A Study of Subway Marketing 4P Strategy

Asia Pacific Journal of Management and Education (APJME) Vol. 4 No.
2 (2021)
Print ISSN: 2685-8835 / Online ISSN: 2655-2035
DOI: https://doi.org/10.32535/apjme.v4i2.1069
A Study of Subway Marketing 4P Strategy

Varsha Ganatra1, A.A. Gde Satia Utama2, Puran3, Rudresh Pandey4, Liang Mei Qi5,
Daisy Mui Hung Kee6, Irene Saw Ai Ling7, Lim Hooi Sien8, Tan Jia Tien9, Hafizh
Sasining Ramadhan10, Liem Gai Sin11, Madhu Ashok Pandey12
Vivekanand Education Society's College of Arts, Science and Commerce 1,12
Sindhi Society, Chembur, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400071, India
Universitas Airlangga2
Jl. Airlangga 4-6, Surabaya 60286, Surabaya, Indonesia
ABES Engineering College3,4
Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India
Universiti Sains Malaysia5,6,7,8,9
11800 Gelugor, Penang, Malaysia
Universitas Ma Chung10,11
Villa Puncak Tidar Blok N No.1, Malang, Indonesia
Correspondence Email: varsha.ganatra@gmail.com
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9979-3079
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study is to examine Subway marketing 4P strategy as the competition
in the fast-food industry is extremely high. Subway is needed to keep on striving for better
performances to build existing customer loyalty while attracting new customers.
Therefore, we examine Subway marketing 4P (product, price, promotion, and place) to
ensure that Subway can obtain a competitive advantage in the marketplace. The study
used primary and secondary data methods to collect respondents’ perceptions of
Subway performances. The findings indicated that marketing 4P strategies are the
important prediction of the success of the company.
Keywords: Competitive Advantage, Customer Loyalty, Fast-Food Industry, Marketing

4P Strategy, Respondents’ Perception, Subway
INTRODUCTION
Subway has started with submarine sandwiches for more than 50 years. It committed to
serving fresh, affordable, and healthy sandwiches to customers. Nowadays, Subway has
expanded its business globally offering a variety of products such as submarine
sandwiches, salads, snacks, and side drinks. However, the main product of Subway is
the submarine sandwich. It offered two sizes of sandwiches, 6-inch and 12-inch, with a
variety of flavors such as Meatball Marinara, Spicy Italian, Tuna, Steak, and Cheese.
Due to different customers having different tastes, Subway served various types of bread,
veggies, and sauces. Although it often launches different flavors of products, Subway
also tries to strictly abide by and adheres to its own special formula ensuring customers
enjoy the same quality of products and services all over the world.
Subway also offers specific products in different regions to meet local customers' needs,
such as Sichuan Flavored Chili Chicken Sandwich or Flatizza in China, and halal
products in Muslim-majorities countries like Malaysia and Pakistan. India's first Subway
restaurant was established in 2001 in New Delhi. To follow Hindu beliefs, Subway’s
restaurants do not provide any beef products in India. Besides that, the large number of
vegetarians in the country has prompted Subway’s Indian branch to provide more types
of vegetarian products like Veggie Delite and Veg Shammi, two favorite choices among
vegetarians in India. Subway has also opened fully vegetarian restaurants in India. A
certain branch of Subway also offers breakfast meals, such as sandwiches of baked fruit,
eggs, and sausage. It also sells individual pizzas with the slogan of “heating in less than
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Asia Pacific Journal of Management and Education (APJME) Vol. 4 No. 2 (2021)
90 seconds” as a promotion to attract loyal customers and potential customers in certain

