Chipotle: Social Media SWOT Analysis
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An independent SWOT Analysis of Chipotle's current Social Media Strategy.
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Chipotle: Social Media SWOT Analysis
- 1. Chipotle SWOT Analysis Group 8 Hernandez, Merary Quintero, Jennifer
- 2. Chipotle’s Background ● Founded in 1993, in Colorado ● First big investor: McDonald’s ○ $50M First Year! ● Initial Public Offering (2006) ○ McDonald’s Payout: $1B ● Present: 1,800 locations and growing...
- 3. Company Culture “Food with Integrity” ● Real Ingredients ● Culinary Preparation ● Non-GMO Ingredients ● Local Farm Produce ● Healthy Livestock ● Cultivate Foundation
- 4. Chipotle is present in all the growing social media sites, including: ● Facebook ● Twitter ● Instagram ● Pinterest ● Google+ ● YouTube Chipotle in Social Media
- 5. Chipotle’s Social Media Demographics 2,770,000 Likes 4,840,000 Check-ins 711,000 Followers 404,000 Tweets 41,650 Followers 252,000 Followers 390 Posts 5,100 Followers 451 Pins 513,000 Followers 16,350,000 Views 34,558 subscribers
- 6. Strengths ● Customer Loyalty ● Relevant Content ● Transparency ● Replies
- 7. Weaknesses ● Lack of consistency ● Target Audience ● Low Pinterest Followers
- 8. Opportunities ● Pinterest for Women ● Buzzfeed for Brand Lift ● Google+ for Talent Search ● LinkedIn for B2B Opportunities
- 9. Threats ● Outdated Social Media Practices ● Non-Engaging Content ● Competitor: Qdoba Mexican Grill ● Social Media Customer Service
- 10. Chipotle’s Social Media Strategy Analysis Purpose Social Media will be used to provide a more human interaction with our customers to enhance customer loyalty and brand awareness. We will promote healthy and organic food available at our various locations and encourage customer feedback on all social media networking sites in order to improve the quality of our menu offering and attention to customer service. Target Groups We will target individuals of all ages looking to consume healthy meals with fresh ingredients and preparation. We will target these groups by: - Creating appealing content to further generate interest in what our company offers - Act on customer feedback for continuous improvement - Promote our Chipotle Cultivate Foundation to boost a sustainable food environment
- 11. Analysis of Social Media Tools
- 12. Analysis of Social Media Tools Continued...Effective Campaigns Scarecrow Video Haikus Promotion Fake Twitter Hack
- 14. Room for Improvement Run campaigns in more social media sites Expand target audience Analysis of Social Media Tools Continued...
- 15. References (n.d.). Retrieved October 28, 2015, from https://twitter.com/ChipotleTweets (n.d.). Retrieved October 28, 2015, from https://www.linkedin.com/company/chipotle-mexican-grill (n.d.). Retrieved October 28, 2015, from https://www.instragram.com/ChipotleMexicanGrill (n.d.). Retrieved October 28, 2015, from https://plus.google.com/ chipotle About Us. (n.d.). Retrieved October 28, 2015, from https://foursquare.com/about Casel, B. (2012) 7 Ways to Use Yelp for Social Media. Retrieved October 28, 2015, from http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/yelp/ Johnson, L. (2015) Chipotle Is Asking Fans to Write Haikus, and Some of Them Are Truly Impressive. Retrieved October 29, 2015, from http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/chipotle-asking-fans-write-haikus-and-some- them-are-truly-impressive-162803
- 16. References Continued... Chipotle. (n.d.). Retrieved October 28, 2015, from http://chipotle.com/food-with-integrity?_ga=1.20515064.1783301208.1445904600 Chipotle Mexican Grill (chipotlemg). (n.d.). Retrieved October 28, 2015, from https://www.pinterest.com/chipotlemg Chipotle Startup Story (n.d.). Retrieved October 28, 2015, from https://www.fundable.com/learn/startup-stories/chipotle Facebook logo. (n.d.). Retrieved October 28, 2015, from https://www.facebook.com/Chipotle Social Media Management. (n.d.). Retrieved October 28, 2015, from https://hootsuite.com/solutions/social-media-management The Chipotle Cultivate Foundation. (n.d.). Retrieved October 28, 2015, from https://www.cultivatefoundation.org/about Schaefer, Mark W. (2014). Social Media Explained. Untangling the World’s Most Misunderstood Business Trend. Kindle. Amazon Publishing.
