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The decline of Subway’s marketing…because relevance disappears faster than you think.

◼️ Why a once‑iconic brand slowly slipped out of the spotlight

◼️ How shifting perception can erode even the strongest positioning

◼️ Why consistency matters when a brand starts losing its edge

◼️ The role cultural relevance plays in staying front of mind

◼️ What every business can learn from Subway’s quiet decline

Timestamps:

00:00:00 Introduction

00:01:26 - Subway's Rise and Initial Success

00:02:19 - Core Problems Facing Subway

00:04:41 - Lessons for Brands from Subway's Experience

00:06:29 - Recommendations for Subway's Marketing Strategy

00:09:10 - The Importance of Consistency in Marketing

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DISCLAIMER

This content is for educational and informational purposes only. Marketing tool effectiveness varies based on your specific business, industry, goals, and implementation. Results and efficiency gains are not guaranteed and depend on proper setup, training, and ongoing optimization. Always research tools thoroughly and test them with your team before full implementation. Consult with marketing professionals for strategies tailored to your specific needs.

Remember when subway was the place to go for a healthy lunch? Back when we all pretended loading

a foot long with triple cheese still counted as eating fresh. It was iconic, right? The

$5 footlong jingle had the same impact as a Beyonce chorus. Kids knew it. Adults knew

it. Even the seagulls hanging outside the food court knew it. But fast forward to today, and the

brand that once dominated the fast food landscape feels like it's been quietly slipping into the

background. Like that one friend who stops showing up to group chats and suddenly you're like, are

they okay? So today we're asking the question on everyone's mind what happened to

Subway's marketing? How did a brand that was once unstoppable end up struggling for relevance?

And more importantly, what can your brand learn from this? Welcome to the Marketing Factory where

we don't blend in. I'm Marissa Candy, founder and recipient of Gold Stevie International Business

Award, among many others, and for over two decades, I've helped businesses think differently about

their marketing and achieve powerful results. In this podcast, I'll share proven strategies so that

you can create profitable marketing campaigns that drive real impact for your business. Ready to

become impossible to ignore? Let's get started. Now let's give credit where credit is

due. Subway didn't just rise. They skyrocketed. They had a clear message.

Eat fresh. A catchy jingle and identity consumers instantly recognised. And a

franchise model that spread faster than gossip in a high school hallway. At one point, subway

had more stores globally than McDonald's. Yes, the hamburger empire got out sandwiched. But here's

what happens when you scale too fast. It's like baking three cupcakes and then suddenly deciding

to bake 3000. Some are going to come out perfect and some are going to look like a crime scene.

And that's exactly what happened. The bigger subway grew, the harder it became to protect the

brand. So let's look at the core problems that broke the brand. Number one, the brand

lost its identity. Eat fresh worked when the competition was deep fried, drive thru and served

in paper bags. Shiny enough to signal regret. But times of change, consumers got smarter.

Competitors got fresher in Subway's ingredients. Simply didn't. They were the kid at school

who peaked in high school but didn't update their wardrobe for adulthood. Number two, the store

experience became a bit, you know, like a lucky dip. Some subways looked modern and inviting, and some

look like they haven't been renovated since dial up internet. Some smell like fresh bread. Some

smell like, well, something else entirely. And walking into a subway then became a mystery.

Like, am I getting a sandwich or an unplanned Adventure when your brand experience ranges from

pleasant to post-apocalyptic beige. Your marketing is fighting an uphill battle.

Number three. What went wrong? Ingredients quality became the punchline. The perception

that Subway's ingredients became less fresh. Spread quickly, and the internet memes didn't help.

You can't market freshness. If consumers feel like the lettuce has been through a character

development so marketing can't run product reality. Not anymore anyway.

