Subway has been the home of the "footlong"
since 1965, but nothing expands as fast as Subway has without knocking a few things over. Here are a few mistakes Subway probably wishes
it could turn into a recipe for special sauce and keep secret — unfortunately, they're
burned in our memories forever. Subway invested lot in the image of Jared
Fogle, who lost 245 pounds eating their sandwiches. At the time his ads were first broadcast,
they had a huge impact… but we all know what happened next. He took a page out of literature, and he went
to prison for it. “Again, 15 years in prison for Jared Fogel. 188 months.” But hiring him wasn't the only mistake, because
you could argue that Subway had no way of knowing just what his deepest, darkest secrets
actually were. Their mistakes just kept coming months after
Fogle's arrest, when the sandwich chain decided to speak up. “The company was quick to issue a statement,
saying it ended its relationship with the spokesman. And a local PR expert says Subway had no choice.” Considering the very serious accusations against
him, this just doesn't seem like enough outrage from Subway, does it? When it came out that Fogle's charity — which
was supposed to help obese children get healthy — didn't get most of the donations it was
supposed to, Subway didn't try to make things right there, either. Subway isn't the only sandwich shop in town,
and over the years, they've only gotten more and more competition. Sure, when they first opened their doors,
the idea that there was a sandwich artist making your lunch right in front of you was
pretty neat. But according to Business Insider, they got
so comfortable with those products, that set-up, and that image that they forget they needed
to keep up with the times. In 2014, Subway saw a sales decline worse
than any other fast food chain. And that, analysts say, is partially because
they were suddenly positioned alongside restaurants, like Chipotle, whose food wasn't just fresh,
but was ahead when it came to doing things like sourcing antibiotic-free meats. That wasn't even a thing when Subway started,
but that doesn't matter. It only matters that they failed to keep up
with their competition and offer what people want in a timely manner. It’s that sort of nonchalant attitude toward
customer desires and concerns that people will never forget. In July 2015, the same week as Fogle's downfall,
Business Insider reported that not only did Subway have more locations than McDonald's,
but they were hoping to take their 44,000 stores and raise that number to 100,000. And there's a reason McDonald's hasn't beaten
them to it: Having that many locations can cripple a company, especially the way Subway
was going about it. Darren Tristano of Technomic told The Washington
Post, "More people have money to spend, and they're
choosing to spend a little bit more on better concepts where they get a better product.… Subway's strategy has only been to open more
stores, and ultimately those stores just cannibalize each other." Restaurant Business took a closer look at
Subway's expansion plans, and when they spoke to franchisees, they learned something heartbreaking. Operators were essentially forced into opening
multiple Subway locations almost on top of each other, because they were told that if
they didn't do it, Subway would get someone else who would. The only way for them to try to protect what
business they had was to open more and more locations and spread that business thinner. "It's really been a victim of its own success. It's really saturated the market." Let's talk about the menu. Sweet onion chicken teriyaki. Black forest ham. Spicy Italian. Steak and cheese. Italian B.M.T. Veggie delight. Classic tuna. “This is tuna. I hate tuna, okay. I refuse to get stuck with tuna. OK? Come on.” Now, are we talking about the menu in 1989
or the menu in 2019? Business Insider says that not recognizing
evolving tastes has been one of Subway's biggest problems. When Subway first debuted some of these sandwiches,
they were healthier than the competition. But now, customers look at many of the sauces
and lunch meats, and they're less impressive now that we know more about how bad these
heavily processed meats are. It's odd that Subway has made the mistake
of falling so far behind what's cutting edge. Changing tastes is what they capitalized on
in the first place, after all. Subway kicked off their $5 footlong campaign
in 2007, and if it seems like it's been around for much, much longer than that, it just goes
to show how connected the idea is to the brand. People loved it, and that should have been
a good thing. But it wasn't. In 2016, Subway announced all those subs were
going to be $6, and people weren't happy, says Grub Street, especially considering they
were the same subs that had been $5 for so long. There was a lot going on behind the scenes
of the decision, but the company's statement on Twitter was quite brief: "We launched the $5 footlong in 2007. Since then our costs have gone up greatly,
but we try to balance that with promotions." More drama followed two years later with the
announcement that Subway was bringing the promotion back, sort of. According to Business Insider, the deal that
came back in 2018 was a $4.99 footlong. But by September of that year, Subway backpedaled
yet again and said they weren't going to be forcing franchisees to actually sell subs
at that price point. It became a crapshoot as to whether or not
customers could find the deal, and what better way to make the franchisees look like the
