A few years ago, I was a huge fan of Subway. One day, as I was searching for one of these outlets to eat lunch in, I stumbled upon Quiznos instead. At the time, I felt like these two healthy fast-food restaurants were basically identical: probably in the same way the majority of the consumers viewed these competitors. But for no apparent reason I have always preferred Subway. According to Ries and Trout, this is because they were number one in my, the consumer’s, mind – “the easiest way of getting into someone’s mind is to be the first”[i].
Since then, Subway has completely blown Quiznos out of the water[ii], as they consistently improve and expand their advertising, giving customer’s the impression they are the only choice for sub sandwiches. From the very beginning, Subway coined the healthy fast food industry from their slogan “Eat Fresh” (Figure 1) to their weight loss spokes person, Jared Fogle, to their repetitive, memorable advertising. Even though the product at Quiznos might taste better or be of a better quality, as confirmed in John E. Edwards’s blog, Subway is immeasurably more popular. All of this proves Ries and Trout correct when they claim that you must be the first to occupy a product category in order to be number one in it.
