Chipotle Brand Audit

IBM402.01

Samuel Tran
Ramiro Hernandez
Ron Lac
Noel Rivas
Joseph Bogenschutz
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Table of Contents

Brand History and Overview……………………….……………………….………………2

Key Challenges……………..……………………….……………………….………………3

Brand Inventory……………..……………………….……………………….………………5

Brand Exploratory……………..……………………….……………………….……………10

Reflection and Recommendations……………..……………………….………………….15

Bibliography……………..……………………….……………………….…………………..16

Appendices……………..……………………….……………………….…………………...17
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Chipotle History and Overview

Steve Ells launched the first Chipotle with a loan of $85,000 from his father in
1993. “When Chipotle opened its first restaurant in 1993, the idea was simple: show that
food served fast didn't have to be a “fast-food” experience… our mission has expanded
to ensuring that better food is accessible to everyone”, Ells said.

Within two years from opening the first restaurant, a second store is opened
using the cash flow of the first restaurant. A year later, a third store is opened by using
an SBA loan and an additional investment from Ells’ father. Ells then created a board of
directors and raised an additional $1.8 million. By 1998, McDonalds came calling and
invested $360 million in Chipotle. In 2006, Chipotle went public and soon after
McDonald’s liquidated their investment, making more than $1 billion. Around the same
time, Chipotle grew to over 700 restaurants by 2007 and continued to steadily grow to
almost 2000 in 2015 when their problems began.

In 2015, 11 Chipotle restaurants in the Washington & Oregon border region are
closed due to an e.Coli outbreak, according to the CDC. Chipotle’s troubles continue
when they are hit with a class-action lawsuit from nearly 10,000 employees for alleged
“wage theft,” a suit they eventually settled.

Chipotle is credited with creating the fast-casual Mexican food restaurants. Its
menu is focused on four primary items; burritos, tacos, burrito bowls, and salads - all
made with fresh ingredients. As of December 31, 2015, the company operated 1,971
restaurants in the United States, as well as 11 in Canada, 7 in England, 4 in France,
and one in Germany. The company is focused on using the highest quality ingredients
that are locally sourced whenever possible.

Chipotle’s strength’s are their balance sheet and financial strength as well as
their commitment to quality ingredients, which is what sets them apart from the rest. As
of January 1, 2016, Chipotle had cash and investments of just over $1 billion. Chipotle’s
weakness is their E.coli outbreak and how their reputation & brand perception changed
because of it. Chipotle’s opportunity lies with new product categories because they
need to change something in order to change the perception they currently have.
Something like adding breakfast options and opening earlier than they are currently
could revolutionize the way people eat breakfast, something an old investor,
McDonald’s, might not like. They also have to continue expanding their stronghold in the
American market. The biggest threat Chipotle faces right now is their perception. Thus,
having another food safety issue could cripple them. While it will likely take some time
for Chipotle to regain the trust of customers, any additional instances of foodborne
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illnesses could considerably, and maybe permanently, decimate customer perceptions

of the quality of Chipotle’s food items.

Key Challenges Chipotle Faces

Ever since the outbreak of foodborne viruses E-coli 026, salmonella, and
norovirus in 2015, causing many cases of illnesses in multiple locations nationwide from
its restaurant chain which included states such as California, Delaware, Illinois,
Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, with majority E-coli 026
victim affected in Oregon and Washington; this lists does not consist of other mentioned
states that had victims contracting salmonella and norovirus during the same year. This
catastrophic event has caused massive national fear that has left many Chipotle goers a
bad taste, leaving many diners uncertain about attending any of the Chipotle chain
restaurants across the country. Affected chains are immediately closed down notably
43 of the locations were closed in Washington and Oregon while only 6 were linked to
the cause of the illness outbreak of E-Coli. This was done as a way to take a more
conservative approach to precaution against more negative consequences at the time
of the incidence. In the same year Chipotle has also received another devastating blow
to its brand value with victim fallen ill to salmonella contributed by a new supplier of
tomatoes and a surge of reported illness from norovirus reportedly caused by sanitary
issues of sick employees handling Chipotle food product.

