Subway targets families to broaden brand appeal

Subway is aiming to broaden its appeal beyond young people by relaunching its kids offer and promoting its stores as a family friendly environment.  

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Its Subway Kids ‘Pak’ has also been relaunched with Bear Pure Fruit Yoyos replacing cookies and/or crisps, plus a fruit juice drink also being added as an optional extra. 

In-store training has been provided to staff to improve their interaction with children and encourage them to choose healthier options. 

From this week, Subway outlets will feature promotional material featuring characters from Disney’s Monsters University movie, part of the Monsters Inc franchise. Subway’s outdoor, cinema and TV marketing will also contain Monsters University characters geared towards increasing footfall from families in its UK outlets.

Manaaz Akhtar, Subway’s head of marketing, says: “We strongly believe that we have a huge opportunity for growth with families. 

“With the Kids Pak we deliberately brought in the Bear Pure Fruit Yoyos and juice to highlight how it can contributor to your one of five a day.”

Akhtar also adds that its marketing efforts were aimed at increasing awareness of its stores’ ability to accommodate families, whereas previously its marketing was geared towards the 16-35 age bracket. 

“We’ve done research and found that not many people realised we have a Kids Pak. The benefit of pairing with something like Monsters University is that it has a broad appeal,”  she says, adding “We don’t think think this will alienate this core group [16-35 year olds].” 

The restaurant chain also hopes to broaden its appeal by improving its appeal to the female market by introducing bread with a lower calorie-count and highlighting the health benefits of its menu. 

View Point

Ronan Shields

Pairing with Disney to co-launch on of its animated specials is a tried-and-tested method of bolstering appeal to kids but what must follow is a cleverly-targeted message towards parents, whom ultimately control the purse strings. An additional challenge for Subway is the fact that McDonald’s and Burger King with their respective kids’ offering are firmly entrenched competitors. Subway doesn’t want to fall victim to its own success with the potential scenario of its “core audience” of 16-35 year-olds abandoning the place in large numbers due to the average Subway outlet resembling a nursery full of crying children.   

 

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