Chipotle Seen Becoming Mcdonald\'s With Drive Throughs

¶ … Chipotle Seen Becoming McDonald's With Drive Throughs founder and CEO Steve Ells is interviewed, in addition to the chain's director of investor relations, Alex Spong and several financial industry analysts. One of the most influential is David Einhorn, a hedge fund manager who said Chipotle was over-valued as a stock. The article shows the challenges that Chipotle confronts today with flat sales and profitability while competitors continue to grow. What is apparent from the article is that the further Chipotle gets away from solidifying and strengthening their customer experience, the worse they do financially.

The target concepts that Chipotle is considering include competing in an entirely new time segment of the food service market, breakfast. The company is making this decision based on the observations they are making of competitors. The same decision to open a drive-throughout window is being made due to McDonald's and other fast food restaurant competitors also having this feature. If Chipotle is not careful they will fall into a competitive strategy of mimicking and attempting to be at parity with their competitors rather than setting their own unique direction and strategy.

Chipotle management perceives the most critical factor being that of convenience with a drive-through window and the ability to compete in a new meal segment of the market. Yet as the article shows, the company does exceptionally well when it competes on customer experience first. Instead of attempting to be at parity with competitors, Chipotle needs to think more strategically and focus on how the accentuate and strengthen the customer experience overall. This is critically important to the future of their business, and as can be inferred from their financials, to their profitable growth. The greater the orientation towards customer experience, the faster they grow in profitability.

In terms of the applicability of this lesson learned to my own personal and professional goals, it is apparent to me that marketing is much more than just getting a customer to buy. It's about earning and keeping their trust with exceptional experiences that delight them and get them to return. Chipotle is a very healthy alternative to fast food and the customization they allow is exceptional given their low prices. If the chain chooses to have drive-through windows they will lost that aspect of the customer experience. In addition the drive-through window will make the customization process very difficult, as the typical meal produced there takes a high level of customer and server interaction.