1963. Subway
primarily sold the submarine sandwiches and salads. Subway started its journey by 17 years old
high school graduate Fred DeLuca and he started its journey with his family friend Dr Peter
Buck. They opened its first store in Bridgeport, Connecticut, USA. They decided to open more
32 stores within 10 years; however, it seemed impossible for the duo. They took began
franchising and the brand saw the remarkable growth. At present, Subway had more than 44,834
restaurants in more than 112 countries (Subway.com 2018).
Outlining the purpose of the report
This report sheds light on marketing concept and marketing communication of Subway. The
components of the marketing communication mix are explained along with the factors of
competitive advantage. There are two parts in this report, the first part deals with marketing
environment and organisational decision process. The purpose of the first part is to highlight the
evaluation of the marketing and the marketing environment of Subway. In part two;
communication campaign review has been included.

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Task 1
a. Describing the marketing and product orientations, highlighting the advantages and
disadvantages
Market orientation is about a firm’s philosophy focused on meeting and discovering the needs
and desires of the customers through product mix. As mentioned by Abdullah et al. (2015), in the
previous time, marketing strategies mainly concentrated on creating selling of the existing
products; however, marketing orientation now works in reverse, attempting to tailor products to
meet the customers’ demands. Market orientation is about coordination of the marketing
campaign between the customers and the company. Benefits of marketing orientation are about
increasing income and sales. The advantage of market orientation is about enhancing business
volume as well as market share. Another benefit of market orientation is to increase the customer
loyalty and the customer satisfaction. Market orientation increases the innovation by listening to
the consumers and it leads to the continuous development of efficiency and effectiveness
(Mondejar-Jimenez et al. 2015). On the contrary, market orientation needs the business to change
the direction in order to meet the changing demands. Planning of the marketing can be a
challenge in marketing orientation.
As stated by Baker and Sinkula (2015), product orientation is about company's sole focus on the
products and product-oriented organisations put the maximum efforts on manufacturing quality
product and fixing the products at the right price. The organisations want the customers
differentiate the organisation's offerings and make a purchase of the products. The advantage of
the product orientation is that it allows the organisations to focus on the quality of the products
as sometimes small businesses do not worry about the offering of the products. On the other

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hand, product orientation does not always lead to profit as the customers may not be interested in
what the organisations sell and Research and Development cost is high in product orientation.
b. Identifying and explaining the orientation adopted by Subway and providing two
examples that demonstrate Subway’s use of the approach
Subway is the more market-oriented company; hence it takes the market orientation approach. In
market orientation, the business mainly focuses on the market research as it tries to understand
the customers' wants and needs. Subway tries to confirm the desires and needs and the
organisation creates what the customers want. The first example of the market orientation of
Subway as the company tries to contact with the customers via Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Through social networking services; Subway is interested to know what the customers want as
the organisation has the ordering system (Jaworski and Kohli 2017). In addition, another
example of Subway's market orientation is that Subway provides more options for the customers
on the menu as the customers can choose a flavour, bread, amount of cheese, sauce and
vegetables when they choose the sub sandwiches. Apart from this; Subway provides the muffins,
veg menu and doughnuts.
Task 2
a. Identifying and discussing one political factor and one environmental factor that could
influence Subway’s business operation and consumer buyer behaviour
Subway is in the fast food industry and the Subway has to learn about the political rules of the
prevention of the overconsumption of the fast food by the children and hopefully ending up in
reducing the child obesity rate. In case of the UK, the UK left the EU and it has created the
uncertainty (Heasman and Lang 2017). In the UK, the rules on adverts for junk food are

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tightened and Subway needs to follow the campaign of reducing the fat and nutritional elements
in the food. Therefore, the buying behaviour of the customers can be changed due to the fast
food rules.
Environmental factors can impact Subway as the changing rules and regulations regarding the
environment scenario pressing the organisations to take more greener and sustainable approach.
Subway manufactures the food items and it may emit the waste. Therefore, each of the outlets in
the UK must have perfect waste management (Nixon and Doud 2016). In the UK, Environment
Act 1995 declared about the waste mitigation. The environment policies in some of the countries
talk about the saving of the electricity and energy; therefore, the outlets of the Subway can have
the right set of energy policies to tailor the business operation.
Task 3
a. Explaining psychographic segmentation which differs from behavioural segmentation
Psychographic segmentation of the customers is analysed to understand the deeper motivations
of purchasing the specific products and the brands. According to Cross et al. (2015), the process
of selecting the psychographic segmentation is associated with the customers' opinion, values,
activities and lifestyles. The companies sometimes segregate the customers based on their
lifestyle which is reflected in the opinions, interests and activities. The companies often identify
the groups of customers with similar patterns of living. The companies sometimes endow the
brands with their values and the personality of the customers reflects on their buying behaviour.
As opined by Luo et al. (2015), there is a relationship between the personality of the brand and
personality of the buyers as the choice of brand showcases the personal values of the customers.
On the other side, behaviour segmentation tracks the customers’ purchases to recognise the

