How Subway Has Created the Concept of Choice in the Minds of the American Consumer

Americans love choices. We pride ourselves on the ability to make decisions, the feeling of control in saying ‘yes’ to that brand of coffee, ‘no’ to the high-calorie pastry, ‘yes’ to the salad for lunch, and ‘no’ to our inner bad self that wants that cookie. We’re mature individuals after all, we can handle our lives with the sensibilities of a well-informed decision.

The decision-making process during a purchase is a complex one; depending on the product in question, marketers have honed in on what goes on in the minds of the consumer given the selection, choices, and options. Psychology tells us that we all experience a subconscious level of decision-making; marketing proves this by creating extensive plans and expect certain reactions with the introduction of a new item, idea, or concept. In the food industry, this is even moreso apparent since a large portion of the process involves taste.

Subway sandwiches have quickly become a familiar and favorite brand for American consumers across the country, and is picking up markets spanning the globe. The variety, selection, fresh ingredients, and countless options to make your signature sub haven’t stopped us from enjoying that steady lunch from this franchise. With the development of five different bread options, six different sauces, 15+ sandwich/salad toppings, five types of deli-style cheese, 5 types of meat, and a revolving menu of specialty subs, its enough to make your head spin.

And spin it does.

Choices, choices, we just love choices. And that’s what keeps us going back for more, regardless of how many of us complain that Subway is so bland; regardless that the bread isn’t always quite so fresh; regardless that the sandwich artists sometimes don’t wear gloves. We keep going back, because they are there to listen to us, to put exactly the toppings we want on our sandwich, do what we say for even just that five minute interaction, and we’re on our merry way. We almost never get tired of it; with so many combinations possible, who would get tired of the Subway sandwich? But most of us are tired of the sandwich. The processed meats and cheese certainly aren’t benefiting our health. And that’s just it, it’s not the sandwich that keep us coming back; it’s the choices.

We get to make the key choices in our purchase process, and Subway caters to that very essence of the action. Give us more options, we get to ‘play’ more! A new sauce? Another combination! A fresh specialty sub? Another never-before-made taste. Never mind that the same ingredients are used over, and over again; never mind that the sauce is usually the only item with actual flavor, and can only go so far in covering up the blandness of the standard meat and cheeses. If it’s a new combination in our minds, the purchase is very likely to follow. Add speed and ease of the purchase, and you have a winning consumer-process combination.

Permutations have been studied extensively in both psychology and statistics. The more permutations a set is capable of creating , the more mysterious and enticing it becomes; all it requires is a ‘base’ to begin, and the combinations can almost be carried to infinity.

How does this relate to our sandwich franchise? Think cross-pollination. The ‘base’ is literally the bread. Four to five standard choices. Next, is the cheese. Four to five standard choices. Next, is the meat, and so on. Keep on going into each category, keep a limited amount of choice (wouldn’t want to overwhelm you now), and create a one-of-a-kind product. Okay so far. But what happens next? You, the hungry consumer, enjoyed the process; you got to make five to six key decisions and choices on your own, received your product, made your payment exchange, and ate your result. So what? Well, next time you’re hungry, short on time, and can’t decide what to have for lunch, you get to do it all over again with a high probability of creating an entirely ‘new’ product. Even if it tastes exactly the same except for the sauce, it’s the thrill of the process that’s got you hungering for more. And that’s what fuels our need; right there, is the concept of choice.

Sure, but what about Subway’s competitors? Don’t they offer the same type of setup? Not exactly. Take an objective look at the competition on your next visit, and you’ll notice a few key differences. First, there is usually not a standard sandwich setup; competitors are offering very unique and individual concoctions that aren’t so easily mixed and matched. Secondly, the sauces cannot usually be transferred from one sandwich to another; if the sandwich is a Reuben, you usually can’t put the Thousand Island dressing on a BLT (unless you ask nicely, but it could take a while). Third, the menu offerings aren’t quite so frequently advertised, nor are the newest additions flashed across evening primetime television for weeks straight as the sole provider of new ideas for our pleasant sandwich-making process.

Subway’s done it right, all right. They’ve created a simple concept that reprints itself on the consumer mind over, and over, every time they step foot into that store. It’s a hard habit to break, despite the result of a poorly made, untasteful sandwich. No, we’re not looking for gourmet expectations, but clearly something is bringing us back to the store.

Something we can control? It’s likely, if you think about it.