bad guy and leave customers with no choice but to just give up trying? It left a bad taste in everyone's mouth. There are a few things that customers expect
of a massive fast food chain: That they're going to get what they order, and that they
can go into any location and get a consistent product. When a lawsuit filed against Subway in 2013
hit headlines, customers realized the sandwich chain wasn't living up to either of those
things. The lawsuit claimed footlong subs were 11
inches or less. According to Fox News, Subway originally settled
the case with a promise that they were going to make an extra effort to produce a uniform
product, something it should have been doing in the first place. But that wasn't the end of the case, and the
Competitive Enterprise Institute got involved with an odd protest: They said the case benefited
no one, except the attorneys that stood to make a shocking $520,000 for suing the sandwich
chain. That got the case thrown out. There was more to it — Forbes reported that
the majority of Subway sandwiches were, in fact, 12 inches long and that the dough used
in every roll was exactly the same, it just baked a little bit differently. But no one remembers that part, do they? They only remember that Subway got sued for
ripping off the customer. It's easy to argue that everything offends
someone these days, but sometimes an ad campaign just misses the mark so badly, all that's
left for a company to do is apologize and promise to learn from their mistakes. Subway's bad at that. Take one of their ads that showed up in the
fall of 2014, when Jezebel reported that the chain was trying to make, quote, "costume
season" into an actual thing. What were they talking about? In a nutshell, Subway thought it was a brilliant
idea to tell women they needed to visit the sandwich chain so they could stay or get thin
in time for Halloween “Halloween’s coming. You gotta stay in shape for all the costumes.” And it's only gotten worse. In 2018, they ran an anti-McDonald's ad complete
with the Golden Arches and a narrator that flatlines after saying "burger" a bunch of
times. Business Insider reported that consumers deemed
the ad incredibly annoying, and complained that "...for anyone who has actually dealt with
what a flatline means, [it's] highly disturbing." Subway's social media apologized, often in
a painfully condescending way, while their chief advertising officer stood by the ads
and claimed they were, quote, "encouraged by the responses." Do you have any emotional connection to McDonald's,
probably one that goes back to childhood? Do you think of going there for birthday parties,
hoping for a certain toy in a Happy Meal, or begging your parents to stop for McNuggets
on the way home? Of course you do, and that's because McDonald's
made a huge effort to connect with kids on an emotional level, so they would remain adult
customers. Forbes says it's one of the most important
lessons anyone can learn from McDonald's. Now, do you have the same kind of connection
with Subway? Of course not. According to AdAge, an emotional connection
with customers is what Subway has always been missing. It wasn't until 2018 that Chief Advertising
Officer Chris Carroll decided that maybe it was time to try and reach customers on that
emotional level. It took them a long time to catch on to what
chains like McDonald's and Burger King had always known, and it may be too little, too
late. When Bloomberg looked at exactly what was
going wrong with Subway, they pointed out a fatal flaw in their marketing: They were
targeting a market that wasn't actually there. Look at it this way. Subway is affordable but their subs are adequate
at best. When they started, that was fine. They were feeding people who didn't have a
lot of cash with a halfway decent meal at a decent price. But now that there's more competition, a few
things have happened. There are people with more money to spend
on lunch, and they're going to go somewhere with better options than Subway. Then, there are people that still don't have
a lot of cash to spend on lunch, but do you know what they're doing? They're spending less money to buy the ingredients
and making their sandwiches at home, because sandwiches aren't something that need a ton
of time, prep, or specialized equipment. And those sandwiches? They're far better than what Subway can offer. The fact that the chain staked everything
on a section of the market that's disappearing is a major issue. In today's fast-paced world, the half hour
or hour we have for lunch is crucial. It's not just for lunch, it's for errands,
too. Grabbing some food is secondary, and that's
where the drive-thru comes in. Why would you go and stand in line to order
when you can swing through a drive-thru and quickly be on your way to get something important
done? This is where Subway needs to catch up, and
fast. As of 2017, only about 10 percent of their
locations have drive-thrus. Though you'd think that ordering your custom
sub from your car would prove difficult, customers apparently love the convenience, and thanks
to touchscreen kiosks, they still have total control over whether or not their sandwich
gets onions, pickles, or mayo. But with less than 2,500 stores offering the
super-fast ordering option, is it enough? Probably not, because convenience is king,
and once you have to park, get out of your car, and go inside, it's just not fast food
anymore. As for the customers? They'll go elsewhere. Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus, even more Mashed videos about your favorite
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