KFC and Subway: Comparison of Advertising and Promotion Strategies

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Main body
Conclusion
Reference

Introduction

Communication strategies normally heavily depend on product type and target audience. The present paper is designed to discuss marketing intervention in repositioning of KFC and Subway fast food chains and assess creative strategies, media plans and advertising accountability of the two campaigns.

Main body

KFC needed a large marketing campaign, due to the fact that its position on the market was much weaker as compared to competitors; moreover, the their research suggested, consumers had quite critical attitude towards the KFC restaurants. Communication of the news from KFC included messages about “larger portions, new menu items for families offering better value, new ‘snack’ menu items offering better value, the feeling that KFC is now respectable” (Quirk, 1984, p.7). The creative approach chosen can be briefly described as KFC through the eyes of the average family. The family was placed in the KFC setting and each member’s unique experience was displayed. Therefore, the creative strategy appealed primarily to the value of familial unity (e.g. spending weekends altogether). Subway had a little different problem, its marketing specialists felt company was not competitive due to the fact that the range of products distributed was quite scarce. Therefore, when building communication strategy, the company emphasized the number of various sauces, salads and types of bread the store offered. The company designed a sandwich called “Sub of the day”, which curbed the process of choosing and had attractive price. It was positioned as fresh, natural and optimal solution in terms of cost. Media plans also varied given the differing goals. KFC envisioned advertisements exceptionally on the television, in prime-time, when all household members are likely to be at home. The first commercial involved no family and was a general informative message about the changes in KFC and new products. The second commercial introduced the family and had an interesting plot, in which the conservative father and teenage son had an encounter in KFC. The third commercial introduced a family party with KFC “Bargain Bucket”, a family portion pack at a competitive price. “At least 70% of the expenditure was deployed in peak viewing time thus covering 60% of ratings. This ensured maximum coverage of all adults and optimum exposure during peak family viewing time” (Quirk, 1984, p.10). Subway had a broader campaign and involved communication through point of sale, staff outfit, flyers and PR accompanying. In addition, two humorous 30-second radio spots were created and the U.S. advertisement was adapted to the new campaign. Moreover, a new advert specifically for young audience was created. Radio spots were transmitted on Thursdays and Sundays, as opposed to KFC’s “business day primetime” approach. Importantly, KFC focused on “family evening time” in order to reach the entire family, whereas the spirit of familial unity was less critical to Subway. The media plan demonstrates that the campaign communicates the value of “paying less-receiving more”, or each person’s inherent striving for saving their money, so the two campaigns actually stressed distinct values.

Conclusion

Advertising accountability in case of KFC was quite high: sales rates within 3 months grew by 50 percent as compared to the previous year’s level, and the company’s market share rose from 13% to 16% in Westward and from 11% to 14% in Anglia. As for Subway, the average sales increase was 18 percent. Moreover, customer loyalty rate grew by 19 percent at average, which means, customers were found 20% more likely to return to the store. As one can conclude, although the companies are similar by profile, they employed distinct marketing strategies of repositioning given the discrepancy in their goals. However, the two strategies allowed reaching the target audience in a cost-effective way, as both KFC managed to raise sales rate by 50 percent, whereas Subway achieved greater customer loyalty and higher rate of sales as well. Given the dissimilarity of goals and strategies, the figures of advertising accountability can not be contrasted so easily, and the overall results suggest that KFC and Subway achieved their marketing goals.

Reference

Quirk, M. (1984). A successful repositioning for KFC. Institute of Practitioners in Advertising. IPA Effectiveness Awards, 1984.

McGhee, G., Kiely, D. , Gilmour, N. and Baskin, M. (2007). Subway – On a roll: how the regional trial of a repositioned and re-branded existing product for UK sandwich chain Subway led to a fully integrated global communications success story. Institute of Practitioners in Advertising. IPA Effectiveness Awards.

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KFC and Subway: Comparison of Advertising and Promotion Strategies

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