countries.
Subway commits to offering the highest quality products. It tightly controls the supply
chain to ensure that every product follows the highest quality and safety requirements. It
develops comprehensive product specifications and reviews the samples from
distribution to ensure that the products meet the requirements and customer
expectations. A comprehensive third-party audit for food safety such as HACCP (Hazard
Analysis and Critical Control Point) and GMPs (Good Manufacturing Practices) are
carried out on the food-supply facilities for Subway restaurants. Furthermore, Sandwich
Artists harshly monitor the products to ensure the products at the proper holding
temperatures. All of the food is prepared by strict shelf-life procedures to ensure
freshness. All these procedures can strengthen customer’s loyalty and attract new
customers. Besides, Subway has nutrition experts that will give detailed nutrition and
ingredient information to make sure that the products are healthy and good to consumers.
Every business considers different types of pricing strategies when selling its products
and services. This strategy is based on customer value, cost, and competition
(Armstrong, Kotler, & Opresnik, n.d.). A company should define its pricing position,
pricing segment, pricing ability, and competitive pricing reaction strategy before applying
its pricing strategy. Such a strategy is important to improve the profitability of the
business, gain market share, or join a new market. Subway's marketing pricing strategy
has shown that it offers products at a higher price than its competitors and is more likely
to serve food for calorie-conscious consumers. Thus, the price is reasonable.
Subway also strives to deliver better quality food than most of its competitors, making its
prices comparatively higher. Their differential value-added pricing strategy is consistent
with the quality. Subway's price strategy helps to keep all prices competitive. Its
competitive prices attract more buyers and lead to generating more profitability. Besides,
Subway starts the year with pricing discounts as the occurrence of the previous protests.
The price discounts were revealed during a series of personal, regional conference calls
from Subway's advertising agency.
In a marketing mix, promotion becomes an integral part of brand sustainability and public
awareness. It is a focal point on how brands have their consumers' attraction and build
their motives so they take action or make a purchase via the brand distribution channel.
In simpler terms, promotion is of importance since brands can ensure that they reach the
right consumer and objectives. To build an initial image Subway uses a slogan that
depicts its brand and that slogan is “Eat fresh”. This promotes its product with confidence
in mind that the products are fresh and of high quality.
By promoting the brand, Subway mainly focuses on two media channels of traditional
media and online (social) media. In the traditional media, Subway uses televisions and
radios. This is for the sole purpose to reach a wider audience and attract a higher number
of people. Putting advertisements on television, Subway believes to be beneficial
considering 49% of respondents responded that television ads are still relevant (Adobe,
2019) and television advertisements have a wide audience reach. An example of
Subway using television as promotion media is when they collaborated with a well-known
television cartoon series Family Guy. Subway made a deal with Family Guys so that their
product is shown in one of Family Guy’s episodes and held by the main protagonist Peter
Griffin.
Advertisements on radios are also still viable because they have a wide audience reach,
reliable ROI and could make brands tell their stories more creatively (Lepp, 2019). On
online and social media, Subway utilizes them for lowering their promotion costs. Also,
it is effective considering the reach and the growth of internet usage. Both of those
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reasons are also viable because it is validated that social media marketing is the
cheapest option in means of promotion only spending 2.50 USD for the reach of 1000
people (Sherman, 2019).
Other methods are also used by Subway to promote its brand or products by attending
trade exhibitions and events around the year doing various sales promotions in means
of keeping its relevance in the public eyes and raising their brand awareness. Besides,
Subway uses personal selling as a part of its promotion methods. It is believed that with
large sales teams, Subway can enhance its existence in the retail stores thus increasing
its awareness and molding a more solid brand image for the company.
Place as one of the marketing mix tools can also refer to the distribution strategy. This
strategy will assist a product or service to be available and accessible for consumption
or use by existing and potential customers. A good location decision will help Subway
increase its product exposure rate which then helps to attract people's attention and can
be easier to reach targeted customers. Hence, Subway is paying higher attention to the
restaurant location and willing to assist its franchisees to choose the perfect location. For
example, Subway’s Site Selection Team will help the franchisees with the site selection
process and the way to find an appropriate location. After that, the franchisee’s local
Business Development Agent will suggest whether the location is appropriate or not. The
Field Representative and the local Leasing Department will then assist the franchisee to
negotiate with the landlord on the lease issue. Such efforts will help Subway to ensure
that the location chosen is suitable with reasonable rent. Through such strategies,
Subway now possesses more than 21,000 franchisees in more than 100 countries
worldwide. For instance, Subway records the highest number of restaurants of 22333 in
the United States (Subway, 2019).
Besides, the company's international headquarters are in Milford, USA while Subway's
international activities are conducted by five centers with different regions to support the
company's international operations, including expansion of branches, product adaptation
to match local preferences and implementation of a global strategy based on local
requirements. For instance, The European regional franchise offices are based in
Amsterdam, New Zealand and the Australian office is in Brisbane, the Asian region
offices are in Singapore, Lebanon, and Beirut, while the regional office for Latin American
is in Miami. Subway also uses selective distribution. This is because Subway franchises
need to get approval from the franchisor before starting their business on a selected
location and the franchisees are willing to carry Subway’s products. Subway also does
not penetrate the market imprudently by stocking its products as many outlets as it could.
This perspective can be shown when most Subway outlets are located in airports,
shopping malls, amusement parks, business centers, hospitals, and colleges. These
subway restaurants are positioned in upscale locations where consumers are more
conscious of calories and will therefore be willing to pay a higher price. Subway website
also has a section called ‘Find our stores’ where customers can enter their postcode,
state, or city name and search. Customers will soon find the nearest Subway outlets
when they are in need. This is quite convenient for them when they are in a strange place
like traveling to another country. Plus, Subway is also considered as using a direct
marketing channel that has no intermediary levels because it sells products directly to
the customers (Armstrong et al, n.d. ). Subway’s customers can either choose to dine in
or use takeaway services. To boost revenues, Subway provides home delivery services
in several countries.
RESEARCH METHOD
This study used several research methods to obtain research information. To examine
Subway marketing 4P strategy, we investigated consumers' perceptions of Subway
performances.
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The data were collected to prove that the stated research questions, test hypotheses,
and evaluate outcomes. Sekaran & Bougie (2010) states that the collection of data can
be primary data or secondary data or both. There is primary data and secondary data
are used in this research.
Primary data are those obtained directly from the original or first-party source like
interviews, surveys, and questionnaires. Secondary data are data that have been
accumulated in the past and readily accessible for other people (Formplus Blog, 2020).
Besides, secondary data are those containing at least one level of interpretation
(Schindler, 2019).
Questionnaires and secondary data methods were selected and conducted to obtain
information related to this study. Questionnaires were distributed to respondents through
social media like Facebook, Whatsapp, and Wechat. The sample was selected randomly
from a defined population. The purpose of sampling is to obtain accurate, simple, and
relevant information. In addition, sampling saves cost and time (Gay, 1987). The
respondents were made up of 100 people randomly selected from different ethnicities
and backgrounds. According to Borg and Gall (1979: 195), large sample size is required
since it is more representative of the population when the research has many variables.
The secondary data that have been used for this study were books, internet references
and journals.
Books are one of the primitive and easier methods for the researcher to find out the
evidence that they can use to support their research. They are important to gain a deeper
understanding and assist people’s research to become more valid and reliable. The
Internet is recognized as a global computer system that offers a wide variety of
information and communication technologies. It helps link millions of public, private,
business, academic, and government networks all over the world (Ifinedo, 2015). A
journal is a collection of articles written by experts about very specific topics and will
publish either in print or online forms or both (Mckenzie, 2018). All the data collected
were then processed to complete this study.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Table 1. Summary of Respondents’ Demographics and Consumer's Perceptions

