Chipotle Queso: The Key to Happiness Growing up I loved the flavors of Chipotle; the smoky meats, the charred peppers and the blend of delicious sides. One may ask why choose this advertisement for a company like Chipotle, because of the many persuasive images, textual messages, and vibrant visuals found in this mouthwatering piece. I consider this advertisement similar to an urgent announcement in which Chipotle is warning their customers to get excited that they finally have queso. Each and every day society craves food and as we all know, Chipotle competes with multiple restaurants in the mexican fast food field. My question is, what makes Chipotle stand out from the rest?
Chipotle's commitment to sustainable sourcing and ethical business practices enhances its brand reputation and distinguishes it from competitors. By promoting its CSR initiatives, Chipotle strengthens its image as a socially responsible company that prioritizes the well-being of people and the planet. Chipotle's CSR messaging resonates with socially conscious consumers who prioritize environmental sustainability and ethical consumption. By highlighting its commitment to responsible sourcing and community engagement, Chipotle fosters deeper connections with its target audience and cultivates customer loyalty. Chipotle's CSR initiatives also contribute to its long-term financial performance and shareholder value.
For Chipotle, their suppliers are the key to the type of business that they wish to portray to their target market. As a GMO free food chain, it is integral for the food which they buy has been raised with the utmost care and integrity. As such, this gives the suppliers a strong hold on the bargaining power, as the number of suppliers of this type is rather limited. The threat of substitute products for Chipotle is relatively high, due to the fact that the number of options available to the average consumer are nearly endless. Whether that be choosing to eat at home, or one of the many other restaurants that are available.
The revised mission statement we created states, “We are committed to sourcing the best ingredients, from vegetables in healthy soil to pork from free range pigs, to deliver the best tasting food. With every burrito we roll or bowl we fill, we're working to cultivate a better world.” With this new mission statement, Chipotle’s customers can understand that when they eat at Chipotle, they are getting the best and freshest ingredients, and that Chipotle is committed to being a sustainable company.
The company’s new restaurants have been performing well and adding up to the bottom-line of the company to strengthen its finances. Weaknesses in the SWOT Analysis of Chipotle : Dependence on the limited small number of farmers: Chipotle has maintained its integrity when it comes to quality of food, but the in the recent years Chipotle has had its share of controversies especially during the E.Coli outbreak in FY 2015 causing food-borne diseases. This was mainly due to Chipotle’s dependence on small, independent farmers for some of its main ingredients such as beef, pork, chicken etc. Limited food items on the menu: Chipotle’s restaurant serve a variety of burritos and tacos but the menu is limited to mainly burritos and tacos and hence lack a wide range of food items. When compared to its competitors such as Qdoba Mexican Grill and Panera bread which offer a wide range of items and hence customer spending is higher at such outlets.
Chipotle Mexican Grill Food with Integrity Background / Overview: Chipotle started serving “Food with Integrity” in Denver, Colorado in 1993. After one month of the grill being open, they were making one thousand burritos per day. In 2016, Chipotle became popular throughout its now one thousand and nine hundred stores nationwide. The grill was doing fantastic until in late 2015 where two outbreaks of E. coli were found at various restaurants in several states. Fifty five people were infected and twenty one were hospitalized.
Since 1993, when its first restaurant was opened in Denver, Colorado, Chipotle proved to its clients that high-quality food can be served fast. By using only fresh ingredients and adding no artificial flavors, Chipotle has managed to create trustful relations with its customers and even expanded its business to other countries. Chipotle has opened its stores in few countries such as the UK, the US, Canada, Germany and France. It is now time for the corporation to follow the lead from other companies like Yum. Brands such as KFC and Taco Bell as well as McDonalds expand their footprint in the Asian market like Japan.