In response to the salmonella outbreak and the implications of norovirus

spreading from its restaurant, Chipotle modified their food preparations methods to have
their fresh produces (e.g., tomatoes, lettuce, peppers) be diced at the central kitchen
while providing more scrutiny in testing their food; after immediately switching to new
tomatoes supplier. The company has also implemented further guidelines on sending
sick employees home to recover from any sickness before resuming their work
schedule. Consequently these unprecedented and unplanned events have an ever-
lasting shattering result on not only Chipotle’s brand value but also added to the
company plummeting sales and causing a landslide of its stock price; due in part by the
fact that consumers still do not feel confident in the safety of Chipotle food handling
practices. Furthermore, this has also disrupted much of Chipotle promotional campaign
to market the company as one of the healthiest alternative fast-food chain with key
adjectives such as sustainable, GMO-free, hormone-free, natural, and tagline the “Food
Integrity”; Chipotle objective is to set itself apart from large franchise like McDonald’s
and other known fast-food chains across the United States.
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Which Chipotle has done very well in the past with its viral animated shorts ad-
campaign “Scarecrow”(2013) and “Back to The Start”(2012) pulling in millions of view as
well as being controversial in pushing back industrial food-sourcing; while sponsoring
and creating the Chipotle Cultivate Foundation to encourage sustainable farming
methods and family farming. However, since Chipotle promotes and strongly stands
behind their brand message; with their target market being predominantly millennial
desiring to eat fresher/healthier and organically produced foods, Chipotle also faces the
challenges of being capable of offering freshly prepared food without exposing
consumers to harmful microbial. This issue is one of Chipotle key challenges as it is part
of the company core competency to provide the general public with fresh and safe food
for consumption. As Chipotle brand value is well known for their unique selling
proposition of giving consumers a healthier and more convenient options to casual
dining; it would be ironically paradoxical for the company to make their consumers sick
from eating at one of their restaurant.

Even though the company has managed to nearly come out of the E-coli and
salmonella incidence intact, troubling news of the past has once again resurfaced with
the case of norovirus victimizing more than 100 people in one of its Virginia restaurant
chain. Chipotle being the master brand in itself with only one other brand extension
called Pizzeria Locale, the company once again needs to reassure investors and their
consumers with it already semi-tarnished reputation as a healthy fast food alternative
while stock prices took another hard hit. It is also notable that this case was more of an
internal conflict with chain’s store manager not following compliance with Chipotle
overall health and safety guidelines. To add additional salt (no pun intended) to the
Chipotle’s brand injury, the company was also involved in a class action suite for “wage
theft” accusation from ten thousands of their former and current employees in 2016. It
was alleged that Chipotle store managers made workers clock-out at a set time, while
requesting them to stay for cleaning duty without adjusting for overtime pay. As a brand
that is boasting food integrity and taking initiative in responsible step in food
sustainability, not taking care of their employees can have a very demoralizing effect on
the company brand equity and recognition.

Though Chipotle does not admit to this accusation and continues fight off the
lawsuit, it does create a hindrance for the brand revitalization efforts to bring back
reassurance or win back the love and trusts of its customers. Revitalization efforts such
as the short animated film “A Love Story” that Chipotle released in 2016 was created to
signal an emotional comeback for Chipotle was extraordinarily heartwarming and well
received; but can easily be jeopardized by bad publicity that is made from the lawsuit in
the same year. These challenges leaves Chipotle in a very vulnerable position, the
company was growing exponentially since their IPO in 2006 but have since declined
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dramatically. Fortunately the company is very resilient in their efforts in battling to bring
back trusts for their franchise and have also recently released Chipotle Queso in 2017,
a new products and additional marketing campaign to respark interest with their
consumers for their brand.