of Subway Brand Awareness
Response Frequency Percentage(%)
Gender
Male 36 35.6
Female 65 64.4
Age
18 - 25 years old 58 57.4
26 - 30 years old 33 32.7
31 - 40 years old 8 7.9
41 - 49 years old 1 1
50 years old and above 1 1
50
Ethnicity
Malay 26 25.7
Chinese 54 53.5
Indian 18 17.8
Javananese 1 1
Indonesia 1 1
Bali 1 1
Nationality
Malaysian 83 82.2
Indian 11 10.9
Indonesian 7 6.9
Occupation
Student 55 54.5
Employed 43 42.6
Unemployed 2 2
Retiree 1 1
Vegetarian
Yes 15 14.9
No 86 85.1
Have you heard of the Subway brand

before? 97 96
Yes 4 4
No
Have you purchased any Subway

products in the past?
Yes 89 88.1
No 12 11.9
If so, what types of food have you

purchased at Subway?
Sandwiches series 86 92.5
Breakfast series 35 37.6
Salads series 12 12.9
Do you prefer Subway?

Yes 94 93.1
No 7 6.9
No - Reason
Don’t like the taste 1 20
Not delicious 1 20
Price is high 2 40
Unhealthy 1 20
Table 1 shows that most of the respondents were female (64.4%), 18-25 years old
(57.4%), and Chinese (53.5%). Besides, the majority of them were Malaysian (82.2%),
students (54.5%), and non-vegetarians (85.1%).
Among the 101 responses, about 96% of respondents have heard of Subway brand
before. Besides, about 88.1% of respondents have purchased Subway products in the
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past. The highest record of food that respondents have purchased are sandwiches series
(92.5%) followed by breakfast series (37.6%) and salads series (12.9%).
Apart from that, there are 94 (93.1%) respondents who prefer Subway while 7 (6.9%)
respondents do not. In the survey, we have collected some opinions from the
respondents who do not prefer Subway. A total of 2 or 40% of respondents felt that the
prices are high and unaffordable while 1 respondent felt that the foods were not delicious,
1 respondent does not like the food taste and another 1(1%) believed that Subway foods
were unhealthy.
Brand awareness affects consumer decisions as they are prone to choose a known
brand when faced with a choice situation (Macdonald & Sharp, 2000). In this respect,
Subway is relatively prominent in its brand awareness in the light of Table 1 analysis.
They need to keep on striving to attract new customers as brand awareness has a
significant positive relationship with customer purchase decisions (Ambolau,
Kusumawati, & Mawardi, 2015; D et al., 2021).
Table 2. Summary of Respondent’s Perception of Subway Performances in

Marketing 4P Strategy
Percentage
Response Frequency (%)
Are you satisfied with Subway’s food taste?

Dissatisfied 0 0
Somewhere dissatisfied 2 2
Neutral 10 9.9
Satisfied 70 69.3
Highly satisfied 19 18.8
Are you satisfied with the staff services?

Dissatisfied 0 0
Neutral 18 17.8
Satisfied 68 67.3
Highly satisfied 14 13.9
Are you satisfied with Subway’s food packaging?

