As I was reading my pre-readings for Comm101, I came across reading about Subway changing their target market from fast food brand to healthy fast food brand. The main difference between fast food like McDonalds and Subway is Subway had a spoke person who had lost over 200 pounds by following a diet from Subway sandwiches. This reminded me of the show “The Biggest Loser” as it showed the contestants that Subway can be the “to-go” alternative instead of eating greasy foods from McDonalds.

Recently, McDonalds is trying to capture the healthy people category so McDonalds began to make salads, fruit smoothies, wraps and sandwiches. To be honest, people will not think of salads and sandwiches at McDonalds. McDonalds has the biggest reputation of greasy foods. I remember seeing McDonalds sandwiches on TV and in stores, however, it didn’t go well. I was too afraid to try the sandwiches as McDonalds has the brand image of junk food. The fruit smoothies at McDonalds seems to go well as it’s still selling today! The fruit smoothies are selling because it’s an alternative to soda fountain drinks. People would pay more for a healthy choice. I can conclude that brand recognition is very important!

Read more about Subway here (page 3):
http://fcis.vdu.lt/~n.klebanskaja@evf.vdu.lt/fov1-00098617/FOV1-0009D4C0/KEVIN-~1.PDF

Everyone thinks laying off employees may be the best way to cut costs but it may ruin the relationship between the society and the company.

I’m currently working part-time and just recently, one of my co-worker was laid off due to the downhill of business. By seeing this happen, it scares me because I have the least seniority and I’m worried that I’ll be the next person to be laid off. My workplace is no longer a positive interacting team work environment as everyone is competing with each other to stay alive in the business. The business moral decreased dramatically.

I strongly feel that when business is downhill, owners should consider giving vacation time for the least seniority workers instead of laying them off. Also, I suggests owners to talk to their employees about this situation and reduce the number of hours each employee would normally work or proportionally decrease the pay.

The link below explains alternatives to lay offs. However, I feel the owners should consider their employees’ feelings about being laid off and give employees a vacation time or proportionally decrease the pay. Laying off employees might not be the best way to cut costs after all!

Check out the alternatives to lay offs: http://guides.wsj.com/management/recruiting-hiring-and-firing/what-are-alternatives-to-layoffs/