Had to share this one.
Subway Sandwiches – who’d have thought a 16 year old girl would be using very Advanced Hypnotic Selling?
Ok, I suspect she didn’t know it, but boy, this is good, good good, and downright naughty.
Ok, what would Subway, or any purveyor of healthy alternative to fast food want us to think about their product? I guess that it’s FRESH would be high on the list yeah?
Well I partake in the odd sub from Subway, and they ask, as part of their procedure, ‘toasted or fresh?’ A seemingly innocuous question yes? Oh but the naughtiness there.
They don’t sya ‘toasted or not toasted?’ or ‘toasted?’…but
‘Toasted or Fresh?’
So what that means is, HALF OF THE TIME, or whenever someone wants an untoasted sandwich. They HAVE to say ‘FRESH’ . They simply can’t say another response to that sentence without it sounding ridiculous. You can’t say yes or no, because that wouldn’t be responding to the question.
So about half, if not more, of their customers are being psychologically driven, (without any inkling of it) into ‘ratifying’ to themselves that Subway make fresh food.
And the fact that WE are saying it, means there is no way that, in our own heads, that we are wrong. No longer is the advertising message coming from outside of us through a TV, paper or billboard.
By cleverly manipulating a simple sales process, the advertising message that Subway want us to believe, is coming from our own mouths and brains.
(hey I eat their stuff so I’m not saying the product is anything but what they say it is, but that isn’t my point. There’s lots of places that make a fresh sandwich though)
They are geniuses. Whoever came up with that simple plan deserves an honourary degree in Advanced Hypnotic Selling. Brilliant, naughty, completely undetectable, and highly influencing.
Would seriously love to hear what the selling community and marketing experts have to say about this. Anyone know if this is deliberate or just the luckiest, cleverest accidental language pattern in fast food history.
Comments 10
Mate I reckon it has to be deliberate. The best part is that if someone asks for toasted, this isn’t telling them it’s not fresh, it’s just fresh AND toasted. I just wonder what their results are since they started using it, I have only been hearing it for a few years? The Jared story was definitely smart marketing and no doubt they are working on the next thing.
I tell you, if it is deliberate it’s genius. I’m on a bit of a weight loss thing, and going to subway a few times a week, and I caught myself saying over and over in the stores, responding with the word ‘FRESH,’ and it hit me, their evil genius.
I can hear it now, Baldrick at the Subway Boardroom, discussing the Subway sales process …..
“Is it as cunning as a fox what used to be Professor of Cunning at Oxford University but has moved on and is now working for the U.N. at the High Commission of International Cunning Planning?”
Fresh is such a subtley emotive word. Implies health, goodness, vitality, even fitness. Them making you say it is affirming their marketing and acts as a huge positive reinforcement. A carefully thought-out sales script in operation. Good pick up Glenn. Would you expect anything less? Same company that ran the series of ads with the social proof of the large guy (was going to say fat but that would be insensitive) who ate “fresh” and ate himself thin with those impressive before and after photos.
Glen
Even more hypnotic is their advertising that subway is good for weight loss. It’s not the positioning they started with.
Is it really low cal?
Nah, they’ve done well with their marketing message there. Their competing more with JEnny Craig and Tony Ferguson now than they are with McDonalds.
Smart, fast food that makes you thin.
(I still want to eat a big mac though, bloody MAccas, they get us when we’re kids somehow, they’re geniuses)
Who wouldn’t want a Happy meal ? I mean there is a toy (reward) and I will be happy right !?
if that doesn’t plant the seed for emotional internally motivated repeat sales then what else would ?
You are reading too much into it. I can confidently say it is not deliberate. When working in Subway you have to ask too many questions in a very short space of time and this is the quickest way to get the desired answer without having to ask another. You people are marketing professionals, these kids are just trying to make you lunch!!
BTW the low cal question, yes some of the food is low cal (Ham, Turkey etc) but some of it isn’t. For example the Chicken Fillet with cheese has more fat than a Big Mac.
It is deliberate, and part of the sales process to program the subconscious mind of the consumer. Same when I sell anything, its called the A.I.D.A. principle :
Attention – get the customers attention
Interest – get the customers interest
Desire – create the desire
Action – call to action (the close, asking for the sale).
you ask the customer questions that are certain to generate a ‘yes’ response. With the TENS machines I sell, I ask, how does that feel? (good), clever little gadget isn’t it (yes) whilst running them through the different massage modes.
Similarly selling Solar PV. working out the savings, look that’s a $400 per month saving, isn’t that good? (yes)
etc etc
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Sarah you are so nieve as if its not apart of the marketing plan! We all know it is not fresh! The bread is not baked on site (they had to stop saying that after they got caught out by delivery drivers who deliver the bread) and when they say “toasted” they mean simply re heating it in the microwave.
I dunno which stores sou’re going to Karla, but I’ve seen them bake at least some of their bread with my own eyes. Skinny little bit of dough goes in, footlong comes out.
The salads etc get delivered but hey, all good, do we really expect them to mass produce it all complete from scratch.
My point wasn’t whether or not they are fresh. My point was how brilliantly they get US to say it’s fresh, because when we say it, we ‘ratify’ the fact to ourselves.
Brilliant, sneaky and profitable.