Editor's Notes
- Chipotle was founded in 1993 in Denver, CO by Steve Ells after a small initial investment of $75,000.00 from his parents. Steve Ells graduated from The Culinary Institute of America and briefly lived in San Francisco, CA where he came up with the idea of opening up his own burrito “fast-food” restaurant. After the opening of the stores, Steve was able to obtain a huge $50M investment from McDonald’s in 1998 and continued opening up more stores. They grew extensively and unpredictably. Eventually, Chipotle parted ways with McDonald’s because McDonald’s believed Chipotle was distracting from McDonald’s core brand (Chipotle was pretty independent in how they operated). Finally, Chipotle went public in 2006 and has since then expanded to approximately ~1,800 restaurants and growing.
- Chipotle’s culture is to provide fresh, organic food with the ultimate goal of a healthy environment and planet. Chipotle is committed to providing real ingredients with quality culinary preparation. The company has also announced their plans to move towards non-GMO ingredients for their menu offering. Furthermore, they strongly believe in using local farm produce to support local farmers as well as meat from healthy livestock where nontherapeutic antibiotics and hormones are NOT used on the animals. Finally, Chipotle has started the Chipotle Cultivate Foundation with “initiatives supporting sustainable agriculture, family farming, and food education.” (Chipotle.com)
- Because of the positive image that Chipotle currently maintains, they have built a high customer loyalty and following. Customer Loyalty represents a huge strength in social media marketing because having a positive image enables consumers to feel motivated to post images of Chipotle’s food and positive dining experience and share with others. Consumers would feel proud to share their Chipotle experiences. Compared to many fast-food casual restaurants that have a negative image because of the quality of their food, Chipotle is building a strong and reputable image through Social Media. Chipotle’s social media sites demonstrate their concern for what people are saying about the brand and the food, and we see additional focus in appealing to their current and future customers. For example, Chipotle incorporates meme references into their posts as you can see in the pictures in this slide. Additionally, Chipotle has taken advantage of social media to create a transparency in their relationship with the consumers. They do this by posting their recipes and videos on how they prepare their meals.
- Chipotle engages consumers in different social media sites. However, they have not been consistent with their posts. It is important for businesses to understand where to post their content in order to be effective. It is also important to realize that certain advertising or content should be posted across all social media outlets. For example, a picture could be effective in Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Chipotle, can improve their strategy by developing a strategy to ensure their advertising is posted across all social media and that the content being delivered is appropriate to the site that is used. Although chipotle is loved by people of all ages, their social media strategy is currently targeted mostly towards the younger generation who are looking for healthy eating choices. Chipotle can improve this weakness by starting to target ALL generations as well and educating people about healthy options. Finally, Chipotle should focus on increasing the total of pinterest followers. There are several opportunities for marketing with Pinterest which will be discussed in the next slide.
- There is an opportunity to specifically target women through Social Media via Pinterest. Pinterest presents the highest user retention rate and also has a majority percent of users being women. Chipotle could target women through an analysis of the interests that women share in Pinterest. Whether it’s recipes, locations, ideas, or even ambiance, Chipotle should develop Pinterest campaigns to tailor and attract female consumers. Furthermore, Chipotle could use a site such as Buzzfeed in order to build a higher brand lift. Though Chipotle is extremely successful in its current state, there is still an opportunity for further brand exposure and lift through social media partnerships with sites like Buzzfeed. Chipotle is also known for being committed to providing excellent customer service. Making the experience for the consumer an enjoyable one, not just from the food they are purchasing but with the level of customer service they receive when they walk into the restaurant. Chipotle could further utilize sites like Google+ to attract the right talent for their various locations. Finally, Chipotle could expand their marketing to B2B settings (for example, partnering with large centers like Target). Chipotle could also use B2B sites like LinkedIn to further promote their Chipotle Cultivate campaign by appealing to other business who would like to join to the cause.
