Chipotle Mexican Grill

INTRODUCTION

Chipotle Mexican Grill is the restaurant industry with the typical perception of founder Steve Ells’s and his commitment “Food with Integrity” campaign. Chipotle grown from 1 unit into 1595 unit in about 21 years. They are using a great strategy to make Chipotle become this big. The strategy was :

Focusing menu in burritos, burritos bowls, tacos, (without the tortilla), and salads.

Using fresh ingredients, high-quality, and classic cooking methods to create great tasting, reasonably priced dishes prepared to order and quick to be served.

Giving customers options to select the ingredients they wanted in each dish.

Creating an operationally efficient restaurant with an aesthetically pleasing interior.

Building a great people culture which is friendly, high performance people motivated to take good care of each customer and empowered to achieve high standards.

Doing all of the strategy with increasing awareness and respect for the environment using the philosophy of “Food with Integrity”.

The CEO of Chipotle, Steve Ells, want to make the menu at the restaurant to be simple. The food is limited, such as burrito bowls, burrito, salad and tacos. But after 20 years, Chipotle wants to make new variant. They made a vegetarian menu which is called Sofritas. Chipotle is known by their quick serving orders. The target was serving 200 - 300 customers per hour. Chipotle also introduced a catering program to increase their sales revenue at the restaurants. The catering offered for groups of 20 or more people. They also have a smaller catering which is offered for groups of 6 or more people. The customer could create bowls and tacos with the same ingredients offered in Chipotle’s restaurant. Chipotle is committed with their product. They have philosophy which is called “Food with Integrity”. Chipotle using organically grown local produce, organic beans, organic dairy product, and meats from animals that were raised in accordance with animal welfare standards and were never given feeds containing antibiotics and growth hormones to speed weight gain. They want to make sure that they served a best-quality and fresh foods and drinks for their customers.

Chipotle really thoughtful for choosing suppliers. The supplier must meet the Chipotle’s requirements standard, because of that Chipotle’s only have a few Supplier. Furthermore they also have 23 regional distributions center to manage the purchases from their suppliers and distribute the ingredients to theirs restaurants. Chipotle’s Restaurants and kitchens is designed to make the customers feel the different experienced. They believe creating an interactive and positive experiences can increase customers and staff loyalty and enthusiasm for Chipotle brand. Chipotle’s have priorities to build a performance-based & people-oriented culture in every Chipotle Restaurant. They believed their culture can make the best experiences for their customers and employees. In Chipotle there are some positions that can employees reach. Employees that have a good performance will be promoted to the higher position. The first stages is becoming a Chipotle’s crew member, and then next stages are hourly manager, apprentice managers, General Managers, Restaurateur, Apprentice Team leader, Team Leader, Team Directors, and Restaurant support officers.

Aside from creating a good managerial & culture, Chipotle’s also using a diagnostic and planning tool for Chipotle’s field support personnel. The tools is build to help their field leaders creating a plans for their general managers to becoming a Restaurateur. With this tools Chipotle have increased very significant transactions during the lunch and the dinner hours.

For marketing activity one main concern for chipotle is experience of the customer about the restaurant because with that experience the customer will told it to their relation about the experience that chipotle gave to them. The advertising and activity program focus on what experience the customer will get that they can’t get it from the competitors. In early 2012 chipotle use radio, print, online ads, etc as media for advertising activity but in 2012-2013 they create “own media” such as new video and music program, also community event that called “cultivate festival” by the company. In 2013 Chipotle develop new marketing program that called “Scarecrow”, it is an animated film and a game. Scarecrow hit 12 million times viewed in early 2014, after the scarecrow success, chipotle create scripted comedy program that called “ Farmed and Dangerous”. The purpose of this program is to make an emotional connection with customer.

Chipotle have their own strategy to expand their retail business. Branches location, number of branches, and branches model are the most important aspect to make the company grow faster. Chipotle’s strategy to choose the location of their business are based on the recommendation from the real estate’s expert. And then, Chipotle’s team will investigated furthermore. Before they choose their branches location, Chipotle’s team also research the location, demographic, surrounding business, and their competitor around the location. With that strategy, Chipotle can built 146 restaurant in 2011, 180 restaurant in 2012, 185 restaurant in 2013, and have a bigger plan to built 195 restaurant in 2014. To reduce cost from their retail development, chipotle choose the right place with simple design.

DISCUSSION

SWOT Analysis

Strengths

Quick service; fresh, gourmet quality food; brand awareness; customer satisfaction, empowered workforce (social media & word of mouth marketing)

Weaknesses

Higher ingredient costs and the prices of food are relative higher compared to competitors

Opportunities

Menu expansion, franchise, new food concept ( such as Asian)

Threats

Rivals comparatively lower cost, therefore to price of food and service are lower than chipotle

Internal Analysis

Strengths

Chipotle’s commitment to creating an experience sets it apart from competitors. The Chipotle experience such as friendly employees that welcoming customers to restaurants with upscale exteriors and sleek, modern interior designs. This simple