Chipotle Brand Inventory

The name Chipotle means “smoke dried chili pepper” in Nahuatl which is the
native Aztec dialect. In addition much of the food contains ground up chili peppers. This
continue to the logo which contains earthy browns as well as red to match the feeling of
spicy and excitement that is associated with red.
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Chipotle has a known style for how they package their product. Each burrito is
wrapped in aluminum and placed in a brown paper bag. This helps to make the focus
on the food, as well as enhancing the feelings of behind their main message of being
all-natural quality ingredients.

The same colors can be found in the chipotle restaurants, reds, browns, and
stainless steel behind the counter to provide the feeling of cleanliness.
Analyze past and current advertising campaigns across medium.

Chipotle had a rough 2016 after concerns be the public of the safety of their food
with many people becoming ill after eating there. Because of this 2017 was a damage
control year with Chipotle trying everything to get people into their venues, from free
entrees and buy one, get one offers to a summer loyalty program and an animated short
film to remind people why they loved Chipotle before they stopped visiting or came in
less often. Chief Marketing and Development Officer Mark Crumpacker was quoted as
saying "The food safety incidents replaced our carefully crafted brand narrative with
negative stories and we're working hard to rebuild our brand story,". However, they
decided that in 2017 they would continue using consistent advertising to try and rebuild
brand loyalty as opposed to creating new menu items.

The current campaigns that Chipotle is running is called as real as it gets. In the
ads humor is used to help convey the message that Chipotle uses only real fresh
ingredients. This is an attempt to reestablish themselves as a brand that provides any
high-quality food that not only tastes good, but has not extra chemicals added to it. Not
only have they run these ads as T.V. and internet pre-roll, but Chipotle is also
continuing its Real as it gets with is physical ads on billboards many of which are a play
on traditional billboard promotions.
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The Real as it gets campaign is also extended into radio where the ad compares
what is “real” and what is “not real”. With the reals being chipotle flavors and nothing
artificial added, and the not reals being as humorous as saying the listener is being cat
fished by his “internet supermodel girlfriend”

Chipotle’s Marketing Mix

Product: Made to order Mexican burritos, bowls, and taco salads. Giving customers the
option between types of rice, beans, salsa, and additional extras, with only guacamole
costing more.

Price: Chipotle has price their product at a higher price point than many of their
competitors in the “fast food” industry with burritos in California averaging in the $8
range. However, this is a result, enabled, and part of their brand positioning as being
“Food with Integrity” which states they source organic and local produce whenever
possible, and their cows are raised without the use of synthetic hormones.

Promotion: Chipotle has for the most part stuck to the same narrative with their
advertising which is fresh quality ingredients in a quick repeatable experience.
Additionally, Chipotle has, since 2010 done a well know campaign of during Halloween
if you wear costume they offer you a burrito for $2. This encourages families to attend
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as well as an attempt create a tradition of people eating at their restaurants every

Halloween.

Location: Chipotle is in almost every state in the United States with 2,250 locations,
and is reaching out internationally in countries such as the UK, Canada, Germany and
France.

Direct and Indirect Competitors and their Market Position

Qdoba is without a doubt one of Chipotle's biggest competitors in fast-casual

restaurants. The idea behind Qdoba and Chipotle similar menus allows customers to
make their own bowl or burrito. Ever since Qdoba opened back in 1995, it has gained
popular with trendy new ways to build your own food in a healthier or unhealthier way.
Since Chipotle was one of original companies with fast-casual dining, it's no surprise
that other companies want to be part of this trend. Qdoba is one of these fast-casual
restaurants that offer franchise options for those who qualify. This is one aspect that
chipotle does struggle since Chipotle does not offer franchise but is business ran
throughout all restaurants.

From this perspective, it makes it hard for franchisees to customize their own
restaurants for the local customers based on their location. This concept is the same
basic idea that is behind every Subway that is franchise. The owners of these locations
are not allowed to customize their restaurants but follow the same business model as all
subways. Another weakness that Chipotle has an advantage over Qdoba regards to
restriction to the US market with limited international exposure. By this we mean that
Qdoba is not allowed or restricted to some other countries which causes the company
to slow down their expansion. On the other hand, Qdoba does offer some services that
Chipotle does not. For example, some locations are open 24 hours but only on the
weekends. This is a great business idea since many young people are out late on the
weekends and just want to get a quick burrito before heading out to their social
gatherings. Along with the strengths that Qdoba has to offer, there are also some
opportunities that can make them stand out from their competition.

