Subway Marketing Strategy & Marketing Mix (4Ps)

Published in Services category by MBA Skool Team

Marketing Strategy of Subway analyzes the brand with the marketing mix framework which covers the 4Ps (Product, Price, Place, Promotion). These business strategies, based on Subway marketing mix, help the brand succeed in the market. Let us start the Subway Marketing Strategy & Mix to understand its product, pricing, advertising & distribution strategies:

Subway Product Strategy:

The product strategy and mix in Subway marketing strategy can be explained as follows:

Subway is one of the leading fast food chains in the world and offers a variety of products under its marketing mix product strategy. The first product that Subway offered was a submarine sandwich and today the product has diversified offerings. It serves in its restaurants as well as takes up catering services. Its restaurant menu includes a variety of sandwiches, breakfast items, snacks, sides drinks, breads. Its catering services include products like Giant subs, Sandwich platters, Subway to GO! Meals, desserts, sides and drinks. Sandwich platters have a range of sandwiches like Chicken Ham, Turkey breast, and trademark sandwiches like Subway club and Veggie Delight.

Subway serves baked items like cookies, doughnuts, muffins, and wraps. For certain countries Subway has introduced flat breads, Breakfast sandwiches, English muffins. Subway has diversified its menu based on the local taste preferred in its region of operation. And also expanded in beverages with ‘Seattle’s best coffee’.


Image: flickr-photos/walmart3/


Subway Price/Pricing Strategy:

Below is the pricing strategy in Subway marketing strategy:

Subway serves its products for higher price than its competitors. But it serves food for calorie conscious customers.

The sandwiches are offered between $4to $8 depending upon the size and type of sandwich which is being made. So, accordingly the price is justified. Subway also claims to serve better quality food than any of its competitors, thus making its pricing very obvious. Their differential pricing strategy with value pricing is according to the value generation in terms of quality delivered by the Subway outlets. Hence, this gives an insight on the marketing mix pricing strategy of Subway. The annual revenue of the company is around $10 billion.

Subway Place & Distribution Strategy:

Following is the distribution strategy in the Subway marketing mix:

Subway mainly operates through franchises and is one of the fastest growing franchises. Subway has 35,000 franchises across 100 countries and territories. They are located in off-beat premium places and it has turned out to be a boon for the brand. They are located on airports, malls, amusement parks, business centers, hospitals, military bases, etc. These Subway outlets are located in premium places where the customers are more calorie conscious and thus would be willing to pay the higher price.

The catering services are located for business meetings, office gatherings, birthday parties, holiday gatherings, social gatherings, field trips.


Subway Promotion & Advertising Strategy:

The promotional and advertising strategy in the Subway marketing strategy is as follows:

Subway uses various promotional activities to promote its brand and products. Subway advertise their products, employ personnel that personally sells, involve public relations and sales promotions in its marketing mix promotional strategy. They use their slogan, ‘Eat fresh’ to promote the freshness and high quality food that they make. Most of their promotions are directed to adults between 18-35, thus their advertisements are broadcasted majorly during primetime, sports and on cable networks. Like every other brand, Subway's advertisements are targeted so that the customers move up the brand from awareness set to consideration set when it comes to eating in fast food chains. They have been making the sandwiches in front of their customers to flaunt the quality and freshness of their ingredients and the way their sandwiches have been crafted by their ‘Subway Sandwich Artists’. Subway have involved cartoon characters like Peter Griffin for promoting their new sandwiches. They had a promotion series for product placement in US TV series, ‘chuck’. They also had ‘Buy one sandwich, Give one sandwich free’ promotional campaign on National Sandwich Day. With its "Refresh" campaign, the brand focused on young consumers to refresh its image & boost sales.


Since this is a service marketing brand, here are the other three Ps to make it the 7Ps marketing mix of Subway.


People:

Subway, being a prominent restaurant brand, must focus on its people i.e. customers as well as employees. More than 400,000 people are employed with Subway worldwide, for whom customer service is of the highest priority. Subway daily serves millions of customers worldwide. Every employee at the store is trained well to make the sandwiches, package them and complete the financial transactions as well.


Process:

One the USP of Subway is the transparency it gives to the customers while making freshly made sandwiches. The services are important for a brand like Subway and hence they focus on the customer service. At the store, a customer can customize their sandwich and select the type of bread, meat or vegetables, salad and sauces. As far as other business processes are concerned, Subway has efficient food procurement, warehousing, storage, supply chain etc processes.


Physical Evidence:

For a restaurant brand like Subway, its main physical evidence are its stores. Subway has more than 35,000 stores spread across the world. The ambience at the stores, the staff, location, maintenance etc form the physical evidence of the brand. Also, the quality of vegetables, chicken, breads used, because of which the product is made, completes the physical evidence of the company. Hence, this completes the Subway marketing strategy & marketing mix.


About Subway:

Subway founded in 1965 in Bridgefort Connecticut, has been growing at the highest pace as a world franchise. Subway has its presence in 100 countries and territories with over 35,000 restaurants as on 2021. This American fast food restaurant chain mainly serves its customers with variety of tasty submarine sandwiches and salads. Subway has been ranking in the top 500 franchises list consistently.

Some of its competitors include McDonald’s, KFC, Dominos Pizza and Pizza Hut. Subway has been adapting itself to various cultural demands and twisting offerings for the cultural fit.

This article has been researched & authored by the Content & Research Team. It has been reviewed & published by the MBA Skool Team. The content on MBA Skool has been created for educational & academic purpose only.

Browse marketing strategy and 4Ps analysis of more brands similar to Subway. The Marketing Strategy & Mix section covers 4Ps and 7Ps of more than 800 brands in 2 categories.

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The names and other brand information used in the Marketing Strategy & Mix section are properties of their respective companies. The companies are not associated with MBA Skool in any way.

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