Dissatisfied 0 0
Neutral 16 15.8
Satisfied 66 65.3
Highly satisfied 17 17
What type of sandwiches do you like to buy at

Subway?
Chicken Slice/Chicken Teriyaki 77 76.2
Italian B.M.T. 28 27.7
Meatball Marinara 22 21.8
Roast Beef/Roasted Chicken 23 22.8
Spicy Italian 15 14.9
Steak & Cheese 13 12.9
Subway Club/ Subway Melt 7 6.9
Tuna 34 33.7
Seafood & Crab 28 27.7
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Turkey Breast 6 5.9

Turkey Breast & Chicken Slice 12 11.9
Veggie Delite 15 14.9
None 5 5
Bulgogi Chicken 1 1
I never had one 1 1
What type of breakfast do you like to buy at

Subway?
Breakfast Strip & Egg 6 5.9
Cheese & Egg 11 10.9
Chicken Slice & Egg 38 37.6
Tuna & Egg 3 3
None 43 42.6
What type of salads do you like to buy at

Subway?
Chicken Slice/Chicken Teriyaki 23 22.8
Italian B.M.T. 11 10.9
Meatball Marinara 5 5
Roast Beef/Roasted Chicken 5 5
Spicy Italian 8 7.9
Steak & Cheese 5 5
Subway Club/ Subway Melt 2 2
Tuna 6 5.9
Seafood & Crab 6 5.9
Turkey Breast 2 2
Turkey Breast & Chicken Slice 2 2
Veggie Delite 20 19.8
None 57 56.4
Normally, do you add any sauces to your

sandwich? 95 94.1
Yes 6 5.9
No
Do you add on anything besides the sandwich? If

yes, which of the following?
Chips 11 10.9
Fountain Drinks 14 13.9
Cookie 34 33.7
Bottle water 3 3
Pretzel 0 0
None 39 38.6
Which of the following that you prefer to order

from Subway?
Dine-in 15 14.9
Take away 55 54.5
Food delivery 31 30.7
Is Subway’s price affordable?

Yes 87 86.1
No 14 13.9
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Are you concerned about the price while you are

ordering your food at Subway?
Yes 46 45.5
No 55 54.5
Do you think the Subway product price is worth

the quality of the product?
Yes 94 93.1
No 7 6.9
Do you think the price of Subway products is

cheaper or more expensive compared to the
other fast-food restaurants?
Cheaper 9 8.9
Neutral 78 77.2
More expensive 14 13.9
What kind of promotions are you looking for in

Subways' products?
Discount 33 32.7
Voucher 65 64.4
Free Sampling 3 3
How do you know about Subway?

Press release 2 2
Social Media 57 56.4
Friend or Family recommended 66 65.3
Advertisement 46 45.5
Sponsor for campus events 19 18.8
Food Delivery Apps 44 43.6
Found myself 1 1
Do you follow or like the Subway official account

or page in social media?
Yes 45 44.55
No 56 55.45
Will you recommend Subway to your friends or

family members? Why?
Yes 89 88.1
Maybe 4 4
No 8 7.9
Yes - Reason: 13 12.9

Healthy 27 26.7
Delicious 4 4
Convenient 3 3
Quality 1 1
Affordable
No - Reason: 3 3
Price is high 1 1
Haven’t try before 1 1
Do not get used to it
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Do you prefer Subway to implement co-

branding?
Yes 6 5.9
No 79 78.2
Do not know 3 3
Not sure 2 2
Do not mind 1 1
Maybe 1 1
Company 6 5.9
Artist 1 1
Local brand 1 1
Ambiguous 1 1
Is the location of Subway accessible?

Yes 93 92.1
No 8 7.9
Have you visited the Subway Website to search

for the nearest Subway restaurant before?
Yes 73 72.3
No 28 27.7
Are you satisfied with the layout of the Subway

restaurant?
1-Highly Dissatisfied 1 1
2-Dissatisfied 1 1
3-Neutral 10 9.9
4-Satisfied 76 75.2
5-Highly Satisfied 13 12.9
Table 2 indicates that most of the respondents were satisfied with Subway food taste
(69.35) and 18.8% of respondents were highly satisfied. In terms of their trans-situational
goals or the needs and degree to which the possession and use of the product can evoke
and satisfy various functions embedded in these needs, the sense of a product to a
person can be seen as closely related to the values of the individual (Schwartz, 1994).
The representation of products seems to be a particularly important theme in consumer