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patterns of the customers’ behaviour. Behavioural segmentation is the practice of segregating the
consumers into the groups according to the attributes like loyalties, usage, occasions and liking,
knowledge and purchase patterns. Customers may search for different benefits from the product
and it is significant that organisations can carry out the benefit segmentation diligently. The
manufacturers of the products may advertise of the products based on purchase occasion of the
customers. As stated by Maute et al. (2016), customers exhibit different buying behaviour in
terms of the time of the buying.
b. Discussing one type of segmentation that can be considered the most valuable for
Subway to use when segmenting the market
Subway uses mainly demographic segmentation and the characteristics of the demographic
segmentation are associated with the race, age, ethnicity, gender, education, religious views,
marital status and occupation. According to Hatheway et al. (2017), demographic segmentation
is more efficient when targeting the customers in multiple segments. Subway can choose the
demographic segment in which they can segregate the target customers through the age group.
Age group between 18 and 36 can be the most attractive as this age group is mainly out goers.
This age group is also conscious about the calories and nutrition. Subway’s provides fresh and
nutritious products to the customers. Subway gives low fat menu to the customers and the young
age group will like the products. In demographic segmentation, Subway can segregate the market
in income-based where Subway can target the customers who belong to the higher income group.
Higher income group can easily afford Subway products. The benefit of demographic
segmentation is that it is easy to use as government and the statistical data easily gettable.
Suitable data can be gathered quite quickly and demographic segmentation is easy to understand

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for the marketing team to sell the products. It is easy to make the marketing plan for the
demographic marketing segment.
Task 4
a. Identifying and describing Subway’s product offerings, pricing strategies and place
where Subway’s products are sold
Products offering
Subway takes the strategy of diversified products offering as it serves the products in the
restaurants and the outlets. Subway also provides the catering services in some of the countries.
In the outlets; Subway's offers the variety of sandwiches, snacks, breakfast items, drinks, pieces
of bread and submarine sandwiches. In addition, the catering services include the food items like
Giant Subs, Subway to Go, meals, sides, drinks, desserts and Sandwich Platters. Most
interestingly, Giant Sub Sandwiches are long and Sandwich platters are included the food items
range like Turkey Breast, Chicken ham. Subway also offers the Subway Club and the Veggie
Delight (Subway.com 2018). In addition, Subway provides the baked items like doughnuts,
cookies, muffins, wraps also. The best-sellers list of Subway is long and the diversified products
offering attract large numbers of customers. The product-line strategy increases the customers’
base for the organisation. In the UK and Indian market; Subway launched the vegetarian
products and it sells coffee also.
Pricing strategies
Subway takes the premium pricing strategy and its prices are higher than the competitors in the
market. Subway sets the prices higher than KFC and McDonald's in the market. Subway serves

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the food items with the best quality and the food items are best-suited for the calorie conscious
people as well. Subway claims that it serves better quality food items and its pricing strategy is
obvious. It is quite noticeable that the quantity of Subway products is more than the McDonalds
and KFC. Subway takes the differential pricing strategy as this value pricing is based on
generating of the value in terms of delivering of the quality to the customers in the Subway
outlets. Higher pricing strategy increases the general interest of the people and it increases the
brand value of the organisation (Wang et al. 2016). Higher pricing strategy obviously enhances
the firm’s profit as well.
Place strategy
Subway is currently operating in more than 44,000 outlets and it is one of the fastest growing
franchises. Subway has its outlets in more than 112 countries and most of the outlets are in off-
beat premium places. Subway outlets are located in the malls, business centres, amusement
parks, airports, military base and urban cities. Most of the Subway outlets are in the premium
places where the customers can conveniently reach the outlets to have the food items. The
customers are mostly calorie conscious and the catering services can be available for the business
meetings, birthday parties, holiday gatherings, social gathering and office party.
b. Part Two: Communication Campaign Review
1. An explanation of the role of the Promotional Mix
Promotions are an integral part of the marketing and it motivates them to buy the products from
the organisation. According to Kitchen and Burgman (2015), the promotional mix includes the
set of components which contribute to achieving the organisational objectives. The products

