Subway is the second largest franchise food chain in the world. The Subway growth model is one that defied the traditional fast-food industry and has worked well in marketing the franchise. But a good part of their marketing was not necessarily planned in the boardroom as much as it was a grassroots effort from franchisees who were listening to their clients.

One of the first things that Subway did that helped them become a national chain was to make it easy on their franchisees to go into business. First, they put the store anywhere… and I mean anywhere! I remember the first time I visited a Subway restaurant. It was in an abandoned gas station along a stretch of interstate that sat across the street from a McDonalds and Burger King. The only reason I tried it was because the drive through lanes at the other restaurants were out to the street and I was in a hurry. Subways began popping up all over the place: in big box stores, in strip malls, in gas stations. Unlike other fast-food franchises who, at that time, required a specially designed stand alone bricks and mortar building (in McDonalds’ case, they owned the building and leased it to the franchisee), if you could find your own space, you could have a Subway franchise. It was also very low cost to set up and run a Subway. You needed a cooler and a bread machine. Customer convenience was the hallmark of Subway. It seemed that everywhere you turned, there was a new Subway opening up, making it easy on the customer to choose them. They were in your neighborhood. You could get your sandwich made anyway you liked it for the same price. Customer service was on display right in front of you. If you wanted to add cheese to your sandwich, it was included. If you wanted to load on the vegetables, no problem. Convenience became the real key here.

Subway also made a big deal of their successes, although, this did not come from the top down, but rather from the bottom up. Let me explain. In the 1990s there was considerable pressure put on the fast-food industry to make their food healthier, to post nutritional information, etc. What the industry did about this was to ignore the problem. However, one Houston franchisee came up with a special promotion. He invented the "7 under 6” promotion. In other words, he promoted seven subs that had 6 grams of fat or less. The idea caught on with other franchisees, including one in Bloomington, Indiana. That was the store where a college student named Jared Fogle was frequenting. He began a diet of low-fat Subway sandwiches. In less than a year, Jared’s Subway diet (along with exercise – walking) helped him shed 245 pounds. A franchise spokesman was born. Subway used the success of a common customer to market the restaurant as a healthy alternative to other fast-food restaurants.

Any time you can distinguish yourself from the others, do it. This is the real key to Subway’s rise past Wendy’s and Burger King to claim the #2 spot in the fast food industry. They own the health-food crowd. They are sponsors of weight loss TV shows. They market the evils of fryers vs. fresh meat and veggies. The fryers used to thumb their nose at the pop health craze. Now they are chasing Subway to get a piece of that market share back into their stores.

In their book, Bottom-Up Marketing, Al Ries and Jack Trout talk about two key pieces of marketing when you are trying to make a distinction between your company and the competition. They talk about monitoring trends and finding a tactic to expose the weaknesses of your competition within that trend. That is exactly what Subway did with the health issue and their fryer competition. "A tactic is a competitive mental angle. The best tactic to use is the one that strikes at the weak point of your competitors in the mind of the prospect.”¹ Do you know what trends are happening with your customers? Do you know what your competitors’ weaknesses are? Are you using your successes to gain a larger foothold within your industry? If you don’t pay attention, you could find yourself chasing the competition instead of them chasing you, just ask the fryers.

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1. Bottom-Up Marketing by Al Ries and Jack Trout. Penguin Books Ltd. New York.

Starbucks Becomes No. 3 U.S. Chain, Passing Burger King and Wendy's by Maureen Morrison, AdAge April 27, 2011

http://adage.com/article/news/starbucks-passes-burger-king-wendy-s-3-spot/227252/

Subway.com Jared’s Journey. http://www.subway.com/subwayroot/freshbuzz/website/jareds_journey/default.aspx