chipotle has some pretty interesting marketing strategies. it's all based around a very subdued "we make pretty good stuff and we know it, you should come by and try it" kind of a feeling that is not forced on you but rather that you just happen to see and feel at random events.
marketing by sponsoring the lifestyle
i was recently at a charity event and got my free t-shirt: chipotle was a sponsor at a level that gets them on the shirt. people who purposefully eat "food with integrity" have a decent chance of being participants in fund raisers and getting those shirts. this is great, low cost, high community value marketing! separately, chipotle is sponsoring some bike riders which means lots of great coverage. for example, that last post I made showing a cyclist powered by chipotle which gets picked up in cycling magazines. cyclists need to eat lots of food. chipotle provides lots of good food for little money. a great way to support the lifestyle of their bicycle riding customers.
the free burrito buzz
another example of their unconventional and subdued marketing is the free burritos. brent lamphier a marketing and entrepreunership student at "u dub" (washington) has written about the brilliance of the free burritos that chipotle gives out. the cost is low, the buzz is high. by doing this chipotle is successfully "flipping the funnel" and making their customers their advertisers.
read the feed
another "i got a free burrito" post
on brent’s site i pointed out that it costs more than $6 per blog post because they give away hundreds of free burritos and only get a blog post every now and then.
of course what do i find tonight: another guy who got a free burrito and then wrote about it and loves chipotle and brags about it. so, yeah, it’s clearly pretty effective.
apparently businessweek writes from the future
apparently businessweek writes from the future - this businessweek article about chipotle’s marketing echoes my own thoughts and comes from March 12, 2007.. that author must have gone to the future, written the article, and came back. i hope he doesn’t screw up the time-space continuum.
well, there’s some more concrete numbers on the costs and benefits of their free burrito campaign.
yet more free burrito buzz
polkamonkey’s post about a free burrito
It ranks up there with his wife and defeating the Deadites in terms of best things that happened in his life. If they aren’t already, chipotle definitely needs to allocate the free burritos to the marketing budget…
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