As part of their menu, they need to offer a healthier option of food as what they
portray on their menus. As for Chipotle, they take pride and effort to make sure that their
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foods are high quality and make sure that their customers are aware that that's one of
their business aspects. If Qdoba would offer a healthy range for health-conscious
customers, they will market branding activities to boost brand their brand image. A
threat that Qdoba faces apart from Chipotle would be to increase focus on healthy
foods. Qdoba tends to not talk about where and what types of foods they feed their
customers. For Qdoba, they focus more on making money than to promote a healthier
lifestyle.

Chipotle has established itself as a favorite in the world of casual Mexican food
dining, but apparently, there's still other chains out there that's giving it a serious run for
its money. According to the Consumer Report survey of America’s best and worst
foods, many customers have ranked Rubio’s above Chipotle. Many of the strengths that
is offered by Rubio’s would be their strong brand recognition due to high unique coastal
cuisine. Seafood is an area where Chipotle does fail in. As of today, they do not offer
any sort of seafood dish available for the consumers. As with Chipotle, Rubio’s does
offer innovation in their food menu as far as making new dishes available for their
customers. Both restaurants offer this to keep their customers interested and keep them
coming back to buy more. One of the weaknesses that Rubio’s has that Chipotle does
not is the ability to expand at a quicker pace. Since Rubio’s is a franchise chain, they
rely on franchisees to buy an expand their restaurants. Another reason why Rubio’s
cannot expand as much is due to their limited investor contributions that they have.
Many investors are not willing to put their money in a restaurant that does not have a lot
going for it. Some of the opportunities that Rubio’s does have are by expanding new
and innovated food options. Their main dish is the fish taco and has not changed ever
since they first opened. Lastly, one of the threats that Rubio’s has is as same with
Qdoba, a healthier choice for their customers. Customers are increasingly opting for
healthier foods and lifestyles. In the end, is Rubio’s better than Chipotle? No, they just
both have a different type of menu that appeals to different customers.
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Chipotle allows and encourages customers to choose all the ingredients for their
tacos, burritos, and bowls. It is a similar model to sub sandwich restaurant like Subway
where you go down the line and pick the ingredient you want. Taco Bell on the other
hand has similar model to other fast food restaurants. It has a large menu with many
items and most aren’t quite as customizable. One of the many strengths that Taco Bell
does have is their high brand loyalty. They do an excellent job at advertising and
marketing of the brand. As we know, we can find a Taco Bell at every city in the United
States. They have over 7000+ stores worldwide. But, Taco Bell does have some
weakness for example high fat and high calorie food not good for health-conscious
people. People are moving away from fast artificial foods for a healthier lifestyle.
Chipotle has done an excellent job at trying to give great prices and quality food for their
consumers. But, Taco Bell does have some areas of improvement. For example, to
introduce home delivery in a big way to boost Taco Bell’s business. Chipotle has used
this delivery option through Postmates, a food delivery service that can be compared to
as an Uber service. Like all fast food restaurants, they always have threats from other
eating joints/restaurants. Taco Bell needs to find a way in which they can differentiate
themselves from their competitors. As for Chipotle, they have created a differentiated
service for people trying to live a healthier lifestyle.

Additional indirect competition is found in any alternative options for eating, from
at home to other categories of restaurants.

Brand Exploratory

The Consumer-Based Brand Equity Pyramid highlights four steps a company can
use to build and manage a brand that consumers will support. The picture above shows
the four steps/questions customers will often subconsciously ask themselves about your
brand.