- Because Chipotle does not outsource any of their marketing functions for social media or advertising, they can be faced with using outdated social media practices. The in-house marketer should be completely aware of all the changes in social media (which are frequent) and should also know what’s trending in order to keep up with the needs and wants of social media users. Also, Chipotle needs to start developing more engaging content. Having non-relevant or non-engaging content could keep brand awareness low or even decrease from Chipotle’s current standing. Chipotle also faces a potential threat with their competitor Qdoba Mexican Grill. There have been social media campaigns from Qdoba specifically targeting Chipotle which could be detrimental to Chipotle’s social media presence and overall perspective in the eyes of consumers. Finally, Chipotle could face problems with customer service via Social Media. Because the locations are in different areas, customers could write a concern or request that would make it difficult for Chipotle to listen and take action on. For example: the demands of a rural area differ from those in an urban area. How does Chipotle use their social media customer service practices to help ALL the customers on a company wide level?
- We will use Mark W. Schaefer three elements for success: targeted connections, meaningful content, and authentic helpfulness. We will target the right customers, provide them with meaningful and engaging content, and we will exceed our customer service initiatives through social media. We will further deepen our brand exposure in social media sites such as YouTube, Reddit, and TripAdvisor. The purpose is to show engaging videos and motivational messaging through Chipotle to help our Cultivate Foundation Mission. We will use Reddit in order to communicate on a person-to-person level with users and acknowledge their interests, concerns, questions, and feedback. We will use sites such as TripAdvisor to monitor the ratings of our various locations and take appropriate action to ensure that customer satisfaction is of the highest level. We will not segment our customers but aim to target all consumers who are looking to consume nutritious, healthy, and non-GMO meals. We will target those consumers who are interested in participating in our Chipotle’s Cultivate mission. We will target individuals who are active and healthy as well as those who are seeking to start a more healthy lifestyle. We would like to be Chipotle “for all”. We will aim to do this via Social Media outreach.
- YELP serves as a great social media tool because it can help recognize the value of consumers reviews. It also allows a company to concentrate on certain geographic areas. Yelpers write reviews about chipotle based on location. By tracking this, Chipotle can improve the quality of their products and services and concentrate on locations that may not have great reviews. Moreover, they can see what the people like and what they do not like to make sure that consumers is satisfied. YELP has the option to respond to reviews which allows Chipotle to create valuable customer relationships. Hootsuite is a great social media tool to use in order to set up social media posts across various sites, monitor trends and analyze the results of those trends. This is an essential social media tool for a company that is looking to develop engaging content and is looking to drive customer response and interest. Foursquare is a tool that is great to enhance word of mouth through social media. Consumers can check in places that they have visited and share it via Twitter or Facebook. Not only are friends likely to visit the same places that their friends visit, but the company can use this information to improve their services. By keeping track of the most visited location Chipotle can consider opening additional locations around certain areas, or maybe expanding a location to increase their square footage based on demand/visitors. Foursquare can help essential data on Chipotle’s various locations.
- The scarecrow video is great advertisement campaign because it illustrates what chipotle stands for. It further depicts the company’s background and values. Recently this year, Chipotle asked their fans to write Haikus to express their love for burritos. The contest gave the consumers the chance to win a dinner for two. The top 20 poems with the most likes and retweets won the prize! The campaign is effective because it engaged the consumer and was also fun. As you will see in the next slide, it looks like the users had fun creating the poems and expressing their love for Chipotle’s burritos. The fake twitter hack strategy was a great way to create brand awareness and make people talk about chipotle. At first it appeared as if the Twitter account was hacked and even revealed Chipotle’s password. However, it was later stated that it was a social media marketing strategy that worked successfully. You can view a picture of the “hacked” tweets in the next slide.
- Chipotle has run successful campaigns. However, the campaigns could be more successful if they were displayed in various sites instead of just a few. For example, the Haiku campaign was developed for Twitter whereas it could have been easily as successful in facebook and increase consumer engagement. In addition, chipotle has been targeting the millennials as part of their strategy, but there are other audiences that would like chipotle. These audiences should also be targeted to in Chipotle’s advertising to try to obtain new and loyal customers. Finally, we have observed Chipotle’s social media engagement mostly in English, Chipotle might also want to consider trying to engage audiences that speak different languages. This could also help the company with international expansion