Marketing and Subway Restaurants

The heart concepts of marketing are customers wants, values, communications and relationships. Marketing is strategically concerned with the direction and scope of the long-term activities performed by a company to obtain a competitive advantage. The organization applies its resources within a changing environment to satisfy customer needs while meeting stakeholder expectations. If I were a business owner wanting to market my product and services, I know that I would first need to indentify and understand my customer’s needs. I would need to know the marketplace as well as my customer’s demographics which would have to be done through diligent researching. After indentifying my market target, then a plan will have to be created to offer the products and services unlike my competitors.

What is Marketing Myopia? Myopia is the sustained growth depends on how broadly one defines their business and how carefully one gauges their customers’ needs. In terms of marketing, it means the lack of developing long range perspective about changing consumer needs”. Companies become unresponsive to competitive movement in the market. This is because of the company-centric approach of the organizations and where the organizational perspective of successes and failures are top priority. “Marketing Myopia” was a title of an article which was published in the Harvard Business Review. The author of the article is Theodore Levitt who was a lecturer of business administration at the Harvard Business School. The article overwhelmingly influenced a number entrepreneurs, and marketing specialists.

What is marketing?

Marketing is advertising and the selling products. Marketing can be accomplish after one is able to identifying the wants and needs of customers, understanding the market place, and building customer relationships. Companies tend get themselves in deep problems because they fail to remember the service they are there to provide and to whom they are providing it to.

Subway is an American restaurant that primarily sells sandwiches and salads. It is owned and operated by Doctor’s Associates, Inc. Subway is one of the fastest growing franchises in the world and they are one of the world’s largest restaurant chains there is, in terms of number of locations. They have become the leading choice for people seeking quick, nutritious meals and they’re committed to proving a wide range of great tasting, healthier food choices.

As they continue to grow, they let their passion for delighting their customers guide then by serving fresh made-to-order sandwiches daily. Subway gives their customers the privilege to watch the construction of their sandwiches from the wide selection of choices. Subway offer choices from the low-fat sub to the indulgent Italian sub with the choices to add or not add fattening condiments such as mayonnaise cheese, mayo. In 1999 Jared Fogle made the media attention on how eating at Subway, he changed his life and eating habits. He went on to say that Subway menus include healthier choices and smaller portions that kept him going on and believing in change. With that said, Subway saw their stocks and the demand for their products increased rapidly and the marketing campaign went all out to expand their franchises into a few convenience stores such as Wal-Mart in 2006.

With everything going well form them, they endured that they did not fall into the trap of a marketing myopia because they focused on their customers’ needs. However there as being very little movement or advancement to the franchise products and services since the Jared Fogle while McDonalds, Burger King and now Chipotle just to name a few has over shadow Subway.

Avoiding Market Myopia

A company avoiding “Market Myopia” needs to looks through the eyes of their customers also notice what competitors are marketing and try to outsmart them. Customers are current and the potential viewers and buyers of products and services and that is how choices are determined. Symptoms

•Customers love our products or services regardless of what happens •We are our own competitors •A shift in customers preference in sandwiches •If performance is lower than expectations, satisfaction is low

SUBWAY needs to look at strategies as to how make the product desirable and to keep their customers enticed for more. Let look at “Starbucks” for a few seconds, it is the #1 place for people to go and have coffee. Why, because Starbucks ensures that they keep their customers allured with the different flavors each year. They stay above the competitions and these are just a few suggestions as to how SUBWAY might want to think about avoiding “Market Myopia”:

Product Strategy With the successful campaign of Jared Fogle about the “weight loss” Subway might want to •“Think Globally, Act Locally” – Hospitals cafeterias • Targeting an underserved customer segment •Create new offers for the exiting market or enhance the value of the exiting offers •Add different sizes(18”) and flavors(jerk chicken) to the exiting menu

Market Strategy •Fitness Centers( weight watchers) •High School population •Hospital Cafeterias •Airports

SUBWAY marketing representative may want to look beyond their current business activities and think outside the box and as Albert Einstein says “The problems that exist in the world today cannot be solved by the level of thinking that created them”. Creating Better Marketing Campaigns

Focusing on creating more creative advertising strategies and sales promotional strategies can protect your product from competition, and help establish a unique position for new products. Often times, when exploring these strategies, companies will discover they haven’t asked basic marketing and sales questions.