Jared's story about how he lost weight while eating Subway sandwiches has some important marketing lessons that should not go unnoticed. With a little thought and analysis, you can choose the areas where you can apply these lessons to your business.
Lesson number one -- Jared has an intriguing story that people become curious to learn more about. This story line is interesting and different, which helps it stand out from the barrage of boring, yawn-inspiring advertisements. Think about how you can create a story around your products, services, and brand. Strive for real human interest, not just simple feature descriptions.
Lesson number two -- Jared's story has an emotional appeal to it. The story is believable, and people become engaged because we all like to pull for underdogs. Every human being makes daily purchasing decisions with emotional aspects to them. If you can infuse your brand story with believable emotional appeal, you will have a distinct advantage over your competition.
Lesson number three -- Jared provides visual proof that eating at Subway has helped him take off the pounds. As much as possible and in as many areas as possible, you must provide testimonials and proof in your marketing that reassure your audience how your products and services will work for them, too.
Lesson number four -- The Jared campaign has been running for a long time now. Surely, the franchisees, employees, corporate management, and even the ad agency handling the account must be getting sick and tired of seeing the Jared ads. Many companies, large and small, mistakenly stop a successful marketing campaign simply because they themselves are tired of it, even though their audience is still responding. If you need entertainment, go to the movies. If you want to make money, continue running a successful ad until your market stops responding to it and the campaign stops producing results.
Lesson number five -- This lesson is perhaps the most important for you and your company. Subway makes sandwiches. Sure it has a little different twist, but it is similar to thousands of other sub shops across the country. One of the things that has helped it stand apart and enjoy growing sales is that Subway was the first within its category to take its product (subs) and reposition it as a health food. Through Jared's story, Subway took a sub sandwich and turned it into a diet product. With one simple story, the company was able to tie into the healthy eating wave. The product didn't change much, but the story around the product did. Now how brilliant is that?
So how can you reposition what you currently sell into something that can increase the value proposition without completely recreating it? Jared and Subway have provided a path. Create a story with emotional appeal that repositions you and your business in the minds of your target audience. If Subway can turn bread and sandwich meat into a diet pill, surely you can come up with something.