research. Hence, Subway has launched out various types of sandwiches, breakfasts,
and salads to satisfy customer tastes and needs. Besides, the products or services must
be packaged and properly priced. Subway also needs to make sure the price is right and
the products are the same as shown in the advertisement to maintain customer loyalty
and attract potential customers.
Table 2 also signified that most of the respondents were satisfied with the staff’s service.
67.3% were satisfied and 13.9% were highly satisfied. Some of the respondents were
not satisfied with staff service for the staff service was slow. Besides, the staff attitude
also affects customers' satisfaction. Some of the respondents said they look lazy or
arrogant, have no smiling faces, and are impatient. The respondents highlighted
inconsistent product quality among Subway restaurants. This shows that these
restaurants do not have a clear and consistent standard. This will make the customers
feel dissatisfied and switch to other brands.
Thorsten and Alexander (1997) considered the strategic driver for competitive advantage
is customer satisfaction of the company's goods and services. In the sense of
relationship marketing, customer satisfaction contributes to the long-term retention of
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customers since dissatisfied customers have a very high switching rate (Lin & Wu, 2011).
Therefore, Subway has to make some changes to increase customer satisfaction,
maintain customer loyalty, and attract potential customers. The headquarters of Subway
should give a clear and consistent standard of procedure. The supervisors have to
inspect the restaurants, evaluate staff performance, and train them regularly. Therefore,
the problem of product quality, staff attitude, and speed of service can be solved.
Table 2 also shows that 76.2% of the respondents liked the taste of Chicken Slice or
Chicken Teriyaki, 33.7% liked the Tuna taste, and 1% liked the taste of Bulgogi Chicken.
Also, 42.6% of respondents did not buy breakfast from Subway while 37.6% liked to buy
Chicken Slice and Egg. Half of the respondents (56.2%) respondents did not buy salads
from Subway while 22.8% of respondents bought Chicken Slice or Chicken Teriyaki.
The new eating habits can be identified and categorized according to eating places,
eating time, food types, and the eateries as shown by Mat (2003), and Baweh (2004).
Each country has a breakfast culture of its own. For example, Malaysians would like to
have breakfast in restaurants because it is cheaper than Subway and they generally do
not have the habit of eating salad. Therefore, if Subway wants to explore some new
flavors or food, they need to understand the culture of the country and its eating habits.
Table 2 shows that most of the respondents like to add sauces to sandwiches. It shows
38.6% of the respondents do not buy any sides when buying sandwiches, 33.7% buy
cookies together with sandwiches, 13.9% buy fountain drinks and 10.9% buy chips. In
particular, young consumers are lovers of snack food, which accounts for a major
component of their expenditures (Dibley & Baker, 2001). Hausman (2000) noticed that
customers sometimes buy on a whim, pleasure, fantasy, social and emotional
satisfaction rather than just for financial reasons.
Furthermore, most of the respondents were satisfied with Subway's food packaging.
There were 65.3% of respondents were satisfied and 16.8% of respondents were highly
satisfied with the packaging. Subway has been committed to improving the sustainability
of its packaging. Therefore, Subway redesigned and eliminated unnecessary packaging.
Subway has transformed all packaging into renewable and recyclable materials while
ensuring that the products are presented safely and cleanly to reduce food waste.
Millions of pounds of possible waste have been saved by redesigning the packaging.
Half of the respondents (54.5%) preferred takeaway, 30.7% used the food app delivery,
and 14.9% preferred dine-in. Dietary differences among socio-economic groups seemed
to have a greater effect on the purchasing of takeaway food (Turrell & Giskes, 2008).
This indicates that the food system could be more complex, with economic and socio-
cultural variables potentially affecting the intake of food and the actions associated with
food (Giskes, van Lenthe, & Avendano-Pabon, 2011).
As for healthier Subway products, we conclude that most of the respondents gave
positive comments since Subway sandwiches have many vegetables, fewer calories,
and more nutrition compared with other fast-food restaurants. As we know, in various
types of subs, Subway provides fresh and balanced food, even some doctors
recommend its nutritional food.
Our questionnaires recorded several reasons why customers decide to purchase

Subway food. One of the reasons is the sandwiches are delicious and healthy because
Subway products are made with fresh ingredients. Subway offered a variety of
sandwiches to fulfill customers' tastes. The respondents brought Subway sandwiches
because the sandwiches are hygienic and fewer calories. Besides, the location of
Subway restaurants is easy to access near shopping malls, business centers, schools,
and colleges. Lastly, the respondents said they are willing to purchase Subway food due
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to its convenient delivery service. The online food ordering platforms provide consumers
with extended choice and convenience, enabling customers with a simple tap on their
mobile phone to order from a wide range of restaurant choices (Hirschberg, Rajko,
Schumacher, & Wrulich, 2016)
In the context of price affordability, 86.1% of respondents are in favor of price, and 13.9%
do not find it affordable. Also, 45.5% of respondents are concerned about price while
54.5% of respondents are not concerned yet focused on taste and meal. Subway
introduces the most healthy and fresh food and the highly popular one is the submarine
sandwich.
Besides, 93.1% of respondents agreed that Subway product price is worth the quality of
the product. A total of 8.9% of respondents stated that the price is cheaper than most big
brands. On the other hand, 13.9% disagree with this and 77.2% are neutral. Subway
serves attractive and delicious fast food in the whole market. It serves healthy products
as it uses acres of veggies. Subway can focus more on bundle pricing strategy by offering
two or more complementary products together and selling them at a single price. This is
a perfect way to add value through the offerings to customers who do not resist paying
more for more than one product. It can also help the customers know more about the
variety of Subway products in a shorter time.
Our survey also questioned respondents' perception on what kind of promotions or