Consumer-Based Brand Equity Pyramid (CBBE)

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The first step of the Consumer-Based Brand Equity Pyramid is the Salience
stage. This is the foundational step of the whole process. This is why it is at the base of
the pyramid. This step is all about Brand Awareness. It’s all about how your brand is
being seen by your target demographic. The fundamental question here is “Who are
you to the target consumer?” In Chipotle’s case, the target market that they are going
after is Young Professionals from the age range of 25-35 aka Millennials. They have
income levels of $40k and above and are more health conscious. Millennials are the
driving force behind Chipotle’s growth. The main strategy for Chipotle’s marketing team
is to win over millennials by offering a fresh healthy meal and target them based on their
personality and characteristics. However, ever since E-coli incident happened in 2015,
customers have decreased tremendously. Chipotle's sales have fallen for three straight
quarters since the E. coli outbreak that sickened more than 50 people in 14 states. The
chain's same-store sales fell 23.6% in the most recent quarter. This is hurting Chipotle’s
image in the face of their target customer. Just recently, an August 2017 survey was
conducted to measure consumers personal rating of Chipotle’s “Food Quality and
Trustworthiness”. It was found that it’s rating is back near its lowest levels since the
2015 food safety crises. This is clearly not helping Chipotle’s goal image of being a
Healthy alternative to fast food. So as of right now, their image in the eyes of consumers
is not doing so well. This is a significant perceptual problem that Chipotle has to work on
to fix if they are not going to let competitors take over.

The next step of the pyramid is Brand Meaning which answers the question of
“What are you?” The goal with this step is to identify and communicate what your brand
means and what it stands for. The two building blocks for this step are “performance”
and “imagery”.

Performance basically means how well your product meets your customer’s
needs in terms of product reliability, durability, and serviceability; service effectiveness,
efficiency, and empathy; style and design; and price. Imagery refers to how well your
brand meets your customer's needs on a social and psychological level. When Chipotle
opened its first restaurant in 1993, the idea was simple: show that food served fast
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didn't have to be a “fast-food” experience. Chipotle wants to represent Healthiness,

freshness, and quickness. Great for those health conscious individuals who are on the
go. The target consumers recognize Chipotle for its speed and efficiency, this is
arguably the strongest factor when it comes to the performance side of it.

Chipotle goal is to make quality food accessible to everyone while improving the
environment, assisting in charitable foundations, and focusing on social responsibility.
Chipotle has given back over $3 million to organizations that promote a better
environment for farmers working, encourages agricultural practices that are beneficial to
the world, providing necessary education in the hospitality industry, and enabling the
world to enjoy healthy foods. Chipotle’s apparent social responsibility enhances its
brand imagery.

The third step of the pyramid is the brand response stage. The basic questions
this stage asks is what does the customer think and feel about you? The customers
responses to your brand falls under two categories, judgements and feelings. These are
the two building blocks to this step. Now when it comes to the judgement aspect of this
step, there are four key categories that customers take into account: Quality, Credibility,
Consideration, and Superiority.

In terms of the quality category, it can be a very controversial issue. Again,

Chipotle prides themselves in providing “high quality” food, which is true if it wasn’t for
the infamous E Coli outbreak that occurred in 2015. So the food is quality in terms of
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healthiness and freshness, but not in terms of quality care and it’s still suffering a bad
reputation from that incident. In terms of credibility, Chipotle is still known as the flagship
“fast food chain” for healthy eating. This is mainly due to the fact that it really was the
first restaurant of its kind to open up. However, Chipotle is going to have to work on
building back their credibility and trust in the eyes of most consumers still. Now the next
category is consideration, and this basically asks: How do consumers judge how
relevant your product is to their needs? For the health conscious consumer who is on
the go, chipotle fulfills their need quite well. It’s interesting to point that these consumers
don’t tend to put a huge focus on the price because they are willing to spend a little
more money for higher quality food. Now the last aspect of the judgement aspect of this
step is Superiority. This is how customers assess how superior your brand is compared
to your competitors. From the target consumer’s perspective, there are some Chipotle
loyalist out there due to the sheer fact that they have more credibility since it is the
original. There are also many that feel Chipotle is superior also because of how
transparent they are with how the food is prepared, and what’s in it. But its next closest
competitor, Qdoba, is a preference for many others because it has cheese and
guacamole for no extra cost, and the same burrito is a few cents cheaper as well.

