Executive summary

Subway has witnessed tremendous growth from the time it was established in Trinidad. It has established itself in a market that was well dominated by McDonald and KFC. As a result of this growth, Subway has ambitions to expand and have a market share that is larger than its competitors. It is therefore right for Subway to have a proposal for a sustained plan that will enable it to continue the excellent service delivery and expand on the domestic market. This can only be done through internal examination of the environment for the best ways of expanding. The expansion can come in terms of price leadership or introducing new products to the market. This study aims to give an internal analysis of Subway environment of operation. The analysis is done through the use of investigation to potentially introducing a new product or having priced leadership with numerous recommendations given regarding factor on the market mix.

 

Introduction

In the year 2014, subway financial report showed that the company had witnessed a massive increment in revenue within the Trinidad market t. Because subway has many ambitions and plans because of its expansion, the business is currently occupying one of the most significant shares in the market. It is therefore crucial for Subway to propose numerous plants that can be sustainable and help it expand from the domestic level.  There are ways of doing this. One is giving internal analysis or external analysis. The markets within their domestic level can be analyzed through the use of external and internal environmental factors, especially when introducing new products. This report will give an analysis through the use of the environmental analysis, SWOT analysis, and other investigation potentials together with the marketing mix. Also, the report shows the pricing is done to attract any customers when there is the off-peak season and during the hours when it is not off-peak hours. The strategies are geared towards increasing the demand for the products that have been known to be healthy and promotes environment conservation (Blasi, and Jennifer, 2019, 1). Through emphasizing on the health issues and any obesity campaigns, many people can relate the ideas initiated by the company to improve customer relations. The campaigns for advertisement have to be as consistent as possible Advertisement campaigns should be as consistent as possible, to improve on the common image. The sublime messages that subway should rely on are also crucial in many ways (Coolbroth, 2017, 4). At the same time, it is recommended that they should incorporate television commercials.

Report on Promotion Pricing Placement

Subway has always targeted middle-class people and the upper segment of the market. However, it is a franchise that deals on lower prices as compared to the other fast food franchises. The company also offers promotional campaigns that come with popularity to increase instant sales volume for the franchise in different locations (Young, 2017, 3).

Promoting itself as a fast food chain that offers healthy food, it has advertisements need a teenager who lost more than 240 pounds after he had switched to subway sandwich diet for a year (Abbott, Ramchand, Chamberlin, and Marcellino, 2018, 674). He is the Spokesperson of the company and inspires more people who want to lose weight thereby increasing the market share of the company. Subway has benefited massively from its presentation of the products and strategies that employees are marketing campaigns for weight loss.

New Product Introduction

Subway brand is a privately held fast-food brand that operates as a franchise primarily. The brand sells sandwiches and salads and has been the fastest growing franchise throughout the globe (Cadario, 2016, 130). A branch in Trinidad functions as one of the global franchises and assists the restaurants within the country to target the domestic market. Subway originated in the United States and entered the market after it was introduced in the year 1990. Currently, it is one of the largest markets that exist outside of the United States. Modern 500 stores are existing and the nation. Subway has had numerous efforts that enhance the public attention especially when it comes to health and diet. The company has gained the market shares over some of the traditional foods including McDonald and KFC. Subway products are famous because they have low fat and they have high fiber which is usually recommended for the health benefits. Because the product only has 6 grams of fat or less, many dietitians recommend products of the subway.

The Current Market Share

By performing a SWOT analysis, numerous strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats can be determined especially when releasing an internal report. A good SWOT analysis helps in developing a strategic plan for the company to determine the key factors within the external and the internal environment. This helps in the development of a new product. The company can then adjust based on that SWOT analysis and make up for those differences. It has been noted that subway has lots of opportunities especially when it comes to the fast food industry and has challenges that are generated from the internal environment and external environment. This is why it is important to introduce a new product.

Strength

Strengths for subway comes from the opportunities that are presented to it in terms of health benefits. The food that is supplied by subway is fresh, and new products are usually freshly cooked. The other strength is that the products are cheap and the customers are allowed to bargain for the products (Yolanda, 2016, 56). This is in contrast to the other competitors that do not allow the customers to bargain for the products. The other strength is that various subway retail chains are continuously expanding and customizing. This makes the selection procedures easy. It provides meat and vegetables at the same time making it have a variety of products has the customers can choose from. This will make it easier to introduce and market the new product.  The other branches will make it easier to market and sell it.

