Subway has become the largest restaurant chain in the world, surpassing McDonald's with over 33,000 locations globally. Subway has achieved rapid growth by opening outlets in non-traditional locations. Subway uses marketing strategies like branding, quality ingredients, and efficient service. They target younger, health-conscious customers and use a hybrid segmentation approach. As a franchise, Subway relies on local franchisees to operate stores while taking a percentage of sales.

1. International marketing
Yasar University, Izmir, Turkey, 2011
SUBWAY
Antonia FICOVA
Paneuropean University, Slovakia
antonia.ficova@yahoo.com
Abstract
Subway, aims at value being served rather than having a transactional relationship.
Moreover, their sandwiches are served based on size mentioned on the menu and consumers can
opt for a value addition through customization. Below the line promotional strategies have been
used and competitions have being devised based various games such as Scrabble. Similarly, both
hard sell and soft sell approaches have been used to market the product. Subway has expanded
everywhere one can think of with outlets in hospitals, bus terminals, colleges, stores and railway
stations etcetera. Subway's main operations office is in Milford, Connecticut, and five regional
centers support Subway's growing international operations. The regional office for Europe's 1,000
stores is in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Australia and New Zealand, with over 2,100 outlets, and is
supported from Brisbane, Australia. The 300 Middle Eastern locations are supported from Beirut,
Lebanon. Singapore supports the 300+ Asian locations. The Latin American Support Center in
Miami assists over 1,100 restaurants. In the UK and Ireland the company hopes to have 2,010
restaurants by the year 2010.
Key Words: Micro Analysis Of Subway, Marketing Strategies, Advertising Campaign, Subway
targets, Unique business model, Franchising

2. International marketing: Subway FICOVA Antonia
1 Introduction
It's official: the Subway sandwich chain has surpassed McDonald's Corp. as the world's
largest restaurant chain, in terms of units. At the end of last year, Subway had 33,749 restaurants
worldwide, compared to McDonald's 32,737. The burger giant disclosed its year-end store count in
a Securities and Exchange Commission filing late last month.
The race for global dominance is an important one for an industry that's mostly saturated in
the U.S. High unemployment and economic uncertainty have battered the restaurant industry in the
U.S., and chains are increasingly looking overseas for growth, particularly in Asia.
Subway has achieved its rapid growth, in part, by opening outlets in non-traditional
locations such as an automobile showroom in California, an appliance store in Brazil, a ferry
terminal in Seattle, a riverboat in Germany, a zoo in Taiwan, a Goodwill store in South Carolina, a
high school in Detroit and a church in Buffalo, New York.
2 Literature Review
2.1 Micro Analysis Of Subway
Competitors
The Subway restaurant chain has been ranked the number one franchise opportunity in the
last twenty years. This fact put company on the first place between companies of the same type.
The other big competitors like Mc Donalds, Burger King or KFC fight in finding the best way to
customer pockets. They can offer the same products which are directed to not decided customers
or competitor customers like for example chips. All of them try to find the best way to gain new
customers,to be better than the other. Subway manage with that quite well what can confirm big
profits and the speed of expanding.
Customers
Fast food restaurants customers pay attentiont to many different aspects. That is why the
biggest companies offer so many various products. These days clientele demands more and check
who can provide them. Because of that ther were invented vegetarian sandwiches meals for kids
etc. Customers are the most important because they pay for food to run somebody’s business.
Market
All of the biggest companies try to get as many customers as it possible that is why
expansion is so quick. We can find Mc Donalds, KFC, Burger King or Subway all over the world.
All of these companies try to get domination on every market they appear. Some of them lead in
Europe some in North America.
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3. International marketing: Subway FICOVA Antonia
2.2 Subway's Marketing Strategies
Here are the 4 most important strengths of SUBWAY.
Brand Awareness
Even though it is not that well known in South Africa, Subway is brand that is known the
world over for their fresh tasting products and innovative store placements.
Quality of food
Subway prides themselves on always having the freshest ingredients available for your sub,
and they hide nothing from the customer. All their products are made on the spot while the
customer chooses what toppings he/she wants on the sub. Unlike most fast food franchises,
nothing is deep-fried or frozen.
Efficiency
At Subway, you don’t wait for your order. You order it at the counter and watch it being
made by the highly efficient team of staff. When the product is ready, you pay and take it with
you. No bills, no queues, no hassles.
Store Location
Subway restaurant sites are adaptable to any type of location. For instance, there are over 900
Subway locations inside of Wal-Mart stores and 200 on military bases, including several in Iraq, in
addition to two located inside The Pentagon. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., automobile showroom in
California.
Figure 1 Locations of Subway
2.3 Advertising Campaign
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4. International marketing: Subway FICOVA Antonia
Marketers choose colors for their brands very carefully while devising brand logos as
colors speak out for the brand. For instance, the dark green color represents health and
environment. A former Subway logo used until 2003 and still seen at many locations.
Subway uses the advertising slogan "Eat Fresh" to explain how every sandwich is made on
freshly baked bread, using fresh ingredients, in front of the customer to their exact specification,
by employees who Subway terms "sandwich artists".