Now the second category of the brand response step is how the consumer feels
about you. And according to the model, there are six positive brand feelings that can
occur which are: warmth, fun, excitement, security, social approval, and self-respect. In
Chipotle’s case, due to the nature of their business, their main focus is on the self-
respect feeling. The reason why is because the individuals who go there understand
their health benefits. You have to have some degree of self respect to be health
conscious even though the food may cost more than other fast food joints.

The fourth and final step of the pyramid is Brand Resonance which asks the
question of how much of a bond will consumers have with your brand? This is often the
most desirable yet hardest level to reach. This stage is broken down into four
categories: Behavioral loyalty, Attitudinal attachment, Sense of community, and Active
engagement.

Behavioral loyalty basically talks about how often customers keep consistent
repeat visits to Chipotle. This is a very hard task to accomplish, but there are some
Chipotle loyalist out there that eat there almost once every day. These Chipotle loyalist
usually are consumers that are into fitness and/or bodybuilding and leading a healthy
lifestyle overall. Attitudinal attachment is when a customer loves your brand and sees it
as a special purchase. In Chipotle’s case, this is not a factor that is in play due to the
fact that it is in the food industry. Usually Attitudinal attachment occurs in higher prices
products such as Apple products. A sense of community is the next category, and
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again, Chipotle doesn’t really have that effect. Unless you are one of those individuals
who goes every day and you know the workers there. But again, it is highly unlikely
because people there usually just want to grab a quick bite. So there really isn’t too
much of a community like investment. And the last and strongest category in this stage
is called Active engagement where basically customers are actively engaged with your
brand even when they aren’t purchasing it. And once again, this is not a factor that
Chipotle is really excelling in, if any.

This was an in depth explanation of all the four stages of the Consumer-Based
Brand Equity Pyramid as it pertains to Chipotle. Now a recurring theme that is occurring
with Chipotle is the disconnect between how they want to be seen by their target
market, vs what a portion of their target market actually thinks about them. The big
issue here is the damage the E Coli outbreak had on Chipotle’s brand image. Chipotle
has to either figure out a way to revitalize their image, or they have to let “time heal the
wound.” This issue doesn’t mean that they are on the verge of bankruptcy, because
there are still many Chipotle loyalist out there, but it definitely has hurt its reputation
among many, not to mention its stock value has been on a downward trend ever since
the outbreak.

Chipotle’s Extreme Users

Chipotle does in fact have a group of consumers that would be characterized as

“extreme users”. These are individuals who are into living a lifestyle revolving around
fitness and even to some extent bodybuilding and have Chipotle as a staple of their diet.
A lot of bodybuilders eat at Chipotle as a post-workout meal because it has the right
nutrition to start recovering the muscles. Chipotle is heavily promoted in the
bodybuilding community, especially by famous YouTube vloggers such as Christian
Guzman, Matt Ogus, and Steve Cook. These vlogs are usually just them talking while
they do everyday errands with the highlights of the video being their workout session,
and there pre/post workout meals. When these YouTube fitness bloggers eat at
Chipotle, they are basically giving them free advertisement. And the viewers of these
videos may subconsciously start believe that they have to eat just like them in order to
obtain their bodybuild.

ZMET Research
For our research, we decided to lead it off by asking our main question:

● “Can you show me some images that represents your overall thoughts and
feelings about Chipotle?”
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1st Participant: The first participant was a male hispanic college student. When asked to
represent his thoughts and feelings in an image, he described it in a negative light
pointing out that when he thinks of Chipotle, he pictures a family gathering around
eating Chipotle thinking that what they are enjoying is authentic Mexican food, when in
reality it really isn’t authentic Mexican food.

