Contemporary Business 14th Edition by Louis Boone, David Kurtz

تمرين 25

One Small Franchise Produces One Big Idea SUBWAY has enjoyed top franchise rankings consistently for more than a decade. With 30,000 sandwich restaurants in nearly 80 countries, the firm is poised to become the single largest fast-food chain in the world. But SUBWAY is made up of many small businesses-franchises-and sometimes what seems to be an insignificant idea on the part of one franchisee can change the shape of the entire organization.Stuart Frankel is one such franchisee, and his idea was simple: on weekends, charge a special price of $5 for a footlong SUBWAY sandwich. Since this was a price decrease of about $1 per sandwich, it took awhile for Frankel and two other local Florida SUBWAY franchisees to convince corporate leadership that the idea was a good one. The economy was sluggish, food costs had crept upward, and SUBWAY shops were virtually empty because consumers were eating at home instead of dining out. Frankel's employees stood idle at their stations as sandwich sales declined. But after pressing hard, Frankel got the OK from corporate headquarters. From there, a chain reaction began. "I like round numbers," quipped Frankel about the $5 price. SUBWAY customers liked the number too. As soon as the special pricing was announced, they returned in droves. Sales increased by double digits. Employees made sandwiches as fast as their fingers could fly. Meanwhile, SUBWAY's corporate marketing team pushed the $5 promotion nationwide-franchises from New York to New Orleans began offering $5 footlongs. When the initial four-week time span for the promotion was up, marketing executives extended it to seven weeks. When that time lapsed, they decided to extend it indefinitely but with a limited number of sandwich variations.Something else happened. Demand for the $5 footlongs was so great that franchise owners began to experience shortages of certain ingredients. They couldn't get enough bread, turkey, ham, or tuna. One franchisee recalls being in a panic. "The whole thing took on a life of its own," notes Jeff Moody, CEO of SUBWAY's advertising arm. With one motion, Stuart Frankel struck a chord with consumers who were looking for ways to enjoy themselves and stretch each dollar at the same time. "There are only a few times when a chain has been able to scramble up the whole industry, and this is one of them," notes restaurant consultant Jeffrey T. Davis. "It's huge." Sometimes a small idea is really big.
-A franchise company is only as good as its franchisees. And a franchisee's success is based in part on the decisions and support of corporate leadership. If the $5 footlong promotion had failed, how do you think the outcome would have affected Frankel's franchise business? How might it have affected SUBWAY?