Quiznos, the gourmet sandwich chain, has a new brand strategy that targets the coveted generation of millennials. Hoping to maintain their presence as a powerhouse in the sandwich market, Quiznos has made some major changes to its marketing message. Headed by CEO Stuart Mathis and CMO Susan Lintonsmith, the Denver-based sandwich business is financially restructuring the company, improving service, and upgrading their menu in order to be more successful in reaching a younger demographic.
“The sandwich segment is a great segment to be in—it’s popular, growing and it has a nice health halo. We’ve definitely been working on turning the brand around and working on what made us great at one time by listening to guests and franchisees,” said Lintonsmith, who has spearheaded the marketing changes. “And we’ve been busy working on how we reach our millennial guests.”
Utilizing Toasty TV
Quiznos has integrated several different social media strategies which have seen recent success among their intended audiences. Among them, the creation of their own television station, which they’ve called Toasty.TV. Meant to drive brand imaging, Quiznos has described the site as “curated entertainment, straight from the Toaster.” The website is an image heavy, playful, tongue-in-cheek place that hosts news, sports, comedy, and music videos aimed at millennial audiences. All of the content available at Toasty.TV includes subtle branding undertones which include menu information, store locators, and connections to social media profiles. Hoping to engage by providing a digital-loving consumer with something more than food, Quiznos is looking to build an online community of sandwich-lovers.
“The overall objective is to reach the millennial on their terms and build a relationship with them and communicate with them what they want to embrace,” said Lintonsmith. “We want to provide great content to them that they want to share. They’re always on the Internet, on their mobile devices, and they’re engaging with media in a number of ways. We want to reach them where they spend their time.”
The mobile-friendly website is looking to promote the brand with content that doesn’t sound like a sales pitch. The site, which launched in March of 2014, has received overwhelming support and positive feedback. While determining initial success can be difficult, Quiznos has seen a significant increase of hits on its YouTube channel. The site’s locator tool, a map which helps users find the nearest Quiznos, has seen a substantial increase in the triple-digits and, the average amount of time a visitor spends on Toasty.TV exceeds 10 minutes.
Local Marketing Efforts and Geotargeting
Quiznos and its franchisees are also using text messaging in order to communicate directly with their customers, geotargeting those in their nearby area with deals and interesting content. In addition to Toasty.TV, Quiznos has also significantly increased their presence on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google Plus, and YouTube.
“There are a number of things we’re looking at to help our franchisees do something local and relevant, and we’re always looking at what would make sense with our audience,” said Lintonsmith.“ Local marketing is more important to us now. We want to understand what our guests are doing before and after they go to Quiznos and how to better reach them.”
Looking ahead, Quiznos plans to launch a new point-of-sale (POS) system in 2015, which will help their stores be more successful in targeting millennials. They are also intending to test and implement loyalty tools and create a mobile app, both strategies which have been vital to the success of marketing to a coveted demographic.
