Subway restaurant is one of the leading franchises in the United States. The franchise is owned partially by McDonald's (20%), which is yet another large fast-food franchise in the U.S. and partially by other independent companies (80%). Currently, the SUBWAY brand creates the world's best submarine sandwiches. The company’s reach spans across 40,000 locations around the world. It is considered by many as the leading choice for people seeking fast, nutritious meal options that the whole family can relish. From the beginning, the company’s CEO has had a clear vision for the future of the SUBWAY brand and seeks to establish it as a strong brand in the market.
STRATEGIC PLAN
Mission Statement
The mission statement for Subway is “To provide the tools and knowledge to allow entrepreneurs to compete successfully in the Fast Food industry worldwide, by consistently offering value to consumers through providing great tasting food that is good for them and made the way they want it.”
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This mission statement makes a lot of sense and carries a strong message. However, it is long and hard to recall, to both investors and customers. The ideal mission statement, as per this paper is; “To consistently improve the quality of life of customers, through the provision of great tasting food that is delicious and made the way they want”.
Vision Statement
The vision statement of Subway is: Be the #1 Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) franchise in the world while delivering fresh, delicious sandwiches and an exceptional experience. The ideal vision statement would be: “To be the world leader in the fast food industry, whilst giving customers an unforgettable experience”.
Goals of the Strategic Plan
To increase Subway’s market shares in the fast food industry, by the opening of more franchises in strategic locations across the U.S. and the globe.
To create a Subway ‘food luxury’ brand that will appeal to high-end customers increasing our stake in the ‘food luxury’ market, within the next quarter.
To actively rebrand the Subway brand, visually and online, to give it a new and fresh lease of life.
Develop a comprehensive online marketing strategy through an aggressive online marketing strategy.
SWOT ANALYSIS
To comprehensively understand the factors that will make the strategic plan more effective, it is prudent to do a SWOT analysis of Subway, so as to know what to leverage in accomplishing the strategic plan.
Strengths
High Brand Loyalty: Subway has massive online and physical following among its customers; this translates to a high brand recall. This can be leveraged to achieve the aggressive online strategy. Subway is ranked third in consumer base, after McDonalds and Starbucks.
Easy Starting of the franchise: Franchisee staff training is structured, brief and optimized to assure rapid start-up for new employees as these are all carried out by the agency which has hired the brand name of Subway. This guarantees easy set-up of new restaurants at remote locations (locations away from the states) and smooth functioning without any obstructions of different regulations. This is an advantage to the strategy of opening new branches.
Health benefits: One of the key advantages of eating at Subway is the health benefits of the sub sandwiches they sell. This is a key appeal to all its consumers that makes it stand taller than McDonalds and KFC, which rely heavily on fried and oily foods, which pack high-calorie content, compared to what Subway sells. This is presumably the best strength in the SWOT analysis of Subway.
Differentiation : The ‘sub’ sandwich is Subway’s unique identity and cannot be simply replicated as the foods sold in other fast food cafes around the U.S. and the globe. Additionally, the sub sandwich can be customized with the use of various ingredients, on offer at any Subway branches. Due to this customization, no other fast food outlet has accomplished the level of popularity which subway has enjoyed and continues to have. This distinguishes Subway and makes it a treasured brand amongst the various food franchises.
Weaknesses
Level of Service and Customer Satisfaction: Due to the franchising did all across the Subway outlets, the level of training of staff and some services may vary. This adds to a different service accomplishment, hence consumer satisfaction, on visiting different outlets of Subway, across the states and the globe. This should be rectified in the new strategic plan. All the new branches will have similar staff training and services. This ensures commitment to service and services are uniform, thus if a customer travels from the states to other countries of the world that have Subway branches, the feeling is not different.
Brand Value: Subway’s number of outlets in the world is second to McDonald's only, though this number is improving yearly, its closest rival, McDonald's has stayed steadily ahead. This, as said in the strategic plan, will be heavily worked on, to ensure Subway has the lead
Old-fashioned themed restaurant: The theme employed all across subway branches seems outdated as compared to other fast food outlets. This should be met aggressively, as said in the objective of strategic and fresh visual marketing. This will rebrand all Subway branches, giving them a new and fresh view, suitable to its urban and vibrant consumer base. Part of this will include; the creation of ordering applications, available on both Playstore and iCloud. This will give consumers more incentive to buy from the brand. In addition, rewards for loyalty and frequency will drive customers to keep the Subway app relevant and build its frequency and rating on the online retail stores. Getting free food is another strong form of value and aids in developing deeper performance toward ordering habits. Same as the need for digital cash has made the wallet obsolete, punch-card systems aren’t cool and are often forgotten or lost. Integrated loyalty programs are more contemporary. Free WiFi will also create an enduring opportunity for customers and create that third place for customers to escape from home or work.
Many Employees: Subway employee base is formed of low skill and low pay personnel. This results in high employee turnover and low performance, which increases training costs and add to overall costs of operations.
No Online Presence: Subway’s online presence is minimal, this, is also addressed in the strategic plan, under aggressive online marketing. This forms one of the key goals of the strategic plan as most of the subway’s consumer base is composed of tech-savvy and frequently online consumers. Additionally, in the digital era online presence is vital to any organization, especially those in the food and beverage industry.
Opportunities
Home Delivery: Most of the successful eateries are providing services like home delivery. Subway needs to improve on this trend and start catering the home delivery loving potential customer.
Health Consciousness: People are getting more and more health aware in today’s world. So, Subway can actually venture into this and become more prosperous as both a brand and fast food franchise.
Threats
Competition: Subway can face a serious threat from competition like KFC, McDonald’s, Taco Bell, Wendy’s which have and are growing a loyal consumer base. If they also start providing low-fat food options this can seriously chip away Subway’s customer base, as this is the key advantage that Subway enjoys over other fast food branches.
Saturated Market: New restaurants are coming up with models similar to that of Subway. This can chip away the customer base as they can influence the local people better and serve their needs better in the regional base.
SUBWAY PERCEPTUAL MAP
References
Chin, J. (2017). Supersizing Urban America: How Inner Cities Got Fast Food with Government Help. Chicago. University of Chicago Press.
Eric, S. (2001). Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal , Boston-U.S.A. Mariner Books.
Johnson, T. K. (2015). How to Build a Fast Food Franchise Business : The Only Book You Need to Launch, Grow & Succeed, the USA, Create Space Independent Publishing Platform.
