Potbelly’s Case Essay

1. Potbelly’s strategy in terms of product and market are to provide great food and a friendly atmosphere. As far as their product goes even their CEO Keil says that anybody can make and sell a sandwich. What strategy they use is by using quality ingredients and a superior value. Their strategy towards the market is to provide a fun, unique experience to their customers. Their previous attempts as far as product goes was to sell antiques along with their sandwich shop, kind of the same approach as a cracker barrel. It seems the sandwiches become a more important part of their revenue. The antiques became more of decoration then sale items. The past market was very small just having one sandwich shop owned by a couple. With the purchase of the shop they quickly started a chain of restaurants and have opened a lot of locations just recently. 2. Potbelly’s position strategy seems to have been starting small in one area while making a name for itself. In its first five years all the locations opened were in Chicago, Illinois. After they had built a reputation they moved into Washington D.C. This seems to be an attempt to stay in major cities to increase their reputation. The nation’s capital is one of the many major travel destinations for work. This way the businessmen of Chicago can get the sandwiches they love even away from home. The next year instead of branching out to the other major business travel cities, for example, New York, Atlanta, Dallas, and Los Angeles, Potbelly took the approach that many other chains take. There central location was Chicago, Illinois; from there they spread into neighboring states, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Like mentioned earlier most chains take this approach until they are nationwide. A lot of grocery stores northerners are familiar with will not be found as the y head further south just as southerners will not find the same stores they are used to shopping at when they head north. The next year it opened locations in some of those same states and spread to Indiana as well as another major business travel destination, Texas. In the more recent years they have built more locations in the already occupied states while spreading to neighboring state Ohio. From this point they have made a good name for themselves and have over 100 locations; with the reputation the company has I am sure they will continue to spread their market. Their original locations are located in Northern Mid America, they did not start on one coast and try to spread to the other, this will help extremely with them being a nationwide chain and in the coming years will probably start seeing Potbelly’s as far east as New York, as far south as Georgia, and west into the mid-western states. 3. Potbelly’s environmental opportunities in the external environment would probably include their original location and how much easier it is to spread from the middle of the country rather than the corner or coastline of the United States. The threats Potbelly’s would face more importantly is the competition. There are many well established chains of sandwich shops in the United States including, Sub-way, Quiznos, Panera Bread, Jimmy John’s, and Schlotzsky’s Deli to name a few. When moving into a new market promotion is a key element as the market the company does not know the companies name and would rather go with what they know. Potbelly offers promotions and a great atmosphere that may be able to take some of these competitors business. Subway for example does not use quality ingredients, nor does it have any sort of friendly atmosphere for around the same price. It should be very easy for Potbelly’s to take business away from them. For Potbelly’s to maintain its antique setup and friendly atmosphere they will require excellent management expanding into these new markets. I do not see any reason for Potbelly’s to change their strategy at this time. Changing the way they do business, either the looks of the restaurants or the friendly workers would take away from why people will choose them in the first place over their already known sandwich shops.