Chipotle is in the fast casual industry where competition is extremely intense since there are so many different dining options. An industry like fast casual restaurants has a very high growth rate therefore there is not just one company that has the market cornered. What sets the restaurants apart is not cost but product differentiation; they position themselves in the market with their slogan of Food with Integrity. Since restaurants in the fast casual industry are priced fairly in the same range Chipotle uses different product features to set themselves apart from the others (parature.com). The first value driver in Chipotle’s differentiation strategy is the product quality; they utilize local farmers who are conscience of the environment.
Abstract Chipotle Mexican Grill is a well-known company that deals with fast food and has made significant and distinctive progress compared to other companies in the fast food industry. The company not only prepares food in front of customers but also makes sure that food is made with integrity. The integrity is enhanced by finding, evaluating, and choosing the right ingredients, which are from animals, farmers, and the environment (chipotle.com). These are the principles that serve to direct and guide the organization and help position it as a leader in the industry.
Chipotle, a Mexican restaurant chain, has developed a distinctive place in the competitive food industry through a tactical merger of branding strategies that connect with consumers. Through their creative brand identity, advertising, sponsorships and unique product packaging, Chipotle shapes the views and interests of consumers in today's sales. The center of Chipotle's branding strategy lies a distinctive brand identity that separates it from today's companies, which is expressed through its logo, slogan, and the overall aesthetic. Chipotle's logo is basically a minimalist style with a pepper icon to represent them using fresh ingredients. To add on, Chipotle's slogan, "Food with Integrity," showcases its dedication to distributing safe food.
The SWOT analysis, demonstrate the most important things leading to the success of Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. In fact, Chipotle obtains their ingredients from sustainable sources, and that is their strength because it helps us to understand their competitive advantage over their competitors. According to the MarketLine "Chipotle serves food using naturally raised meat pork, beef, and chicken and dairy cattle... In 2014, the company bought more than 20 million pounds of local produce for its US restaurants, an increase of more than 33% from the previous year. " Chipotle 's using naturally raised meat will let their customers know that their food has no chemicals or synthetic food additives that will put their health in danger or will develop a future disease.
With its mission statement of “Food with Integrity” Chipotle has seen success over the last decade. But with the increase of raw material input increasing, Competitors using pricing strategy to compete for its market share and the economic Chipotle is facing some though decision on if it should continue with its “Food with Integrity” which it can ill afford in these difficult times. In this paper, we will try address ways in which Chipotle can reposition its efforts to focus more on this unique offering without affecting their “Food with Integrity” Concept. By doing so, we believe that it can capture the important and growing segment of customers who are the health-conscious, organic-friendly consumer.
The company networks with 25 organic farms that supply the fresh ingredients and naturally raise livestock to coincide with their mission to provide “Food with Integrity.” Organic agriculture is still in the beginning stages is the U.S. because the shift from traditional to organic farms fell due to the downturn of the economy. For that reason Chipotle supplier can drive prices because of the demand need for their products. However, Chipotle balances that power by not going full organic and natural in all of their ingredients. They source only 35 percent of their ingredients in order to not drive product price too high.
Introduction Chipotle is a household name when it comes to burritos and healthy “clean” eating. By 1998 chipotle had 13 stores. Publically traded for the first time in 2012, chipotle had big time investors like McDonalds that invested 50 million to help open more stores. The success of the company grew and flourished with a huge fan base and a corporately social responsible reputation. Serving clean food from organic growers with no GMO in the food made Chipotle the number one go to green restaurant.
Chipotle Strategic Profile and Case Analysis Purpose Chipotle Mexican Grill founded in 1993 by Steve Ells became known as the fast-casual dining in the restaurant industry (Hitt, Ireland, & Hoskisson, 2013). It was the first of its kind when Ells first opened his first restaurant and brought the idea of made-to-order burrito. The concept is so simple, and the consumer is in control of what ingredients goes into their burrito. “The immediate success from Ells’ first restaurant allowed him to repay the $80,000 loan that he borrowed from his father within a month of opening” (Hitt, Ireland, & Hoskisson, 2013, p. 71). Furthermore, this gave him the confidence to open his second restaurant in just two years.
