To meet the needs of the ever-changing consumer and create a more cohesive digital persona, Subway is launching a new digital division housing all its digi expertise under a single roof.
The new 150-person team, comprised of marketers, IT folks, designers and operations management, will be based largely out of Milford, Conn., though it will have a satellite office out of Vancouver, primarily charged with e-comm activities, says Carman Wenkoff, chief information and digital officer at the QSR.
The move to centralize all digital efforts won’t take away from local Canadian marketing efforts, he says. Rather, the team will complement local initiatives, as creating a high level of personalization (including regionally tailored digital marketing) is a core goal of the new division.
The brand has been active on digital in different capacities for the past decade or so, he says, “but we found, in hindsight, that it didn’t reach its true potential, because we often organized ourselves in the traditional silos of marketing, technology and operations.”
Out of the gate, the team will be focused on revamping the chain’s loyalty program, as well as finding better ways of creating personalized experiences for consumers. “We want to curate the experience much more – guests have come to expect that,” he says. “They know we’re collecting data about them, and in a non-creepy way, we need to be able to leverage that information to service them better.”
There will also be a team dedicated to innovation, working on tech projects that may work for the brand in the future.
He says digital is often brands’ first point of contact with consumers, and that it is hugely influencing their loyalty decisions. If customer expectations aren’t met, he says they turn to competitors.
“[The shift to digital] is never going to slow down – the pace is going to accelerate,” he says. “So [we said], let’s invest in this properly.”
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