specific deals that they are looking for and enthusiastic about. Marketers can use this
information as an advantage to their promotion strategy and their core to their strategy.
Some promotion options are product discounts, vouchers, and free samples.
The results show 32.7% of the respondents prefer discounts, 64.4% prefer vouchers,
and 2.9 prefer free sampling. The majority of the respondents suggest vouchers as a
means of a promotion method in Subway. Variations of the deals on the voucher can
also be considered to test consumer tendency of what kind of vouchers or they like.
Finding out their consumer preferences make their promotion strategy more tailored to
consumer needs and wants thus improving the wellbeing of consumers and ensuring the
delivery of the brand’s value (Davenport, DalleMule, & Lucker, 2011).
The questionnaires also aimed to identify how Subway consumers found out about
Subway brand. The results vary and are divided into 7 groups of press releases (2%),
social media (56.4%), recommendations from friends or family (65.3%), advertisements
(45.5%), sponsor of campus events (18.8%), food delivery application (43.6%), and
consumers found the brand themselves (1%). This concludes that there are two major
manners that the public has. Subway can focus on those major points of consumers
interacting with the brand so that their brand awareness rises affecting overall brand
equity (Huang & Sarigollu, 2014). On top of that, traditional mouth-to-mouth marketing
or word-of-mouth marketing remains necessary. It is still relevant to this day and Subway
cannot ignore this. Strengthening customer experiences is the way Subway can work so
its mouth-to-mouth marketing is ensured and sustained (Kenton, 2020). Addedly, the
upside of this method is essentially free marketing. Marketing through food delivery
applications can also ensure and trigger mouth-to-mouth marketing. It makes the public
identify Subway faster and eliminates the tedious task that consumers have to physically
go out to purchase their products.
Besides, half of the respondents are following Subway’s social media account (Facebook,
Instagram, and Twitter). A consumer following a brand’s social media account is an
important aspect of maintaining and molding a superb consumer experience. Social
media helps brands to make customers learn about new products and services, stay up
to date with the brand’s news, communicate to the brand itself, and build an overall good
experience with the brand (Marketingcharts, 2020). From a broader point of view, 71%
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of consumers engage with a brand's social media creating added value to the consumers
about the brand (Marketingcharts, 2020). In conclusion, brands need to convert their
consumers to follow their social media accounts for the sole reason of providing value.
Realizing that social media followers and presence are important aspects for businesses
in this era, Subway needs to have awareness in this area. Therefore, conversion from
consumers that uses social media to consumers following a brand’s social media is
important. In the beginning, Subway can plan strategies to increase one of their social
media followers making them more focused on one platform at a time thus knowing their
niche on one social media platform. Facebook can be considered as one social media
to focus and grow from. According to Maryam (2020), there are 2.6 billion active monthly
Facebook users giving an advantage of a wide reach of people. Subway then can convert
the audience into their followers by running Facebook ads, making attention-grabbing
content, partnerships with influencers, and engaging with the community (Martins, 2020).
In the questionnaire, the answers have qualitative tendencies or have open-ended

answers so that marketers can better understand the conditions of their consumers not
just having numerical outputs boosting the relevance of past theories (Astuti, 2020). The
results from this particular question are repetitive. As the majority of respondents
answering yes, they will recommend Subway to their friends and family. Variations that
appear from the answers can be generalized that respondents would like to recommend
Subway because their products are delicious and healthy. It can be concluded that
Subway can make good quality products from these responses, meaning these
respondents' expectations are met in terms of products. Products that are good from the
core can also have advantages or overall good impact to boost a brand’s promotion
strategy. In this case, the majority of respondents have positive feedback on Subway
products and it fuels them to recommend to their friends and family (Caramela, 2020).
Referring to the data before, Subway's main marketing strategy can revolve around
mouth-to-mouth marketing as it is still the main way that Subway is getting public
awareness. Being conscious about the feedback that these respondents (Subway
consumers) have can be turned into a metric for calculating the success of marketing
strategy meaning the growth of Subway is now tangible to variables.
The results of brand preference questions show that 78.2% of respondents prefer
Subway avoids co-branding. This assumes that Subway is independent and not
associated with other brands. The advantage of brand independence is the public will
perceive Subway as an entity that cannot be replaced and it can reach brand resonance
making consumers have the brand on their top of mind.
Place refers to the process that products and services are transformed from the producer
to the customer (Goi, 2009). From our survey, we found 92.1% of respondents agreed
that the location of Subway outlets is accessible and reachable. Besides, 72.3% of
respondents have searched for the nearest Subway restaurant through the Subway
website. This indicates that most of the customers know how to use the website to search
for the nearest Subway restaurant. Apart from that, the survey showed that 75.2% of
respondents were satisfied, 12.9% of respondents were highly satisfied with Subway
restaurant layout.
In the marketing mix, place involves warehousing facilities, distribution channels,

inventory control management, convergence, location, assortment, logistics, and mode
of transportation (Singh, 2012). The distribution channels help the company to promote,
sell, and deliver the products to final consumers, such as retailers, financial
intermediaries, physical distributors, and marketing services agencies (Kotler &
Armstrong, 2012). Therefore, Subway should make sure that the outlets of Subway
restaurants are enough in targeted markets to bring more conveniences to the
consumers. Besides that, Subway can also advertise the functions and features of their
58
website through their official social media web pages like Facebook and Instagram to
encourage people to use Subway website when having any inquiries or problems. This
will also help to create brand awareness. Moreover, Subway should also consider
focusing on the innovation in upgrading the layout of the restaurants from the aspect of
size, design, and color to maximize customer satisfaction.
Table 3. Summary of Respondent Suggestions and Impression
Percentage
Response Frequency (%)
What kind of improvements are you looking for in

