Chipotle Seen Becoming Mcdonald\'s With Drive Throughs

¶ … Chipotle Seen Becoming McDonald's With Drive Throughs (Patton, 2012) the future direction of best-selling Mexican fast food restaurant Chipotle is debated. The author is careful to interview both the company's founder Steve Ells, senior investor relations executives and from outside the company, Alex Spong and David Einhorn. Mr. Spong and Mr. Einhorn are investment analysts who track the market segments of the restaurant industry that Chipotle competes in. The premise of the article is hwo Chipotle management should best respond to the flat sales and gradually declining sales. It is very apparent from the article that the farther Chipotle moves away form their focus on the customer experience, the more they tend to suffer adverse financial consequences. This chain does best in terms of sales and profits when they are delivering an exceptionally strong and valuable customer experience (Patton, 2012).

Analysis of the Article

There are several key concepts that the article's premise is based on from a prescriptive marketing and strategy standpoint. One of the most significant is the belief that Chipotle should stay focused on the mid-morning, lunch and dinner segments. Chipotle has yet to invest in a breakfast menu, a point the investment analysts mention as an area of significant potential growth (Patton, 2012). Breaking into a new menu segment carries with in an entirely new set of customer segment requirements and a unique marketing message for a new type of customer. This is a very risky strategy for Chipotle, which is firmly established as a strong, highly respected lunch and dinner alterative for many working families. As is apparent from the article, Chipotle is thinking of doing this as they are driven by competitors, not from their customer base.

Second, the decision to even consider a drive-through window is driven by the same competitive concerns. The Chipotle customer experience is predicated on creating a customized burrito, bowl or set of tacos. To accomplish this in a drive-through window will require an exceptional level of real-time logistics between the customer and order taker. The level of orchestration on customized items for the chain would make the drive-through window a failure. This is based on personal experiences of visiting and eating lunch at a Chipotle. Again this strategy is being driven more by the competitive parity that senior management of the chain feels they must have (Patton, 2012).

Instead of attempting to copy their competitors, Chipotle needs to look at how best to create a truly unique and highly valued customer experience. This is critical to their future and as the case shows, essential for their current and future financial viability as wlel. The article makes it clear that if any of these competitive strategies are taken, Chipotle will lose its uniqueness.