Retail Dude

Rajeev’s honest post calls for a round of applause. Honest being the key-word. Here and Now.

It will not be untrue to say that the average urban consumer has lost significant trust / faith on the average business. We all seem to know that a Nike or Reebok “can” be bought at heavy discounts & why! That, unfortunately also means that apparently very “robust” brand identities have lost much of their values! And that we all seem to be in the know that what Koutons does, as an USP, is not very different to what the Benettons of this world offer, at Factory Outlets or Clearance Sales. Too many brands are on “upto XX%” discounts, for too long, to pull the perceived premiumness off!

So, what’s next?

One - Why can’t we (marketers) broaden our user-base, significantly? It’s already proven that FMCGs, which cater to almost the largest user bases worldwide, are the least affected by slowdowns. Yes, it IS definitely much easier to sell one garment & make a killing but then, let’s not crib when that “one” customer walks away! Premium should now become a dirty, very dirty word. Across products, services & realty!

Two - Having decided on #1, the second action comes naturally. Penetrate! No, Adidas does not need to do a Bata, yet. But, that’s the way to go. There were times when MNC brands & their custodians used to crack jokes about Bata. I am sure the tables have turned since. The kind of low-cost presence Bata has across most of India, the level of trust people still have in the brand, much more than make up for its decidedly stodgy marketing. Bata & Raymonds are two great retailing examples which have stood the test of time and even geography. There are many wonderful learnings we can pick up from them. And no, it’s NOT unfashionable to replicate success formula, even that of “grand-dad” brands.

Three - In steps one & two we may have managed to Buckle our Collective Shoes. Like Johnnie Walker & one Mr. Gandhi once preached….let’s start walking now! Walk the talk. Let our brand communications not try to project the “unachievable” aspirations any more. The bluffs have been called off, time & again. Why spend shooting in Monte Carlo when the buyer cannot possibly afford to fly to even Mumbai? Every bloody product & service went “aspirational” with a vengeance, in the past 3/4 years. It “was” easy, as the heavily misused (term) TG was so easy to fit-in, into such communication! That same TG is now nursing its deep wounds from Dalal Street to Wall Street, via Chanchalaguda Prison. Let’s get real boys!

Four - The foreplay ends here & out comes the unpalatable truth. We now know that ballistic rates of increments or career paths are History. So are possibly the obscene bonuses & incentives. How about a little bit of real, hard work? You know, it feels good, really good, to “earn” the pay-cheque every month. Try it, and you’ll sleep a happy one tonight. Well, if that erodes market-cap of sedative marketing companies…good riddance

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Certainly, sir, and how would you like your sandwich?

At SUBWAY sandwich shops around the world, the ’submarine’ style sandwiches come hot or cold, and with an almost infinite combination of breads, fillings and sauces. The first choice: do you want your sandwich to be ‘6-inch’ or ‘footlong’. Then there are 5 types of bread, 11 toppings, and 9 dressings and sauces to choose from - making for an almost endless combination of possibilities. These choices involve consumers in the brand, allowing them to ‘make it their own’ and giving them a reason to keep coming back. There are more than two million different sandwich combinations available on the SUBWAY menu.

The SUBWAY restaurant chain was founded in 1965 by Fred DeLuca, a 17-year-old college freshman, and family friend Dr. Peter Buck. The first restaurant opened in Bridgeport, Connecticut, USA on August 28 and was called Pete’s Super Submarines. Now, there are nearly 30021 Restaurants In 88 Countries, and the company estimates that about 1,900 SUBWAY sandwiches are served every minute around the world. It’s the biggest fast-food chain in the USA, and the company aims to overtake McDonald’s globally by 2009. The number goes on increasing each day. This is one of a kind of its business, since all its outlets are franchisees. They believe that it’s the country that wants good and healthy food that brings them to it and not their operations. SUBWAY chain is a privately held company and is not traded on any stock exchange.

McCarthy, Mambro Bertino Advertising (MMB), located in Boston, Massachusetts, is the SUBWAY^® chain’s creative agency. They very widely use the acronym BMT® which stands for Biggest, Meatiest, and Tastiest. In the early days of SUBWAY^® restaurants, it was a promotion that was based on the Brooklyn Manhattan Transit system in New York City that went along with the subway theme.

And in a deliberate strategy targeting rivals such as McDonald’s and Burger King, SUBWAY have positioned themselves as the healthy choice: offering sandwiches with ‘6 grams of fat or less’ as well as salads and other low-fat options. There is one amazing story of a person called Jared Fogle who lost 245 lbs. by eating nothing but SUBWAY sandwiches for almost a year in a diet program of his own design that included lots of walking and, yes, he is real. Jared came to our attention after Men’s Health magazine ran an article that featured his amazing weight-loss success story. Appearing in a series of SUBWAY TV commercials beginning in January 2000, Jared has since inspired many others to follow his lead. These days, he keeps busy by traveling throughout the United States and Canada, making public appearance and doing thousands of interviews for television, radio, newspapers and magazines. All their menu cards and delivery have the nutrient content of the diet. A wholesome list is also available about nutrition and contents in its website.

They also care about the localized market where they go into, such as they replaced beef with chicken when they launched in India and similarly pork with beef when in Pakistan, so as not to hurt sentiments of its residents.

The questions that comes to my mind is that  “Can we offer customers more choice, and so make the brand more appealing, while staying true to our focused and distinctive brand offer? “

Who remembers that Porsche has a category of SUV’s?  Usually companies and organizations spread out while trying to do so and in the process dilute its own image even if it is the “MENU”. This is what SUBWAY has done so exceptionally.  

BRAVO!

Sudip

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