Subway? Why?
Do not know 3 2.97
No 41 40.59
Everything is good 6 5.94
Product and Service 31 30.69
Price 6 5.94
Promotion 3 2.97
Place 7 6.93
Ambiguous 4 3.96
Could you share your first impression/experience

with Subway?
No 48 47.5
Haven’t try yet 2 2
I don’t remember 2 2
Don’t know how to order 2 2
Attractive 1 1
Good services 20 19.8
A lot of choices 5 5
Sandwich delicious 16 15.8
Look like a vegetarian restaurant 4 4
Table 3 signifies that the majority of the respondents (41 respondents) had no suggestion
for Subway improvement while 31 respondents suggested Subway improve the products
and services. They recommended Subway to increase the range of food and drinks
choices. They have asked for more breakfast choices, vegetarian options, and side
dishes. They also expect fruit salads, pasta or soup, and sometimes pita options instead
of just wrap. In the context of service, they hoped Subway to be faster when preparing
the food or serving. Besides, they were also looking for more friendly, polite, hardworking,
and humble staff attitudes. They also urged all the franchisees to abide by uniform
standard operating procedures (SOP) of food preparation and improve the way to
maintain the food freshness. This is because they found that some outlets gave more
slices of chicken while others gave less, and the food was sometimes not so fresh. Lastly,
they also look for drive-thru service.
Hence, Subway needs to put more effort into its product innovation to meet varied
customer expectations. This is because people will be more likely to buy a product from
a brand providing a more diverse product as it is related to higher perceived quality and
this will enhance their repeat purchase rate (Berger, Draganska, & Simonson, 2007)
Besides, Subway also needs to pay attention to their staff’s service as we found their
attitudes had aroused people’s dissatisfaction. This is vital as Pei, Guo, Wu, Zhou, and
59
Yeh found that customer experience with staff service will positively influence their level
of satisfaction. As customer satisfaction has a positive impact on customer loyalty (Ibojo,
& Asabi, 2015), Subway should confront customer loss if they are unable to improve the
staff service.
For the questions that related to respondent’s impressions, the results show that 47.5%
of respondents prefer not to share their first impression or experience with Subway
whereas 19.8% of respondents mentioned that their first impressions or experiences
were good services from the staff and restaurants. A total of 16 respondents shared their
first impressions were that Subway sandwiches were delicious while 5 mentioned that
there are a lot of choices in the menu, 4 respondents said that the restaurant looks like
a vegetarian restaurant while 2 or 2% of respondents mentioned that they have not tried
Subway foods, 2 respondents did not remember their first impressions, 2 respondents
were confused and did not know how to order, and 1 respondent said the first impression
with Subway was attractive.
Therefore, Subway should always focus on quality services by providing the staff with
knowledge and standard operating procedures (SOP) of the foods, positive attitudes,
and cleanliness to provide a guideline for first-time consumers. Besides, Subway shall
advertise and promote best-selling sandwiches or the best type of sandwich
combinations through social media so that customers who first order the sandwich will
have more choices based on the recommendation of sandwich combinations. This will
help to maximize customers satisfaction and increase brand awareness. According to
Kumar, Choi, and Greene (2017), social media provides a good platform for businesses
to raise their brand awareness as it assists the brand to expose to a large number of
customers. Besides, customer satisfaction level is influenced by a company's qualities
of brand features (Khan & Afsheen, 2012) and customer satisfaction is associated with
customer loyalty (Mittal & Lassar, 1998). Thus, when a brand’s product or service meets
its customer demands and needs, customer satisfaction can be reached and its customer
will become loyal. Then, the profits of the company will be maximized.
CONCLUSIONS
Our analysis underlined that the majority of the respondents are satisfied with Subway's
product, service, and packaging. Its popular product is Chicken Slice/Chicken Teriyaki
flavor sandwiches. A minority of the respondents choose to dine-in in Subway
restaurants. The customers decide to purchase since the sandwich is delicious and
healthy, a variety of sandwiches is available, and the location is easy to access. However,
Subway has some problems that need to be solved. They are inconsistent product quality,
poor staff attitudes, and slow service.
To solve these problems, Subway needs to make some research for certain countries
about the people's behavior and culture for food and beverage when they want to launch
some new product to consumers as our survey found that most of the respondents do
not buy Subway sandwiches and salads because most of the respondents in Malaysia
do not have such eating behaviors. Also, we suggest that Subway follows the trend to
launch new products such as spicy taste or limited-time products for Chinese New Year,
Hari Raya, or Hari Merdeka to attract young consumers and maintain loyal customers.
Subway's headquarters should give clear and consistent standard procedures to provide
consistent product quality. The supervisors have to regularly inspect the restaurants,
evaluate staff performance, and train them to maintain their good attitudes while
providing good and fast service to customers. Subway's packaging can switch to
sustainable packaging. Subway can sell merchandise with Subway's brand like thermos
cups or food boxes. Customers might get discounts when they takeaway by using
Subway's merchandise while reducing the packaging cost and encourage customers to
respond to environmental protection.
60
For the price element, most respondents agreed that Subway product's prices are
affordable. Although Subway’s products are more expensive than its competitor, it
creates value in their products and services with quality. Subway claims that they serve
better quality and fresh foods compared to their competitors. Subway offers different
pricing strategies with value pricing. Therefore, the majority of the respondents agreed
that Subway product prices are worth the quality of the products. However, Subway can
focus more on bundle pricing strategy by offering two or more complementary products
together and selling them at a single price. This is a perfect way to add value through
the offerings to customers who do not resist paying more for more than one product. It
can also help the customers know more about the variety of Subway products.
Besides, the majority of respondents are looking for a voucher promotion. Subway can
choose to disseminate the information of vouchers through the social media platform.
There were four major manners that the public knew about Subway’s brand: friends and
family recommendations or mouth to mouth advertising, social media platform,
advertisement, and food delivery apps. Through this analysis, Subway needs to
strengthen its customer experience and expectation. Subway also needs to elevate
people's awareness on their official page on social media as the statistics showed only
45 out of 101 respondents had liked or followed it. This is important to approach a large
number of customers via social media. They can try to collaborate with influencers to
grab more people's attention. Also, the majority of respondents agreed to recommend
Subway to others and do not prefer Subway to implement co-branding. This showed that
Subway is affirmed by the public and they perceived Subway as a brand that cannot be
replaced.
From the aspect of the place element, the majority of the respondents agreed that the
location of Subway restaurant is accessible. Subway has more than 21,000 franchisees
in more than 100 countries worldwide. Subway is one of the fastest-growing franchises
and 100% franchise-based organization with all the restaurants being independently
possessed and managed. The concept of purchasing that Subway uses is direct selling
to customers. Therefore, to bring more conveniences to the consumers, Subway should
make sure that the outlets are enough in the places of targeted markets. Besides, our
survey showed that most of the respondents have visited the Subway website to search
for the nearest Subway restaurant, implying it can also advertise the functions and
features of its website through its official social media web pages.
Our study limitation was that the causality of respondent’s open-ended questions
answers was difficult to investigate. For example, the particular worker that showed a
negative attitude or the franchisee that did not follow the standard operating procedure
when preparing the food. Besides, there was also insufficient data to represent the target
population as most of the respondents were Malaysian. Hence, the data results were not
enough to generalize Malaysian, Indian, and Indonesian perceptions towards Subway’s
performances. On these limitations, future research can increase more sample size to
represent different populations
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Asia Pacific Journal of Management and Education (APJME) Vol. 4 No.

