Chipotle really turned around its brand

Chipotle is a very sought-after fast-food chain with its true customization in its meals. The food is fast, fresh and seems very health conscious for most people. Chipotle has really blown up since the health craze of the last decade due to its delicious and safe ingredients. 

Background Information and Research

Chipotle faced a string of food safety crises starting in 2015 that led to a long and painful road of recovery. When the E. Coli. scare first broke it was a scary time for Chipotle. People became afraid to eat at the restaurant for fear of getting sick or worse. Even those who didn’t fear the E. Coli. just had a distaste for Chipotle after hearing of those who fell ill. 

The brand needed to find a way to revamp the Chipotle name while also making a comeback from this crisis. Marketing would be one of the critical roles played during the comeback story of Chipotle. 

Campaign and Results

Chipotle had a decentralized marketing model that flooded the market with promo and BOGO type offers. These marketing tools were driving traffic at all. Chipotle needed to focus on a centralized and cohesive strategy for spending money on marketing and modern channels. The brand was always focused on the fresh ingredients which was progressive in the 90’s but is quite common now in 2015-2019. So, Chipotle focused on better ingredients and not using Big Food or Big Farming for their ingredients.

Chipotle then started focusing on who is behind the food, who makes it a special experience for the customers. This brought in the employee spotlight. This was part of the “Behind the Foil” campaign that aimed to differentiate the chain from less transparent competitors. This campaign showed why employees were loyal during low points and continued to stay with the brand.

The biggest media push Chipotle had in its new brand was running a TV spot during all 38 bowl games. This TV spot promoted free burrito bowls for first-time customers using Chipotle’s mobile app or online portal. It tripled delivery business and grew the baseline by 10-15%. This campaign really promoted the digital side of Chipotle’s business and helped the baseline tremendously.

To add some fun to the new found brand, Chipotle used guerilla tactics during the NBA Finals because they couldn’t directly advertise because of Taco Bell’s official sponsorship. Every time an announcer said “free” on-air during game coverage, the chain tweeted a code that could be used to score a free burrito. This campaign was risky but grew to be a standout examples of how Chipotle has not only won back favorability with consumers and improved the reputation of the brand in an innovative way. These different campaigns brought over 1 billion earned impressions and 100,00 new Twitter followers.

Comments

  1. Chipotle hell yeah! Even throughout disgusting outbreaks of e. coli and other contaminations, I think Chipotle's marketing and public relations have that specific voice that will absolutely let them bounce back from all sorts of catastrophes. Plus no matter how much they mess up, Chipotle is SO good.

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