What Businesses Should Learn from Chipotle’s Marketing Strategy

We certainly don’t have an information shortage. Quite the opposite, which makes an effective way to learn from Chipotle’s marketing strategy all the more difficult.

Seth Godin said it best:

We don’t have an information shortage, we have an attention shortage.

Chipotle, while not a small business does have many marketing characteristics similar to those of small businesses. They work with a small budget, barely advertise on TV and do their own work in-house.  

For a long time, marketing was driven by taglines—short, evocative slogans that captured the essence of a brand’s message. Nike encouraged us to “Just Do It,” while Apple-inspired us to “Think Different.” Miller Lite simply had to say, “Tastes great, less filling” and the product flew off the shelves.

Taglines worked because they cut through the clutter and stood out in a sea of brands vying for our attention. Marketers needed to project images that were compact, but meaningful or risk getting lost in the mix. Yet it is no longer enough to merely grab attention. Marketers now need to hold attention.

How’s that possible?  It comes down to their specific marketing strategy. A strategy built on these marketing attributes:

Products that are remarkable

… get talked about.  Marketing starts with having products and services that are better than the competition, making them remarkable and worthy of being discussed by your customers. 

Your best customers are worth

… far more than your average customers. It starts with knowing who your customers are, then knowing the best of the group.

Customers don’t buy what they need

… they buy what they want. Gather as many insights as possible by observing what they do. Asking them is not as valuable as observing them.

New ways of spreading your messages and ideas

… (blogs, permission-based RSS information, APPS, consumer fan clubs) are quickly proving how well they work. Traditional ways of interrupting consumers (TV ads, trade show booths, junk mail) are losing their cost-effectiveness.

The game of marketing has changed significantly over the past decade.  It’s not price – it is relevancy, difference, and value.  Chipotle knows this and has built its strategy around these concepts.

There was a recent AdAge report documenting the non-traditional elements of Chipotle’s CMO and his team.   Here are a few key points from this report:

Chipotle has targeted millennials for its primary customer segment.

Its strategy is to win over millennials by solidifying its reputation for freshness and offering a healthier fare than its competitors.

The brand also gained reputation by shying away from traditional media, because younger audiences feel like it’s less authentic and less easy to connect with.

Even Chipotle’s first national TV ad wasn’t traditional by any means. It featured Willie Nelson telling a two-minute animated story of a farmer whose business grows massive before his conscience convinces him to revert to more humane, sustainable operations.

It’s working at a more grassroots level to build support too, like with its Cultivate food and music festival and its Farm Team loyalty program — both are focused on humane food sourcing and organic farming. 

In addition, Chipotle announced it would become the first U.S. restaurant chain to remove as many GMO (Genetically Modified Organism) foods from its menu as possible.  

To complement the announcement, and to curb any skepticism about the source of their products, the company created and released a three-minute video commercial on YouTube called “The Scarecrow.”  The video strategy was to appeal to emotion to make it extremely impactful.

It was very successful and went viral and received more than five million views in fewer than two weeks.  It is a great example of how companies are utilizing digital resources to brand and market in more creative ways.  

However, they didn’t stop there.  Marketing these days requires knowing your audience and the best channels to reach that audience. You can’t just create and release a commercial on YouTube … and be done with it. Especially one this good. You need complementary messages and techniques.

Chipotle knew this and created a mobile app videogame that presents the same concept as the commercial, and made it available for free downloading through the Apple App Store.  The combination of viral video and videogame app is attractive to their target market, millennials. Chipotle knows multi-channel marketing and integrated advertising are the new norms.   

The lessons to learn from the Chipotle marketing strategy? 

Know which customers you want to target, study their characteristics, likes and dislikes, and build your campaign strategy around these.

 So … guess what? Chipotle’s campaign strategy, while different than their larger competitors, is not so unconventional, is it? But very creative and unique, yes?

In summary, the game of marketing has changed significantly over the past decade.  It’s not price – it is relevancy, difference, and value.  What are the marketing lessons from your business?

The bottom line

Make your thinking vivid by including what comes naturally to you. For example, you may not be able to imagine sequences of images very well, but you may excel in imagining other modalities such as smell, touch, and sound. You may be excellent in infusing your visualization with emotional charge and great feelings.

DO not feel compelled to stay within any single modality but make your visualizations and imagination vivid and rich by including numerous modalities. Your senses are wonderful tools for you to engage while unleashing the power of the imaginative mind.

Make it colorful and exciting. Make your imagination your ally and your best friend.

It’s up to you to keep improving your social media marketing efforts.

All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new lessons.

When things go wrong, what’s most important is your next step.

Try. Learn. Improve. Repeat.

Are you devoting enough energy to improving your advertising?

Do you have a lesson about making your advertising better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?

Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on Twitter, and LinkedIn.  

Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change.  We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.

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