Chipotle Mexican Grill Business Analysis

Chipotle Mexican Grill is one of the fastest growing restaurant businesses in the United States. Chipotle was founded by Steve Ells (current CEO) in Denver Colorado, in 1993 (Forbes, 2016). Chipotle Mexican Grill headquarters are located at 1401 Wynkoop Street, Denver, Colorado 80202 (Yahoo Finance, 2016). The business is focused on serving the fast casual fresh Mexican food restaurant market.

Chipotle Mexican Grill’s strategic vision is “Food with Integrity” (Baylis, 2012). The company focuses on producing a product that is made from sustainable sources. The business also prides itself on selling products made with the finest ingredients. The concept of fresh food is important to the company because that is one part of the company’s vision, “Food with Integrity”. Chipotle’s product line consists of burritos, tacos, burrito bowls, and salads (Forbes, 2016). The company tries to differentiate itself through convenience of their products. It also uses higher quality ingredients in their food to show that the restaurant is different (Investopedia, 2015). Their environment is very modern and eco-friendly which also appeals to many consumers.

One product that has the potential to be marketed in a different way is Chipotle’s burrito.

A burrito is essentially a mix of different ingredients that are folded and wrapped into a tortilla. Chipotle currently offers this burrito with the beef, chicken, carnitas, sofritas, or veggie option (Investopedia, 2015). I believe that this product has much more potential than what it currently has. One of the biggest complaints at Chipotle from my conversations with their customers is the lack of desert. Other restaurants offer the option to eat dessert, however Chipotle is lacking in that aspect. My marketing strategy would involve marketing the burrito as a “dessert burrito”. This is currently an untapped area for Chipotle and could improve the way the burrito is marketed at

Chipotle.
Chipotle has a substantial amount of strengths that have allowed the company to carry many advantages in the market. The first advantage is that Chipotle is a well-recognized brand in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom (Mbaskool, 2016). Not only is Chipotle a well-recognized brand but it has over 1650+ restaurants as of May, 2015 (Investopedia, 2015). With this type of presence and all the locations, it would provide both resources and capabilities for this product launch to happen. Chipotle is well known for their mission of providing “food with integrity”. With this mission, Chipotle gains a positive brand image and customer loyalty (Mbaskool, 2016). This in turn, helps in driving the sales of the business and person-to-person advertising which results in less advertising costs. Chipotle also offers online ordering and has partnered with some companies to allow delivery to home possible for customers. Chipotle also has strength in numbers. Chipotle has over 33,000+ employees, which can be used as a great resource (Mbaskool, 2016).
Chipotle also has some weaknesses. Chipotle’s biggest weakness is the price of their products (Investopedia, 2015). Chipotle has to charge more than their competitors because of the quality of food the company buys. Since Chipotle is adamant about using the best ingredients, the end user (the consumer) must pay higher prices. Chipotle also has a limited choice of menu items (Mbaskool, 2016). Another weakness is that Chipotle does not offer a dessert option like other restaurants. Lastly, Chipotle has a very strong presence in the United States and Canada, but not worldwide. Chipotle can only cater to these markets because they are the market for Chipotle. Chipotle will have to figure out a strategy for expanding their locations worldwide.
Chipotle does have many opportunities that can help the company. The first is that Chipotle is not a worldwide company and has the opportunity to expand into other regions and markets (Mbaskool, 2016). Expanding to new countries could prove to be important to Chipotle in growing the market. Chipotle experiences a limited menu; however this can be used as an opportunity to offer more menu items. It is important for Chipotle to understand the culture at each location and cater to that location’s needs and wants. Another great opportunity is the growing trend of health conscious consumers (Mbaskool, 2016). This trend has allowed Chipotle to grow and maintain its market leader status.
Threats also exist for Chipotle. The first threat is the intense competition from competitors. If a competitor gains the upper hand on Chipotle, this could mean losing substantial amounts of market share. Since Chipotle uses the best ingredients from sustainable sources, a gap in their supplier’s shipment could hurt Chipotle tremendously (Mbaskool, 2016). This gap in shipment could cause some stores to close or for commodity prices to soar, which would hurt the business. Economic instability is always something that a company must watch for. If the economy suffers another recession or depression, it could cause a significant loss of business for Chipotle.
I think that Chipotle should market their burritos as a dessert as well. This is a significant change in their marketing strategy, but I think it could pay off tremendously. Chipotle has a lot of strengths that would allow them to be very successful in this endeavor. There is currently a market gap because of their lack in selling dessert to their customers. Chipotle reported a 20% growth in 2015 vs. the average growth of 10.5% of the industry (Investopedia, 2015). This growth rate can be used to gain momentum on this new product and possibly increase it some more, next year. Chipotle’s vision would be incorporated into this product, making it healthy and made from the best ingredients. Chipotle can benefit from this marketing strategy tremendously.