Marketing Analysis of Chipotle Mexican Grill

Running Head: MARKETING 1
Marketing: Chipotle Mexican Grill

MARKETING 2
Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
Strategic/Situational Analysis......................................................................................................................3
Businesses and Products of Company.....................................................................................................3
Internal Analysis......................................................................................................................................4
External Analysis......................................................................................................................................5
SWOT Matrix...........................................................................................................................................6
Marketing Strategy Analysis....................................................................................................................7
Segmentation..........................................................................................................................................7
Target Marketing.....................................................................................................................................8
Positioning...............................................................................................................................................9
Marketing Mix.........................................................................................................................................9
Marketing Strategy Recommendations.....................................................................................................12
Innovation Recommendations...................................................................................................................13
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................13
References.................................................................................................................................................15

MARKETING 3
Introduction
Marketing planning and analysis are important activities for most of the firms in today’s
competitive business environment (Chernev, 2018). The major objective of this report is to apply
different concepts and frameworks of marketing on chosen organization i.e. Chipotle Mexican
Grill. Chipotle Mexican Grill is an American fast casual restaurant chains that has its operations
in United States, Germany, Canada, United Kingdom and France. It specializes in mission style
burritos and tacos. It was founded by Steve Ells in 1993 in Colorado with the goal of providing
excellent quality foods which are prepared using fresh and organic ingredients. The name of this
organization has been derived from chipotle, Nahuati name for dried and smoked jalapeno chili
pepper. It trades on New York Stock Exchange using the ticker symbol CMG. Chipotle is one of
the first fast casual dining chains. Currently, it has its operations in over 2000 locations and it has
the income of 475.6$ million with over 45,000 employees till 2016 (Chipotle, 2018).
The mission statement of this company is “food with integrity” and its vision statement is “to
nurture a better world with each burrito it makes”. The major values of this company are higher
quality, innovation, learning by doing approach, customer loyalty and enhancing popularity and
continuous introduction of broader menu. To prepare the food, the organization uses quality,
natural and locally produced ingredients. It is using innovative assembly line method that assists
the firm in meal creation and rapid services (Ragas, 2009).
Strategic/Situational Analysis
Businesses and Products of Company
As one of the largest chain of fast casual dining, Chipotle is engaged in offering a wide range of
food products to its customers. The organization offers naturally grown meat, ingredients and
dishes produced by hand in its food outlets. It is a fast casual dining chain among Mexican
restaurants which offers Mexican products like burritos, chips, crispy corn tacos, guacamole and
salads. Apart from these products, it provides a different menu for kids segment that includes
kid’s meal with seasonal fruits or chips and organic milk and juice. Thus, these are the major
product offerings of Chipotle which make up its brand portfolio. Currently, the company is
operating its business by having different strategic business units in different countries (Stevens,
2014).

MARKETING 4
For this discussion, the Chipotle’s strategic business unit of United States is taken into
consideration. Its internal and external analysis is given below:
Internal Analysis
Strengths
Focused food menu with customization:
Chipotle Mexican Grill is offering a focused food menu with only 4 entrée items like tacos,
salads, burrito and burrito bowls. This is the biggest strength of Chipotle US to provide with
customization options with different types of beans, meats, tofu and a range of extras like cheese,
lettuce, salsas and guacamole.
Innovation and differentiated marketing and advertisement:
This strategic business unit of Chipotle has differentiated itself in its advertising and marketing
efforts. It is promoting its brand not only through traditional modes like print media and
Television but also via digital media, content programs that consist of ‘Cultivate’ festivals of
food, ideas and music. These marketing initiatives assisted the organization to create a word-of-
mouth and thus organic promotion about Chipotle’s food items (Walker & Merkley, 2017).
Weaknesses
Higher priced food menu:
One of the biggest weaknesses of Chipotle is its higher priced food menu as its competing brands
are selling the food items half its price. The company offers its products on comparatively higher
prices as it uses natural and organic ingredients in their food. It has an adverse impact on the
purchase behavior of customers in United States.
Limited Food menu:
In United States, the outlets of Chipotle serve a range of tacos and burritos but this menu is
limited to these two product categories mainly and hence it lacks a wide variety of food products.
While compared to Chipotle’s biggest competing brands Panera bread and Qdoba Mexican Grill