Subway Restaurants are rolling out a new rewards component to its Cash Card program that lets loyal consumers rack up points to redeem for free Subway menu items.
Under the Subway Rewards and Cash Card, consumers can earn points (one point for every dollar spent) for Subway items based on in-store purchases. Ten points will earn users a free cookie, 15 points a bag of chips, 20 points a 21-ounce drink, 30 points a free deli sandwich, 50 points a free regular six-inch sub, 60 points a regular wrap and 75 points a foot-long sub.
In return for customer loyalty, Subway can track their customers’ favorite items via a database with each card transaction. The QSR in turn will use that information to give customers special offers via store receipts, Ned Daley, the marketing programs specialist for Subway’s profit building and local marketing department, said. Consumers have 36 months to use their loyalty points.
“It allows franchisees to speak to customers [beyond redemption] and offer promotions,” Daley said. “We’re reaching out to consumers in a way we never have before.”
The program, now rolling out in the U.S. and Canada, replaces the QSR’s Sub Club loyalty program, which uses a paper card and stamps to track frequency. Subway stopped the program in 2005 over consumer fraud problems and a desire to modernize its offerings with an electronic card (PROMO Xtra, June 6, 2005).
More than 1,000 Subway stores in New York, Idaho, Kentucky, California, Utah, West Virginia and Canada have adopted the new program, and its popularity is growing, Daley said. The program is designed to incent frequency and “create a sense of urgency” by consumers to redeem loyalty points.
“There is much buzz growing about the program,” Daley said. “We’re happy with what we’ve seen so far.”
The rewards component is an overlay to Subway’s Cash Card, a branded, reloadable card launched in June that lets consumers make purchases without cash (PROMO Xtra, Feb. 22, 2006). Consumer can add money to the card when their balance diminishes and register their cards at MySubwayCard.com to protect their balance if cards are lost or stolen.
Most Subway restaurants are eligible for the program, except a select few that may use a payment system operated by a facility management or foodservice contract vendor in stadiums or amusement parks, Daley said. Subway restaurants that don’t offer the option rewards program instead can elect to offer other in-store promotions.
TV and radio spots, P-O-P and in-store signage support.
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