2nd Participant: The second participant we interviewed was a female college student.
When asked about her thoughts and feelings in an image, she described it in a positive
light. Phrases such as “fresh”, “quick” and “healthy” were brought up. She said that an
image of a person ordering after a workout came to her head.

3rd Participant: The third participant we interviewed was another male college student
who seemed to be into the fitness lifestyle. He said phrases such as “Healthy and
“expensive” to describe Chipotle. He pictured an image of a bodybuilder eating a
Chipotle bowl at the restaurant after a hard leg workout.

4th Participant: The 4th participant asked was a middle aged women with kids. She
described Chipotle in a generally negative light. She said it was “expensive” and “not
that good for the price”. The image she used to describe Chipotle was dollar signs to
represent the price.

5th Participant: The 5th participant asked was was a college aged male who described
Chipotle as “Quality”. And the image that comes to mind to him was a burrito bowl.

6th Participant: The 6th and final participant was another college aged male. When
asked about his thoughts and feelings towards Chipotle he stated that it was was
“fresh”. And the image that came to mind was a vegetable patch.

d) Discuss key observations obtained from the ZMET study and identify key issues and
opportunities to reinforce brand equity anywhere along the brand pyramid.

This interview answers we got had a variety of answers but a lot of them had
underlying themes to them. Themes that came up were things such as price, quality,
freshness, quickness, and healthy. Most of these phrases were stated in a positive light
towards Chipotle, such phrases like Quality, Freshness, quickness and healthiness. But
there were other aspects that were seen in a negative light such as it being inauthentic
mexican food and that it is too expensive. One research participant stated how some
people will take Chipotle as authentic Mexican food when in reality it isn’t. No one really
mentioned anything related to the E coli outbreak. This is a good thing because you
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wouldn’t want the first thing people think about your brand to be something related to a
food virus. Most of these responses mainly pertained to the third stage of the brand
equity pyramid which basically asks: “What does the customer thinks and feels about
you”? The research showed us that Chipotle is generally seen in a positive light when
we asked participants the research question.

Reflections and Recommendations

Chipotle’s current market strategy and rebuilding their brand which is to “remind
people why they love Chipotle” with their animated series has been effective. However,
in order to capture their maximum brand potential, other measures must be taken.
Chipotle is known as a healthy alternative to fast-food. We believe that they should
capitalize on that. A “healthy alternative to fast-food” is what people think about Chipotle
when they see the brand/logo. Along with of pushing that their ingredients are
sustainable, GMO-free, hormone-free, natural, etc Chipotle should start a new health
promotion. For example, they could introduce a lower-calorie, lower priced mini
bowl/mini burrito or even a protein style option.

With Chipotle’s target demographic to be millennials, this option allows an even

lower price alternative to its current low price. This would help generate the brand image
that Chipotle is trying to be more health-conscious by giving people the option to choose
a smaller portion, which many individuals struggle to do. Another strategy that would go
hand-in-hand with this new menu option, would be celebrity endorsements. As
mentioned earlier, there are a lot of extreme users such as bodybuilders, fitness
coaches, etc. Chipotle can target these influencers and create a marketing illusion to
consumers where the brand adapts to the personality of the celebrity. This would
include creating a new persona through all social media channels of fitness celebrities.
Millennials are the ones who generally use social media the most, making this a perfect
channel to market through.

The purpose of this whole campaign would to generating short-term brand

awareness that can potentially turn into a long-term benefit. If this campaign is
successful, Chipotle’s brand image could even change completely into a fitness/health
brand. This would help the public forget about the previous losses that Chipotle has
taken, as it takes a new approach into a new and healthier lifestyle.
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Works Cited

“Welcome to the Burrito.” Chipotle, www.chipotle.com/realcampaign.

“FROM ITALIAN FINE DINING TO FAST-FIRED PIZZAS.” Pizzeria Locale - About,

pizzerialocale.com/about.

“Food with Integrity.” Chipotle, www.chipotle.com/food-with-integrity.

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