Weaknesses

The main weakness is that the service quality is mostly inconsistent from one store to the other. This makes it difficult for the customers to trust what they get from one store and whether it will be the same with the others. When competition becomes stiff, KFC has been providing better quality consistently. The consistency also depends on the place where the customers can buy them. The other weakness is that there is always a long queue because of the high customer flow that comes to the store. Even though this is not a direct weakness, it affects the overall performance as most of the time the queues are too long. The customers, therefore, give poor ratings as they take too much time on the queues. The queuing process in one cashier usually translates to low efficiency, and therefore it lowers their ratings from the customer satisfaction. There are those customers that do not like queuing. As a result, regular ratings of the company sometimes drop below the average (Dalken, 2014, 1). The other weakness is that their packaging and the shops of the product is outdated. There is a limited seating space at the stores where customers can take their food. This also leads to parity from the customers. All these weaknesses are related to customer service delivery. They are issues that can be addressed, and some of the stores have managed to address them successfully.

Opportunities

Several opportunities seriously present themselves in the subway. Subway is positively engaged in numerous corporate and social responsibilities. Some of them include encouraging more customers to come and dine for free (Davis, and Stew 2002, 19). These social and corporate responsibilities promote and improve ratings of the company leading to more customers coming to the chain. Improvement of the customer model helps in providing a better relationship for the franchise. It has a lot of control to the central distribution chains (Burch, and Lawrence, 2000, 1). Apart from this, the quality of the food that is supplied guarantees the expectations of the alliance. The packages for the products are good because they do not use traditional paper packages that are used by other companies. It also continuously reverses to the fresh menu that is offered to the customers. However, the main opportunity that can allow for the introduction of the new product is the fact that the firm has not concentrated on the children food. This has lowered the sales from the children under the age of ten years. This is an opportunity that presents a massive business for the company.

Threats

The competition that leads to a reduction in prices is the main threat to the company. Because of the constant competition of the company has to lower the prices thereby reducing profit margin. Subway food prices are constantly being lowered thereby reducing the profit constantly. To keep up with the sales that are done by the competitors, the company have continued to lower the process of almost all the brands from all the chains. There is a more upscale trend in the sales experienced in sandwich shops in the local market (Yolanda, 2016, 57). This has also been a massive threatening the success of subway. The people are likely to have dining food at the larger hotels making it difficult for the sales to be made. This is because it would take too much time to go down to a retail store. It is this reason why they have been a slow growth rate of food supply chains. Even other companies such as McDonald and KFC have not succeeded because of this reason.

The Internal Environment

There are several risks that subway faces in terms of its internal environment. The first one is the traditional customers and the service model that has been limited when it comes to the volume of the customers. The customer service model has been a massive disadvantage to this company. The customers have to be served from a queue meaning that only one person can be served at one time. The experience of the customers is therefore and massive downgrade because there is always a line that waits to be served. This has affected the sales as more customers choose to go to restaurants that have more than one checkpoint, and various staff members can serve them well. The second idea is that the appearance of Subway stores in the country is outdated. When compared to the other retailers for fast food, the appearances and package have changed through time because of the environmental changes. McDonald’s have kept introducing numerous packages every time with appearances that respond to their push for sale campaigns. For example, in the year 2010, McDonald introduced packages that had a specification of the ingredients that are used to make their products.

The main objective of Subway is to give the customers fresh sandwiches or high-quality products all the time. Establishing a fast-food industry with the aim of supplying fresh and healthy food sandwiches another fast food is what makes subway a different breed in the industry. Some competitors are also offering the same products. However, Subway is different in many ways.

Subway deals with sandwiches that promotes healthy eating. The first sandwich shop that was opened mainly focused on establishing a healthy eating habit for the people. Recently, expansion of the company office an increased menu on solid breakfasts, coffee, kid’s cookies and other catering services (Popkin, and Reardon, 2018, p.1028).

 

The other finding within the internal environment is that subway is inconsistent when it comes to service delivery for the customers. The quality of service delivery for the food does not correspond to all day chain stores (Cadario, 2016, 133). Because the subway is operated individually, numerous risks are faced because of the lack of supervision. These have resulted in numerous cases of lawsuits as well as other negative consequences that come with poor service delivery. The recognition of such as to and these ideas can damage even the stores that are not affected. The experienced inconsistencies experienced in service delivery and quality of food are magnified at the national level.

Advocating for health and lifestyle has led to market expansion strategies for the subway. Low-fat diet and high fiber have been a campaign for by various health organizations. Food and dietary policy have been helpful to the company as it continuously advocates for high fiber products making the brand to be recognized.

The market in the country is also responded to the incentives of subway width sell increment and profit margin improvement. Nonetheless, increasing competition within the domestic market for fast food has increased the demand for the concept of health.

