# Keynote Case Study: Subway Canada — The Era of Fast Consumer Change
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Subway Canada brought me to Montreal for its annual franchise meeting to explore what happens when the customer changes faster than the organization. The keynote was titled: The Era of Fast Consumer Change. The discussion focused on several forces already reshaping the restaurant market. Health and wellness. New consumer influencers. Rapid retail change. Mobile technology. Changing expectations. And a much faster cycle for taste and food trends. In the restaurant sector, those trends are especially important because consumers make choices constantly. A brand can remain familiar while the customer's definition of value, convenience, health and experience keeps moving. Six themes framed the keynote: Fast Consumer Change. Customer preferences were shifting more quickly than traditional planning cycles. Health + Wellness. Consumers were placing greater emphasis on healthier choices. New Influencers. Social and digital influence were changing how food trends spread. Rapid Retail Change. Restaurant and retail formats were evolving quickly. Mobile + POS. Mobile ordering, loyalty, payment and point-of-sale technology were becoming increasingly important. Taste Velocity. New flavors and food trends were moving from niche to mainstream much faster. The broader restaurant work around this period made the acceleration clear. At-table ordering. Wait-line ordering. Hidden menus. Food trucks. Faster prep concepts. New reservation tools. Mobile payments. All of these were changing the competitive environment. The key question for Subway was not whether customers would change. They already were. The question was whether the organization and its franchise system could keep pace. When the customer changes faster than the brand, speed becomes strategy.

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Source: https://jimcarroll.com/2014/04/keynote-case-study-subway-canada-the-era-of-fast-consumer-change/