Number four franchises versus HQ. The battle nobody wants. And here's where things get a

little bit spicy. Subway expanded so aggressively that franchisees started competing

with each other. Same sandwich, same street, same customers. Meanwhile, HQ

kept pushing national campaigns without supporting local execution. It was like handing

out sheet music and forgetting to teach half the orchestra how to play. And number five. Marketing

then lost its magic. There was a period where subway campaigns went from clever and clear to

confusing and forgettable random celebrities, unclear messages, inconsistent branding,

social content that looked like it was designed in Microsoft Paint. The world evolved and subway

didn't. Now here are some lessons every brand should realise. Lesson number one positioning

isn't permanent. What made you relevant ten years ago will not carry you into the next ten. Brands

that stay static. Die static. It's like wearing skinny jeans in 2025. Technically you

can, but people will talk. And I'm wearing some today because the boyfriend jeans in the mum

jeans in all of that won't let it go. Sorry. There's a couple of things I will hold on to.

Listen to consistency beats catchy. All right. A great slogan means nothing.

If one store feels like premium and another store feels like an abandoned train station. The

customer doesn't separate brand from location. To them, it's all your brand.

Lesson number three franchisees are your lifeblood. Support them. Train

them. Equip them because unhappy franchisees equal unhappy stores, and unhappy stores

equal unhappy customers and unhappy customers equal angry TikTokers and angry TikTokers.

Equal brand damage you cannot outrun. Lesson number four marketing needs

one story, not 17. Modern marketing is about coherence,

not scattered promotions, mismatched visuals, random celebrity endorsements. Choose one

story, okay? And when you do tell it well, tell it everywhere. So now we know what

went wrong. What should subway have done next? Just quickly. If you're a business owner

struggling to see results from your marketing, or you're overwhelmed by the thought of marketing

your business, we can help booking a call with my team using the link in the show notes. And let's

get your brand thriving without the struggle. Now back to the episode. Now let's just play the game.

Are you ready? Put your hat on. You're the chief marketing officer of subway. Just for a moment.

Anyway, I've got mine on and this is what I would recommend they do. Firstly, refresh the

positioning literally instead of clinging to eat fresh. Change it to something genuine

and modern. Something like real food your way or made fresh for real life. Stop chasing

perfection and start chasing some credibility. Number two, let's now fix the experience first,

because you can't market your way out of tired stores. Inconsistent staff training, questionable

presentation. McDonald's didn't rebrand their logo to win people back. They rebuilt their restaurants.

Subway needs that same energy. Number three, relaunch it with a

real story. Because what our consumers want. We all want the same things. We want honesty,

transparency, proof. Show behind the scenes, show ingredients, show the

franchisees, show some real customer experiences and bring the humanity back

into the business. Number four, they need to give franchisees a plug and play

campaign options. So no more guess the marketing strategy of the month. I love that game, by the way.

Not give them some real ready to post social assets, some local marketing copy that they can

adjust and apply to their area, their region, some in-store signage packs, some video templates,

scripts, photography libraries, campaign calendars. make it easy for them to

be consistent. Let me tell you, if you put this in place, they will use it if you teach them

how. Now picture this. A customer walks into any subway, any subway, literally any one of

them, and they know exactly what to expect. The stores clean, the ingredients look

fresh, the staff are trained. The messaging matches the ad that they saw online. There's no guessing.

No surprises? No. Is this lettuce supposed to be shiny moments? Marketing didn't

create that magic. Guess what did consistency did. And marketing simply tells the story. The

stories have to live it. So how do we wrap up this episode? Subway's marketing decline

wasn't caused by a lack of creativity. It was caused by a lack of alignment. If there's

one lesson that every multi location brand can steal, it's this marketing isn't just a

department. It's a full ecosystem. And that ecosystem collapses when stores, staff

and HQ aren't rowing in the same direction at the marketing factory. This is what we do well.

We help brands build the playbooks, the systems and the support structures that keep marketing

consistent no matter how many locations you manage or want to manage. So if you want your

brand to avoid a subway style fade out, connect with me. You know where to find me at the

marketing factory on the socials, remember? Great marketing isn't what you launch, it's what every

location delivers every day. Thanks for tuning into the marketing Factory. If today's episode

helped bring clarity to your marketing strategy, please leave a five star review on Apple Podcasts

or Spotify, and don't forget to subscribe on your favourite platform. Stay connected with us on the

socials at the Marketing Factory or at the Marketing Factory US, and let's keep turning

clarity into action.