Subway has always advocated for a healthy lifestyle. This has been a policy that is appreciated by many people as the company makes first food that has low fat and high fiber. These initiatives recognize the importance of having a corporate social responsibility. Through processing such types of food, they are fulfilling corporate social responsibility and showing that they care for their people and their customers (Fatima, 2016, 2). The market in Trinidad has responded to the incentives of the subway by increasing the sales and thereby improving the profit. The increasing competition within the domestic first food had made it difficult especially with their many initiatives from McDonald. The problem is that such competitors such as McDonald have numerous other options and drinks that people can use (Haven, 2015, 18). KFC has also recently been committed to reducing the fats and sodium in their products. The other competitor, Domino’s pizza is also campaigning for less sodium that has more vegetables as an ingredient. Increasing competition has also squeezed the margin of the profit (Amos, and Sullivan, 2018, 177). Subway have fewer options especially when it comes to changes in the menu as it has already lowered the prices. Even though the low price is used as a competitive advantage, many shortages are associated with each.

The Target Market

Price leadership is one of the opportunities that can be created by the company to allow for market penetration. One of the biggest market potentials that have been identified in this case study is the children’s market. The SWOT analysis has shown that subway does not have facilities that are children friendly and therefore does not supply children meals (Cadario, 2016, 130; Schmid, and Gombert, 2018, 155). To gain the market share that is expected, it is important that subway draws more attention from the children by introducing the menus that can be used by these populations that have not been explored for a long time. It would be important to penetrate the market by reducing the price even more. Competitors such as KFC and McDonald have already introduced meals for the children. The advantage of having a children meal is that it also brings the adults who come to buy the meals for their children at the stores. It will also allow for easier market penetration. By doing so, it is expected that the number of sales together with the customers will increase exponentially. An existing product market penetration is described in the marketing mix as follows.

The Product

The existing product for the subway is known as flatizza, and it can increase the loyalty of the customers together with consolidation. This product will bring in young children to the store because it will be small and easy to consume. Its price will be lower than the other competitors.  In the process, some parents will enjoy the meals will their children after they have been forced to buy theirs as well. This will also help subway in gaining more profit because of the high market share. Flatizza is shaped like a small pizza and is conveniently seated for takeaway especially for the children take away. It is small in size and therefore easier for the children to carry with them. The packaging has to be different because it has to protect the product inside and should be easier to carry. At the same time, it should be environmental-friendly thereby one of the policies of the subway, corporate social responsibility

The Price

The price is the main competitive advantage that the firm will have on this product. One of the features for this product is that it has a low price just like the other products of the subway. A plain cheese costs $3, veggie costs $3, and pepperoni costs $4. Spicy Italian costs $4. However, most children can afford these products. For the adults and seniors, the products are regarded as snacks especially for those that are traveling (Arnórsson, 2013, 2). They will be able to use the product just like children for the low prices. This is a price range that is lower than the price charged by the competitors. It will, therefore, help in gaining a larger market share.

Place

The place that will be targeted is at the neighborhood together with the community where many children are together with the normal stores belonging to subway enterprise. The target population is children for this product. A store that is close to playing grounds and children’s park can benefit their franchise massively. Also, there should be a store next to elementary schools.

Promotion

The forms of promotion that will be used for this product will be varying depending on the place where the sales should take place. Methods of attracting customers will be the priority. This is where price will be emphasized especially through creating the burners and paintings on the walls of all the subway stores. For instance, subway with the making vouchers for the flatizza and distributed to places where children are likely to play. Also, there will be new paintings of the prices of this existing product. Because it is a product that is already known, stating the difference in prices will create a massive difference. At the same time, the product will be uploaded to the page used by subway as well as other social media networks including Twitter and Instagram.  The prices will be the main focus as this is not a new product.

Evaluation of this Strategy

A customer value that is well constructed and efficiently deliver act can help in significantly contributed to the strategies of the business that have been set. It can increase the performances of the business in general. First, each value has been proposed how to be distinctive in the subway (Yolanda, 2016, 55). This will mean that the products have to be superior and better than those offered by the competitors of the subway. Secondly, propositions value must be measurable and have physical attributes. It should also be quantified in terms of their monetary value. This is the main idea behind the proposal. Lastly, customer value will have to be sustainable for a long time. Sustainability is one of the most important issues, especially when introducing a new product. The image of the company together with its brand how to be maintained by maintaining their value proposition.