A Study of Subway Marketing 4P Strategy

Keywords: Competitive Advantage, Customer Loyalty, Fast-Food Industry, Marketing

90 seconds” as a promotion to attract loyal customers and potential customers in certain

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Table 1. Summary of Respondents’ Demographics and Consumer's Perceptions

Response Frequency Percentage(%)

Have you heard of the Subway brand

Have you purchased any Subway

If so, what types of food have you

Do you prefer Subway?

Table 2. Summary of Respondent’s Perception of Subway Performances in

Are you satisfied with Subway’s food taste?

Are you satisfied with the staff services?

Are you satisfied with Subway’s food packaging?

What type of sandwiches do you like to buy at

Turkey Breast 6 5.9

What type of breakfast do you like to buy at

What type of salads do you like to buy at

Normally, do you add any sauces to your

Do you add on anything besides the sandwich? If

Which of the following that you prefer to order

Is Subway’s price affordable?

Are you concerned about the price while you are

Do you think the Subway product price is worth

Do you think the price of Subway products is

What kind of promotions are you looking for in

How do you know about Subway?

Do you follow or like the Subway official account

Will you recommend Subway to your friends or

Yes - Reason: 13 12.9

Do you prefer Subway to implement co-

Is the location of Subway accessible?

Have you visited the Subway Website to search

Are you satisfied with the layout of the Subway

The representation of products seems to be a particularly important theme in consumer

Our questionnaires recorded several reasons why customers decide to purchase

Our survey also questioned respondents' perception on what kind of promotions or

In the questionnaire, the answers have qualitative tendencies or have open-ended

In the marketing mix, place involves warehousing facilities, distribution channels,

Table 3. Summary of Respondent Suggestions and Impression

What kind of improvements are you looking for in

Could you share your first impression/experience

Subway. (2019). Frequently asked question. Retrieved from https://subway-

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