As an avid foodie, I love food of all forms; be it fast food, slow food, and everything in between…as long as it satisfies my taste buds. Coming across this article, which talks about how a man exposes Subway’s marketing mishap, it makes me question how powerful habitual decision making is.
I’m sure many consumers, including myself, are so accustomed to buying a $5 Footlong that they have never questioned the validity of the product’s name. Further, although I haven’t measured a Subway sandwich before, the fact that consumers always had the option of accidentally exposing the Footlong’s flaw proves that this was a risky advertising strategy to begin with. To make things worse, the growth of social media platforms has allowed the picture shown above to become viral amongst Subway’s fans and critics alike. Due to this false advertising, Subway’s credibility is undeniably tarnished in the eyes of consumers.
Fortunately, the fact that Subway satisfies physiological needs prevents this mishap from damaging the company’s healthy image in the long run, and it is this aspect that the company should focus on stressing for their future marketing campaigns. I think that the monkey and Subway Eat Fresh campaigns related to healthy breakfasts and eating were very successful in portraying the company as a healthy choice for consumers. Moreover, Subway’s low prices, in comparison to competitors such as Quizno’s, has made it a go-to choice for thrifty consumers. Due to these aspects, and perhaps more promotions on Subway’s part to compensate for this mini crisis, it shouldn’t be long before the company bounces back. Something along the lines of the “Customer” appreciation month ($3 for a “6 inch” sandwich) would certainly be welcomed by consumers.
I completely agree that even with this ‘mini crisis’ that it should be long before Subway does come back with a new promotion to distract from the footlong incident. Personally, although Subway does sell itself short in that manner, as a consumer of their sandwiches, it does not stop me from continuing to consume their product as they do price competitively and is a healthier alternative. Your post was really interesting and nice to read, I really enjoyed it!
Thanks for your kind words, Christy! I also enjoyed reading your post on Nutella; I can definitely sense a foodie vibe coming from your topic choice.
*shouldn’t be long
I bet you like yams 🙂
How did you guess? 🙂
I don’t know if I’m alone in this but I think it is somewhat ridiculous how this has actually made media headlines and I’m actually a fairly frequent Subway consumer. I think if it was a major difference in length then sure there would be something to complain about; however, it seems for the most part its about an inch and at the end of the day we’re still getting something to eat at a fairly good price. I honestly don’t think the company would go to such lows as to intentionally make their footlongs an inch or so shorter but clearly they do need to look at their creation process to see if they can fix the issue. In the meantime, they can offer special promotions as you suggested.
I personally would chalk this up to “#FirstWorldProblems.” I enjoyed the post and it was a great topic to choose!
Thanks for your comment, Harpal! Honestly, I just thought it was pretty funny when I first came across the article, but the thought of a “Footlong” not actually being a foot long baffled me for a few minutes… As you said though, the sandwich is still competitively priced and therefore a pretty good choice for a cheap lunch.