There are five primary colors to opt from that make the logo appear strong, these are;
green, yellow, blue red and orange. Green like the color blue is peaceful and calm and shows
freshness and hence the dark green color in the logo denotes environment and health (Williams,
2007). Similarly, yellow being also in use is neutral color while being the brightest also as it’s
between the ranges of wavelength that could be detected by human eyes (Ries, 2000). White
indicates purity. Therefore, the colors, white, dark green and yellow combine together for the logo
to show purity, environment (its goes along the tagline, ‘Eat Fresh) and attract consumers. Thus, it
is the overall mood that the marketers have established ever since the brand’s growth.
2.4 Subway targets
More of the younger generation aiming at nutrition consciousness, these would include
‘empty nest 1 and 2’ (singles and newly married people) and ‘full nest 1 and full nest 2’ (family
with young children and that with grownups still living with parents). With respect to the tagline
and strategies in use, Subway utilizes a psychographic segmentation strategy with a clear focus on
attitudes, interests and opinions (AIO) and lifestyles (Yeshin, 2005). Thus the younger generation
is status and principle oriented with emphasis being laid on healthy food. At the same time
behavioristic segmentation is being utilized thus making it hybrid (Curtis and Emerson, 1999). The
market is divided according to the loyalty of customers and benefits it has been seeking.
2.5 Unique business model
The parent company does not operate any restaurants. Local franchisees operate the stores,
and in most markets Subway enters into a contract with a franchisee to be its Development Agent
for that market.
The Development Agent is then responsible for developing new locations, evaluating stores
on a monthly basis, and assisting franchisees with whatever needs they may have. 8% of sales at
each location go to royalties, while 4.5% of sales go into a fund, the Subway Franchisee
Advertising Fund Trust, also known as SFAFT which is operated by a board of directors voted on
by Subway Franchisees.
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5. International marketing: Subway FICOVA Antonia
2.6 Franchising
This word is from the French for honesty and means a method of doing business wherein a
franchisor licenses trademarks and tried and proven methods of doing business to a franchisee in
exchange for a recurring payment, and usually a percentage piece of gross sales or gross profits as
well as.
The SUBWAY® franchise was ranked the number-one global franchise among franchises
with worldwide operations in the 2010 Franchise 500® issue of Entrepreneur® magazine. Their
business goal is to be the number one restaurant/ store chain in both consumer ranking and location
count in every market it serves.
Figure 2 Franchise Capital Requirements
3 Concluding Remarks and Implications
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6. International marketing: Subway FICOVA Antonia
We can say that Subway is the biggest an American restaurant franchise that primarily sells
submarine sandwiches (subs), salads, and personal pizzas. It is owned and operated by Doctor's
Associates, Inc. (DAI). Subway is one of the fastest growing franchises in the world with
approximately 34,003 restaurants in 95 countries/territories as of February, 2011. It is the largest
single-brand restaurant chain globally and is the second largest restaurant operator globally after
Yum! Brands (35,000 locations).
By the way the company has some concerns about the economies of certain international
markets, such as Germany and the United Kingdom. The company is trying to develop more
affordable offerings in those countries, similar to the $5 foot-long sandwiches that have been
successful in the U.S.
References:
[1] http://www.subway.com/subwayroot/AboutSubway/pressReleases/index.aspx
[2] http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703386704576186432177464052.html?
KEYWORDS=subway+restaurant
[3] http://www.managementparadise.com/forums/human-resources-management-h-r/215128-
organisational-structure-subway.html
[4] http://ie.franchiseexpo.com/franchise.cfm?s_booth=651984
[5] http://www.entrepreneur.com/marketing/branding/imageandbrandingcolumnistjohnwilliam
s/article175428.html
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7. International marketing: Subway FICOVA Antonia
We can say that Subway is the biggest an American restaurant franchise that primarily sells
submarine sandwiches (subs), salads, and personal pizzas. It is owned and operated by Doctor's
Associates, Inc. (DAI). Subway is one of the fastest growing franchises in the world with
approximately 34,003 restaurants in 95 countries/territories as of February, 2011. It is the largest
single-brand restaurant chain globally and is the second largest restaurant operator globally after
Yum! Brands (35,000 locations).
By the way the company has some concerns about the economies of certain international
markets, such as Germany and the United Kingdom. The company is trying to develop more
affordable offerings in those countries, similar to the $5 foot-long sandwiches that have been
successful in the U.S.
References:
[1] http://www.subway.com/subwayroot/AboutSubway/pressReleases/index.aspx
[2] http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703386704576186432177464052.html?
KEYWORDS=subway+restaurant
[3] http://www.managementparadise.com/forums/human-resources-management-h-r/215128-
organisational-structure-subway.html
[4] http://ie.franchiseexpo.com/franchise.cfm?s_booth=651984
[5] http://www.entrepreneur.com/marketing/branding/imageandbrandingcolumnistjohnwilliam
s/article175428.html
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