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offered by the organisation are judged by how the organisation advertises this. The effectiveness
of this promotion provides a better idea to the advertisers about where the organisation can
improve. The promotional mix has five different elements; direct marketing, advertising, public
relations, sales and personal selling. Promotional mix helps the organisation to use the medium
like television, radio, mobile and print media to advertise the products.
2. Discuss the promotional mix element of the Subway adopts in the video including
advantages and disadvantages
Subway takes the video campaign as part of the promotional mix. Video campaign of Subway
shares the motto of the organisation to attract large numbers of customers. Video campaigns
enable the organisation to stream the video content on Google Display Network or YouTube.
The advantage of video marketing is that it is free in virtual media and video marketing position
the organisation as expert as it is a feast to the eyes. Video campaign exposes the business to the
wider audiences with higher brand awareness and it generates more leads to the website traffic.
Video campaign promotes better brand recall than other advertising media (Helm and Gritsch
2014). On the other side, video marketing cannot force the viewership as it is all responsible for
the content of the video.
3. Conducting research and discuss the channels used by Subway to increase its market
share
Subway uses the slogan named ‘Eat Fresh’ to promote the freshness and high quality of the
products. Subway makes the sandwiches in front of the customers in order to increase the
transparency of making the product with right ingredients by the Subway Sandwiches Artists.
Subway has made itself involve with cartoon character Peter Griffin to promote the new
sandwiches. Subway has also uses the promotion series with US TV Series ‘Chuck'. Subway has

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also run the campaign like ‘Buy one sandwich, Give one sandwich free' on National Sandwich
Day. Subway has used the YouTube video campaign along with it has the blog post named
SubCulture. Subway has its Facebook, Twitter and Instagram page to promote their brand.
Subway also uses the television media to promote their products.
4. Discuss the key message of the video campaign
The key message of the video campaign is to promote the concept ‘make it what you want’.
Subway wants to make clear one thing that all age group customers and all types of customers
can enjoy having Subway sandwiches. The video shows the sandwiches are big, epic, hot and
tastier and they are fast. The consumers can enjoy the sandwiches in any circumstances. Subway
wants to celebrate different mood of life.
5. Discussion of the key target audience of the video campaign and the characteristics
Subway generally targets the customers aged between 18 and 38. However, this particular video
celebrates the different mood of the human beings. The target audiences of the video belong to
all age groups. This video mainly features the young generation who want to live freely. The
target audiences are the young generation and the characteristics of the target audiences must be
free. The core concept of the video campaign is not to take what are given in life and food. The
target audiences must have set of brain where they need to make what they want.
6. Using of AIDA marketing theory to explain the video campaign attributing and key
message achieve Subway’s new objective
AIDA marketing theory recognises the cognitive stage in which a person goes through during the
buying process for the product and services (Khan 2014). The video campaign does aware the
customers about the Subway products and the cheerfulness of human being. Video campaign

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creates the brand awareness with the product and services. The video campaign creates the
interest towards having Sandwiches and sufficient interest can encourage having the buyer to
start to research further. The core message of the video campaign is to live freely and make
customers ready for what they want. Desires for the Subway products can make emotional
connection towards the organisation. This video campaign can show the brand personality.
Action moves the buyer to interact with the organisation and take the next step to buy the
products. Therefore, more customers will engage to purchase the products to make the market
share increase.
7. Discussion of one method Subway use to gather feedback on the effectiveness of Video
campaign
Subway has its channel on YouTube and they have more than 46k subscribers of the YouTube
video. Subway can gather feedback through comments under the video. The comment section of
the video will enable the organisation to understand the effectiveness of the video campaign.
YouTube Community of Subway will make clear about effectiveness of the video campaign.
Conclusion
It has been noticed that Subway has its own set of marketing channels to which they reach wider
customers. Marketing communication is a complex part of the organisation's marketing efforts.
In the first part, it has been observed that Subway targets the demographic segmentation with
diversified products and it has higher prices than the competitors in the market. In the second
part, Subway's video campaign clears about the key message of life freely and makes it what
individuals want.

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