A Justification for the Strategy

There are various strengths of these new products. As a result, it will maintain the continuous concept of the subway by providing healthy and fresh food. In addition to this, there will be some elements that are added to it (Agarwal, and Singh, 2016, 297). The traditional sandwich was usually called especially when it was in the subway. However, one of the problems the company has faced is that not many foods served are hot. When customers are looking for food, they usually more today about the options and skip the provisions of the subway. With this new product flatizza, the subway will successfully provide its customers with hot meals. The price of Fflatizza is still bargained just like the others. This will allow the company to maintain its price advantage of its competitors. The opportunity of the product to make some improvement in the package has also been implemented. This is an area where the company has been criticized for a long time. The new package will have a better impression of the company to the customers can’t give a friendly option for those who prefer the option of taking away.

The new product will leave an impression on the minds of the customers and improve sales in general. Container for flatizza will even be handy as compared to the traditional other packages. This will help in improving the options for the menu because the new product will have them at the back. This helps in gaining the market share and improve model the competitors. The lack of competitiveness with McDonald’s burger and fried chicken of KFC makes them add companies to offer to take the market. However, the increasing improvement of the subway will increase the quality of the meat provided. New products will need an examination of the future and an idea about the future of the market.

The most important feature in Subway is their logo which is helping the company to communicate with the customers about the services offered (Mcknight, 2018, p.6). Subway logo help in conveying the community members and the customers on the importance of healthy products that are provided. The green color is in the logo that shows the nature of how friendly the company is from inside to the environment (Cohen, and Sharma, 2016, 2). It also conveys a message to the customers that everything that what they offer are fresh and is better in terms of health as compared to their competitors. It also has a white color showing that the sandwich and other products are free from impurities (Menold II, 2018, 3). The campaign for healthcare in Subway is all focused on the provision of right prices and healthy eating. Target Market ranges from young children of ages between 10 to 16 years and young adults of ages between 16 to 39 years old (Fajinmi, 2016, 9). Then the market also covers the upper class. However, the prices are quite friendly and can be afforded by the low-class people. The single, as well as the married people with children, are also target markets for Subway (Llorca, Baños, and Somoza, and Arbués, 2017, 6). When it comes to value addition, Subway has always maximized the benefits and values of people were buying solutions. Fresh sandwiches that have been made are preferred to be tests that my plants are well aware; this adds extra value to the business.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the report gives a brief introduction of the Subway sandwich chain based on the strategies that it uses in marketing and the laid out objectives. Through the analysis along with a detailed SWOT analysis of the company, the proposal gives the improvement in the target markets with the promotion and price approach. These approaches can be used by the company to get the price value for its loyal customers. It can be concluded that marketing objectives for subway follow a specific order that allows the company to meet its goals. As the world’s number-one franchise of submarine sandwich from the year 2011, Subway has undergone numerous transformations from the time it was formed by Fred de Luca in the year 1965 to allow him to pay his college fees (Kellner, Peetz, Townsend, and Wilkinson, 2016, 25). The company expanded through to the late twentieth century after the owner formed a partnership with a family friend. Subway Company has succeeded in the ability to adapt from one location to the other depending on the culture of the target customers. This report uses the situation analysis for internal subway environment and highlights the competitive advantage together with the overall marketing strategies that it employs (Tembo Silungwe, and Khatleli, 2018, 1). Competitor analysis indicates reasons, why the company has for a long time, had a competitive advantage over other food suppliers.  The marketing objective for subway has been the ability to attract the large pool of customers to improve on the promotional efforts of the customers (Trinidad, 2018, 267). More meals should be affected by increasing the effects of discounted prices.

Recommendations

The promotion methods used in this product have to focus more on attracting more customers. These promotional methods have to emphasize on the prizes that would be better than those of McDonald and KFC. This to help the company to outdo its competitors. The other recommendation is that the company should focus on the forms of new media such as facebook, twitter, and instagram to reach more customers because these are the target market individuals. By focusing more on social media, the company will raise more awareness about health that they are continuously focusing on. The value proposition is the other recommendation that will make better performance and strategies. It is recommended that the company should have a distinctive value proposition. Also, the value proposition is supposed to be measurable best of the tangible attributes. This will allow the customer values to be sustainable thereby maintaining the company value. It is recommended that the company still maintains good healthy habits in this new strategy. Wee improvement on flatizza, the company contention of the customers that what part of the client base. Allowing the customers to begin on the price of this product we gain an advantage over the competitors. It is recommended that the company should use this strategy to leave the impression of its customers. The other recommendation is about the package for the product that should keep with the objectives of the firm. The containers should not pollute the environment and allow the company to maintain what it believes in. Maintaining the price advantage will help the company to have an agent the customer.

 

 

 

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