Filed under: Products and services, Competitive strategy, Coca-Cola (KO), PepsiCo (PEP), Marketing and advertising, McDonald’s (MCD), Yum Brands (YUM), Battle of the Brands

This post is part of our Battle of the Brands feature. Let us know which brand you like, and check out other Battle of the Brands posts.

Businesswise, it’s no real competition between Subway and Quiznos. Subway, the number 1 sub sandwich chain, claims to have more than 29,000 locations in 86 countries, earning more than $11 billion in 2007. Quiznos, on the other hand, has more than 5,000 locations in 20 countries, earning $130 million in 2004, making it a distant number 2. In fact, Subway is the third largest fast-food chain globally after Yum! Brands (NYSE: YUM) (Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, KFC, etc.) with 34,000 locations and McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD), with 31,000 locations.

Both Subway and Quiznos are privately owned, franchise fast-food chains. While Quiznos is a limited liability company controlled by chairman Rick Schaden and his family, Subway is a wholly owned subsidiary of Doctor’s Associates, Inc., a company founded in 1965 by Fred De Luca and Dr. Peter Buck specifically to oversee the Subway chain of restaurants.

Subway menus vary by store. For instance, its restaurants in Muslim countries serve Halal menu, and Subway has kosher restaurants in New York, Los Angeles, Kansas City, and a suburb of Cleveland. All locations feature submarine sandwiches, ranging from four-inch “mini subs” to its three-foot giant subs. Popular sandwiches include Turkey Breast, Italian BMT, and the Subway Club. All of Quiznos’ sandwiches are served toasted, and its best-sellers include the Classic Italian, the Mesquite Chicken with Bacon, the Prime Rib Cheesesteak, the Chicken Carbonara. Last fall Quzinos introduced flatbread “sammies.”

When it comes to advertising, Quzinos has been all over the map, including ads featuring a man suckled at a mom wolf’s teat, speaking “Baby Bob” ads, a dig at its bigger rival with ads featuring a “Wrong Way” restaurant — and then there were the creepy but short-lived Spongmonkey ads. Subway’s best-known spokesman is Jared Fogle, who in 1999 is stated to have lost 245 pounds on a diet featuring Subway sandwiches.

But don’t think that the smaller Quzinos has had no influence on Subway. In 2003, when most Subway locations switched their beverage contracts from PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP) products to Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) products, Coca-Cola helped pay for the initial rollout of toaster ovens to Subway restaurants in North America, This allowed customers the option to have sandwiches toasted, in response to increased competition from Quiznos.

But the real competition isn’t between one company and another, but between their product offerings. Who has the tastiest offerings? Who provides the best value? Vote in our poll and let us know what you think.

Vote in our poll for Subway or Quiznos as your preferred brand, and let us know in the comments why you love it.

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Filed under: Television, Marketing and advertising, News Corp’B’ (NWS)

News Corp.’s (NWS) FOX broadcasts American Idol — which gets 24 million viewers a show — but is the judging fair and balanced? The New York Times recommends maybe not so much. That’s because a major slip-up by judge Paula Abdul this week revealed that the judges watch rehearsals two hours before the live performances and their comments — which may influence the public vote on the contestants — are not spontaneous reactions to the live performances.

This week performers sang two songs but the judges were supposed to withhold their remarks until after the second performance. On Tuesday, Abdul watched one of the contestants, Jason Castro, give one live performance but when asked to offer a comment on it by Ryan Seacrest, she gave her thoughts on two performances — the second of which she had seen in the rehearsal. When Abdul started talking about that second performance, I thought that she had a few too many before the show.

However, the explanation in the Times makes it clear that she was flustered because Seacrest had initially said that the judges wouldn’t comment until the performers had finished both of their songs. However, executive producer Nigel Lythgoe changed things up at the last minute, demanding that Seacrest get the judges to give a swift assessment of the performances after their first song.

Despite her confusion, Abdul was right in her judgment of Castro whose singing has been terrible. But Castro’s singing performance and the judges assessment of it seemed to have no influence on the voting because Castro was the first singer sent to safety.

Meanwhile, since American Idol viewership is down this year, it looks like there will be changes if the show comes back next season. Ryan Seacrest publicly speculated that he could be out. And the revelation that judges watch the rehearsals advocates that there may be other aspects of the show that need tweaking. The judging is clearly not fair and balanced. But it doesn’t seem to influence voting either.

That leaves the fair and balanced coverage to the Republican propaganda wing of News Corp. — Fox “News” Network.

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also instructs management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He has no financial interest in News Corp securities.

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Filed under: Products and services, Marketing and advertising, IAC/InterActiveCorp (IACI), Battle of the Brands

This post is part of our Battle of the Brands feature. Let us know which brand you prefer, and check out other Battle of the Brands posts.

The battle between QVC and HSN is really about celebrity entrepreneurs.

QVC counts the likes of Joan Rivers and Marie Osmond in its stable of shills. Suzanne Somers and Susan Lucci hock their wares on HSN, which is owned by Barry Diller’s IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ: IACI) conglomerate.

Somewhere around the 1980s or 1990s, Rivers lost her sense of shame and began opening up about everything, including her numerous plastic surgeries. Rivers still is hysterical. Typical is a recent blog post about Passover in which she joked that people eat Matzo (unleavened bread) “Because, you pig, you inherited your mother’s massive, fat thighs and you should lay off the carbs for at least one day each year.”

Anyway, you just gotta love Rivers. She’s survived her husband’s suicide, the scorn of Johnny Carson and the ridicule of celebrities on the red carpet. Allowed that I won’t be buying products such as the Joan Rivers Lilly of the Valley Bee Pin, which according to the QVC website “shines with orange and green epoxy enamel and cream simulated pearls as the buds.”

Sounds lovely, no?

Yes, I know that Marie Osmond’s dolls, some of which cost cost a pretty penny, have their fans. I’m sure that people also dig Somers’s clothing and jewelry line, which QVC says “capture her beloved, upbeat personality and star quality.” Soap queen Lucci offers “romantic fashions, glamorous and skin-toning beauty systems make you feel like a starlet.”

If I were a woman instead of a 40-year-old guy whose idea of fashion is a bowling shirt and sandals, I guess that would impress me. I guess women — the smart ones — want to be Lucci rather than Britney Spears. Nonetheless, I’m awarding the brand title winner based on the strength of Rivers’ celebrity alone.

She’s taking selling out to an art. Bravo. Spears, who will no doubt be selling stuff to pay her legal bills, should take note.

Vote in our poll for QVC or HSN as your preferred brand, and let us know in the comments why you love it.

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