Marketing analysis of Chipotle's Scarecrow campaign. Analysis includes audience, brand and insight, creative analyses as well as the positioning and media strategy for the campaign

1. Chipotle’s Scarecrow
Campaign
Richard Swanson
Kasra Nikzad
MKTG 340
Final Project
2 Dec 2014

2. Overview
Chipotle is a “fast casual” restaurant
with over 1,600 restaurants
worldwide.
Chipotle focuses on using sustainable
ingredients in all their products to
ensure they provide high quality
food to their customers
http://www.chipotle.com/en-us/company/about_us.aspx

3. Campaign Overview
The Scarecrow campaign is a PSA looking
to inform consumers where the food
industry could be heading. The campaign,
launched by the Creative Artist Agency
(CAA), is trying to educate millennials
about where their food comes from while
also encouraging them to cultivate a better
world through the use of digital
advertising (social media, apps, viral
videos).
http://adage.com/article/special-report-cannes-lions/caa-wins-pr-grand-prix-chipotle-s-scarecrow/293727/

4. Objective
There are two main objectives of this campaign: (1)
to inform consumers about the truth about what’s
in their food and (2) to encourage consumers to
cultivate a better world. The basic premise behind
a scarecrow is a “protector of food/crops”. Chipotle
looks to associate their brand with that “scarecrow”
symbolism to build stronger brand equity

5. Market Analysis
Internal
Chipotle primarily targets millennials
due to the loyalty that market tends
to show over other segments. The
company offers 1,600 restaurants
worldwide which leads to a high
level of exposure for multiple
demographics
External
Chipotle is a part of a highly
competitive market. The additional
noise within the market could make
the message of the Scarecrow
campaign harder to
understand.
http://www.chipotle.com/en-us/company/about_us.aspx

6. Market Analysis Continued
In order for Chipotle to differentiate
themselves within the market, it turned to
service. Chipotle emphasizes on the farm
raised animals and organic foods to its
consumers. This associates positive healthy
foods in a market that is not known for
healthy foods and also gives Chipotle an
advantage over its competitors

7. Market Analysis Continued
Other Factors that helped make this
campaign successful include:
– Availability when and where audiences
want it
• The campaign was available through digital
devices.
– Portability
• The campaign was easily accessible.
– Relevant to multiple audiences
• While the campaign mainly targets
millennials, it can also target other audiences
such as food enthusiast, animals lovers, etc.
– Being a part of a steady stream of material
• This campaign is part 2 of a 3 part campaign.
The popularity of the “Back to Start”
campaign gave this campaign a head start in
its launch.
http://lisapeyton.com/chipotle-scarecrow-campaign-advertising-or-narrative-and-why-it-worked/

8. Audience Analysis - Segmentation
Segment 1 Segment 2 Segment 3
Demographics Millennials Environmentally
Conscious
Health Conscious
Psychographics Understands
technology, follows
trends, busy
Picky about foods
they eat, tends to
eat at sit-in
restaurants
Eats whole foods,
always on-the-go
Benefit/ usage Quick Food Responsibly
produced meal
Healthy meals

9. Audience Analysis - Targeting
The segment Chipotle chose to target are the Millennials. Millennials
provide a large target audience to generate the most profit. Through
social networks and the increasing trend of digital usage, Millennials are
easily reachable. Millennials are also a good match due to the fast-
casual and the healthy food Chipotle offers.

10. Audience Analysis - Positioning
Chipotle positioned this campaign by cultural symbol.
They used the premise of the scarecrow to represent
Chipotle’s “food with integrity” motto.
Millennials tend to follow trends. This plays into Chipotle’s
positioning strategy as the trend of sustainable healthy
living has been steadily increasing

11. Brand and Consumer Insights
Brand Insight
• Sustainable
• Healthy
• All natural Ingredients
• Farm-raised animals
Consumer Insight
• What is
sustainable?
• Fast-food cultured
with GMO’s and
processed foods
• Not the go-to
place

12. The Sweet Spot
Brand Insight
• Sustainable
• Healthy
• All natural
Ingredients
• Farm-raised
animals
Consumer
Insight
• What is
sustainable?
• Fast-food
cultured with
GMO’s and
processed foods
• Not the go
to place
Sweet Spot
• Chipotle is not just another
fast food restaurant.
• They practice the idea of
“Food with Integrity”
• Offers healthy non processed
foods
• Cultivating a better place

13. Brand and Positioning Strategy
Chipotle’s brand value promises “food with integrity.”
This means they will only serve the best ingredients
raised with respect for the animals, environment, and
the farmers
The brand values are presented in the campaign by
informing consumers how manufacturing farms operate
as well as allowing consumers the opportunity to
associate themselves with the “food with integrity”
brand value. This also serves as their positioning
strategy as its competitors seem to be more focused on
making profit while turning over the most product.
Chipotle is focused on sustainable ingredients while
making profit along the way.

