Marketing Brand Relevance Subway’s Way

Renew, Refresh, and Revive the undercurrent of brand excitement is but one of the goals Subway is undertaken with its partnership with T. Marzetti Co. to sell their popular sauces in grocery stores according to Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.  Here a few potential benefits to Subway:

1.       Increased brand awareness: By placing Subway-branded sauces in front of consumers at grocery stores, Subway increases its brand visibility beyond their restaurants. This can especially be effective if the sauces are displayed prominently or included in promotional campaigns.

2.       Enhanced customer experience: Fans of Subway's flavors can now enjoy them outside the restaurant, potentially leading to increased satisfaction and loyalty. This can also encourage customers to visit Subway restaurants for the full sandwich experience.

3.       Potential for new revenue streams: The partnership with T. Marzetti allows Subway to tap into the revenue generated from grocery store sales of their sauces.

4.       Innovation and recipe inspiration: The collaboration may lead to new recipe ideas that incorporate the sauces, both for customers at home and potentially for future menu items at Subway.

Overall, this partnership can help Subway revitalize its brand image by showcasing their signature flavors in a new way and potentially attracting new customers. Doing good, drives valued consumer focused brand messaging according to Johnson.

That said, Subway is teaming with the T. Marzetti Co., a specialty food manufacturer, to offer four sauces at groceries and other food retailers. The four flavors offered would benefit the Fresh Start Scholarship Fund and be:

·         Sweet Onion Teriyaki

·         Roasted Garlic Aioli

·         Baja Chipotle

·         Creamy Italian MVP (not offered in restaurants)

Paul Fabre, Subway’s senior vice president for culinary and Innovation, stated, “Three of the new retail sauces – Sweet Onion Teriyaki, Roasted Garlic Aioli and Baja Chipotle – are inspired by guests’ in-restaurant favorites, and we’ve added an exclusive flavor to this collection with a Creamy Italian MVP, a new twist on Subway’s MVP Parmesan Vinaigrette®.”

Fabre continued, “This partnership takes our sauces to another level and enables our fans to take their culinary creations from ordinary to extraordinary while also contributing to an important cause.”

Recently more and more fast-food outlets have been expanding their sauces to other items as well. Chicago-based McDonald’s Corp. last year made a limited-time offer of dip-packaged Big Mac sauce for other menu items. And KFC, in 2020 offered its KFC sauce and added other flavors since.

Expanding the halo of ‘better for you’, Subway's consumer program helps support the Fresh Start Scholarship Fund, which offers tuition assistance to Subway restaurant employees. Scholarship recipients receive $2,500 toward their secondary education. Since its inception, more than 1,700 scholarships have been awarded.

Carl Stealey, president of T. Marzetti’s retail business, said, “We’re honored that Subway trusted T. Marzetti to help build on that legacy and bring their sauces to kitchens across the country through this exclusive licensing agreement.”

Subway’s four 16-ounce bottled sauces are rolling out now to select U.S. grocers and retail stores including Walmart, Kroger and Albertson’s. More groceries are expected to be added.

Are you looking for new customers? Do you want to keep your current customers while building new electricity? According to Johnson, “Brand relevance is in part driven with innovation in new food products in combination with new avenues of distribution all of which are the platform for the new electricity.” 

Johnson stated “that in my minds-eye the new electricity must be very efficient for the supply and includes such things as fresh foods, developing brands, unique urban clothing, grocerant positioning, fresh food messaging, autonomous delivery, cashier-less retail, plates, glasses, cash-less payments, digital hand-held marketing.

All retailers to survive the next generation of retail must embrace the artificial intelligence revolution while simultaneously embracing fresh food that is portable, fresh, with differentiation that is familiar not different. 

Are you looking for a new partnership to drive sales? Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing tactics look more like yesterday than tomorrow?  Visit GrocerantGuru.com for more information or contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us Remember success does leave clues and we just may have the clue you need to propel your continued success.