Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG, Financial) is one of the most innovative restaurant chains and is gaining popularity super quick. The fast casual chain with its concept of “Food with Integrity” has been attracting customers in bulk, causing other quick service restaurant chains such as McDonald’s (MCD, Financial) and Yum! Brands (YUM, Financial) to worry. The burrito maker’s attempts to provide the healthiest possible food using organically grown raw materials has helped it to position itself differently in the minds of the consumers. Here’s a look at top three factors that are boosting its success.
Source: Wikimedia
#1 Highly customizable menu
The very first thing that a Chipotle customer of a competitor would point out is the huge amount of customization that’s possible at Chipotle. The company started off as a burrito and taco maker. But over the years it has evolved and has added plenty of other options under its belt. Chipotle through ShopHouse added more flavors as it started offering a wide range of Southeast Asian specialties. The food chain also offers Italian dishes through its Pizzeria Locale format. Combining all these, Chipotle offers more than 65,000 possible combinations. That’s a lot! Consumer preferences are changing, and people have become very conscious about what they eat. The high degree of customization helps because the customers feel they are in charge (and they actually are).
#2 Innovative way of reaching out to customer
Chipotle charges a premium for the quality of food it provides, and not everyone might understand the rationale behind higher prices. In order to combat this issue and also to spread awareness and promote the brand, Chipotle very innovatively devised advertisements that educate the viewers about its practices and how it’s superior compared with other fast food chains, in terms of food quality. The company has used an untraditional medium to spread the awareness – Hulu and YouTube. Industry experts believe this has added greatly to its brand perception and its success. The animated videos are colorful, interesting and informative – something that the viewers will watch without getting bored.
#3 Lining up, design, and? Music
For every quick service chain, it’s very important that the ambience of the outlet appeals to the customers. Chipotle has taken good care of that by focusing on three main heads – lining up, design and music. The burrito maker provides the heathiest of food items using free material and then why not flaunt it? Through lining up, it displays the wide spread of items to be used in preparing its offerings. Customers seem to like this since they can clearly see what items are going inside their food. Next, Chipotle has carefully designed the layout, focusing on keeping an open kitchen so that the customers can easily see how their food items are being prepared. Finally, to add to the store’s ambience, some music is played. This in fact is a very important aspect in providing a holistic dining experience which Chipotle carries out wonderfully. All this adds greatly to the customer experience, resulting in loyal customers.
Parting thoughts
Chipotle is a new age fast casual chain that understands what the customers want –Â taking special care of multiple aspects of customer’s desires have contributed to its success. The list why customers are fond of Chipotle is long and includes several points other than the above mentioned three. The food specialist has become a good role model for several similar joints out there and has laid out points that can help giants such as McDonald’s and Yum! improve their situations.