14. Creative Analysis
This campaign used an animation
framework along with an emotional appeal
to display the harsh reality of the food
industry. (Objective 1).
The campaign then allows the consumer to
make a difference though the concepts of
saving the animals, serving wholesome
food, and planting crops offered in the
scarecrow game/app (Objective 2).
The big idea in this campaign engages the
consumer and is aimed to motivate the
consumer to: think, feel, do. The campaign
creates awareness of how animals are being
treated in manufactured farms and then
looks to change the attitude of the
consumer by asking consumers to make a
difference by cultivating a better world.

15. Creative Analysis Continued
This campaign uses a verbal and visual image theory.
Through animation and music, Chipotle was able get a the
best response and recall from its consumers. Chipotle used
a well recognized Willy Wonka song called “Pure
Imagination” within their campaign. The song was played a
strong role in the campaign in that it :
– Triggered consumer emotion due the history and highly
recognizable music from the popular Willy Wonka movie
– Symbolized that the food from the fast-food industries
are pure imagination. The ingredients are not real.
The song alone was able to trigger the “back in the day”
emotion for variety of markets which helps arrests its
consumers. In addition the song directly correlates with the
message the campaign is looking to portray.

16. Media Strategy
The first type of media the Scarecrow Campaign used was video
The Scarecrow

17. Media Strategy Continued
Using video as a part of this campaign was a
huge strength because it tapped into the
consumers affective emotions through
animation and music which made the campaign
easy to relate too. Another strength is through
the use of mobile devices, the video can be
accessed anywhere in the world via YouTube.
Whether it is to be watched in the U.S. or
Europe, it will still be relevant and effective to
the consumer base.
The biggest weakness of this specific video is the
brand is not displayed within the video at all. If
Chipotle had not launched this campaign
through its site, it would be hard to determine
who the owner of this campaign would be solely
based on the video

18. Media Strategy Continued
The next media this campaign introduces
was an app/game
The Scarecrow Game

19. Media Strategy Continued
The app/game in this campaign focuses on
the service aspect of the campaign. It co-
creates value by allowing consumers to
interact with the campaign itself. The
interaction will allow the consumer to
gain the awareness the campaign is
looking to display.
The weakness of this element is that the
game can only be played on Apple
products (iPod, iPad, iPhone). The
audience reached by this element is still
very large but could be improved if they
had allowed the app to be download on
both Apple and Android products

20. Media Strategy Continued
The final media selection the campaign used was internet
The Chipotle
Scarecrow Campaign

21. Media Strategy Continued
This campaign was made complete by
making the elements of the video and the
app/game into a reality for consumers.
Through the usage of the internet, the
campaign highly encourages consumers to
cultivate a better world. It provides
examples of personal stories as well as
examples of different groups that practice
this concept. It’s now up to the consumers
to make the difference!

22. Paid – Owned – Earned Media
Chipotle heavily relied on using owned and
earned media to generate the success of its
campaign. Chipotle managed to launch this
campaign without spending a dime on television
or any other form of paid media. Chipotle used
their website (owned) to get the word out about
the campaign. Once the campaign became viral,
Chipotle was able to gain the most valuable type
of media: earned media.
The earned media allowed the voice of the
consumer to represent Chipotle’s Scarecrow
Campaign through social networking sites such as
Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube. This
would allow a new perspective to those who may
have not yet seen the campaign.
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/209285/chipotles-scarecrow-55-million-views-and-co.html?edition=

23. Results
Chipotle had impressive results from this campaign
– 13+ million views and 74+ thousand likes on
YouTube.
– Brand awareness score jumped from 64% to 70%
in just one week in 2013.
– Received 3 Gold Lions at Cannes Lions 2014.
– Sparked 18.4 million conversations across 17
social media websites in the first month alone
– Replaced Taco Bell as the top social brand.
Not only did Chipotle increase its awareness, but it
also saw its “systemwide revenue jump 25.8%, its
comparable-store sales jumped 12.7%, and its net
income soared 34.9%.” The emotion evoking
campaign was recognized by its consumers and
critics alike. Its simplistic, yet inspirational style
resulted in achieving the objectives of this
campaign
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/209285/chipotles-scarecrow-55-million-views-and-co.html?edition=
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reDRAHn3XkY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUtnas5ScSE
http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/chipotle-honda-win-multiple-gold-lions-branded-content-no-one-takes-grand-prix-158503