Quiznos Appeals To Millennials To Turn Things Around
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
Can Quiznos Bank On Millennials To Save The Brand?
Quiznos has had a rocky road these past several years, but underwent financial restructuring and emerging from Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in July. That marked the beginning of a campaign to turn the brand around, designed to “revitalize the Quiznos brand and reinforce its promise as a fresh, high-quality and great-tasting alternative to traditional fast food offerings,” as CEO Stuart K. Mathis stated in a July news release.
As part of that revitalization, Quiznos is turning to the millennial segment to help turn things around, as QSR Web reported One of its new initiatives is called “Toasty TV,” described by the brand as “Curated entertainment, straight from the Toaster.” Toasty TV is a website that carries entertainment and marketing content to support the Quiznos brand without “being too salesy.”
Chris Ruszkowski, vp/advertising and marketing at Quiznos, discussed the content marketing aspect of the company's strategy while speaking at the VideoNuze 2014 Online Video Advertising Summit. He explained, “Brands that were having success were doing things differently. They're acting more like a publisher, versus just an advertiser. They were doing more storytelling versus just advertising. We had this wake-up call and we knew we needed to do something different.”
And thus, Toasty TV was born. Ruzkowski explained that the large millennial audience – roughly 87 million people – is a vital demographic for the Quiznos chain, meaning that they were a crucial target to help revitalize the brand.
CMO Susan Lintonsmith told QSR Web that “the sandwich segment is a great segment to be in – it’s popular, 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, and we’ve been busy working on how we reach our millennial guests.”
"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," Lintonsmith said. "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 chain is also adopting other initiatives to revitalize the brand. Some franchisees are piloting texting programs to communicate directly with patrons, while others are piloting geotargeted marketing. Quiznos also has a presence on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Google Plus to leverage social media.
"There are a number of things we're looking at to help our franchisees do something local and relevant," Lintonsmith said. "And we're always looking at what would make sense with our audience. 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."
Millennials are also driving menu changes, in an effort to please their more sophisticated palates.In September, Quiznos launched the Ciabatta Toasties, along with including higher quality ingredients and chef-designed recipes.