CHIPOTLE - Social Media Monitoring

Introduction:

Chipotle aims to do a few things but exceptionally well. When Chipotle first opened in 1993, the goal was simple; to serve high quality delicious food quickly with an experience that not only exceeded, but redefined the “fast food” experience. Some 16 years and more than 900 restaurants, they compete in a category of dining, now called “fast-casual” the fastest growing segment of the restaurant industry, where customers expect food quality that’s more in line with full-service restaurants , coupled with the speed and convenience of fast food. A chef named Steve Ells is the founded Chipotle. The first Chipotle was opened in Denver, Colorado.

Food with integrity: Food with integrity is Chipotle’s commitment to finding the very best ingredients raised with respect for the animals, the environment and the farmers.

Chipotle’s main target demographic is adults ages 18-35 who are high-school educated, collage educated, working class or professionals who are on the go.

Target Demographics:

• · 59.7% Female, 40.3% Male
• · Between the ages of 18-35
• · Income earned is between $10k-$70k
• · 82% Caucasian

Pschographics:

• · Environmentally Conscious

• · Active lifestyle

• · Socially focused

• · Tech Savvy

• · Image conscious

• · Financially unfocussed

Therefore, based on Chipotle’s mission and target audience, the main objective of Chipotle would be: To establish Chipotle as the primary choice over other fast food competitors for the target audience. Their strategy would be and has been: To convince the target audience to buy Chipotle instead of fast food competitors because Chipotle serves quality ingredients and allows consumers to customize their meals on spot.

The menu in Chipotle isn’t long – but it’s long on options. The customers can start with the basics and customize as needed to build their perfect meal. Some of the popular dishes in the menu are: Burrito, Burrito bowl, Crispy Tacos, Soft Tacos, Salad, Chips and Guac and there is a separate kids menu too.

Top few competitors for Chipotle: Qdoba Restaurant Corporation, Taco Bell Corp. Before moving on, I would want to write a little about the competitors: In 1995, Anthony Miller and partner Robert Hauser imported San Francisco’s Mission-style burrito to Colorado, opening the first Qdoba Mexican Grill in Denver. Qdoba immediately won over customers and critics with the restaurant’s Mexican flavors and fresh ingredients. Since Qdoba’s beginnings, they’ve grown to include over 500 Qdoba Mexican Grill restaurants from coast to coast. And plenty more are on the way. In the market they have positioned themselves as “We’re not the typical Mexican restaurant. In fact we are not just a restaurant. We are an artisanal Mexican kitchen. A place where we appreciate tradition but are not bound by it. A place where creativity and experimentation thrive. A place where fresh ingredients are prepared and handcrafted into delicious meals right before your eyes. At Qdoba, we believe perfection is achieved through skilled cooks, an open grill and a friendly atmosphere.”

Glenn Bell opened the first Taco Bell restaurant in Downey CA serving his customers “Tay-Kohi”. The first franchisee restaurant was opened in Torrance CA. Some of the popular dishes in the menu are: Burritos, Gorditas, Salads, Nachos, Chalupa, and specialties.

In terms of media presence they have been active in traditional and non-traditional media. Let’s look at Chipotle’s participation in Social Media. While monitoring Chipotle’s Social Media presence since February, through various Social Media tools such as Addictomatic, Ice-Rocket, Social Mention, I came across varied responses to Chipotle from varied people. It was fun to monitor Chipotle!

While monitoring Chipotle on Addictomatic, I found them spread and present all over Social Media. They are talked about on Twitter, Facebook, You tube, Friend-feed, people are blogging and writing actively about Chipotle. Let’s look at blogging trends of and with Chipotle in the following graph:

Based on IceRocket’s blog trend tool, the average no. of blogs posted from February 27^th 2011 till March 22^nd 2011 are 164.83 posts per day. Therefore, on an average, there were 0.0437% of posts. So, on a total, 4,945 blogs were posted during that time frame. People have been posting various blogs on varied topics with positive and negative responses. The customers blog about their experience at Chipotle, what they ate, how that dish tasted, how the service at that Chipotle franchisee was, how the interiors were and many relevant topics. As a vegetarian, I read various blogs on new vegetarian options introduced in Chipotle. Kathy Freston,

the New York Times bestselling author of Quantum wellness who is a vegan and lost weight by converting to a vegan suggested Chipotle as a money-saving option due to Chipotle’s vegan option. There was another blog wherein the author has written the recipe of Vegetarian Nachos, vegan chocolate cake, vegan salsa. Now, that sounds healthy to me. People go to the grocery store and buy Chipotle products reading various blog posts. Here’s a link that gives an example of the same: http://kate-inspired.blogspot.com/2011/03/going-to-grocery-store.html

Let’s look at Facebook and Chipotle now. The official Chipotle grill page on Facebook has 1,260,367 likes! According to Social Mention, on a average, per mention is made in 3 minutes. There are 25 unique authors for Chipotle on Facebook. Sentimentally, 9% sound positive about Chipotle, 13% are neutral and 3% are negative responses. There is 50% likelihood that Chipotle is discussed on facebook. There is a 50% r

each of Chipotle on Facebook i.e. the measure of range of influence due to various Chipotle mentions is 50%. Here are some examples of mixed responses on Facebook:

Allen Jung

I swear I have two stomachs one for chipotle and one for other foods

Top of Form

27 minutes ago via Text Message

Keven Kiddricc Williams

if someone brung me Chipotle steak burrito wit everything and a lemon that would be the best birthday present omg!

Top of Form

52 minutes ago via BlackBerry

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· 2 people like this.

Tamara Sojuicycouture Latham

If u culd b wht u wanted 2 b wen u were a kid wht wuld u b? I wanted 2 b a nutritionist. But chipotle is not healthy sonographer is my dream now :-)

Some of the top key words used on Facebook are “love, tacos, menu, empanizado, cherry, cheddar, topped, rice."

Now, let’s look at twitter. Each mention is made on an average of 17 seconds. There are 428 unique authors and 21 retweets. According to Social Mention and Trendistic, there is 18% likelihood that Chipotle is discussed on Twitter. Sentimentally, a ratio of 5:1 is positive mentions to those that are generally negative. Based on the various mentions on Twitter, there’s a likelihood that 13% of the individuals are passionate and are talking repeatedly about Chipotle. Some of the top keywords used are food, Mexican, grill, burrito, chicken, sauce in order of popularity descending. Let's look at the graph in the trends followed by Chipotle:
Here are some Twitter mixed comments shared between various customers about Chipotle:

thefirst_48

I just murdered that Chipotle burrito RIP chipotle chicken burrito 5:58pm-6:07pm #First48

2 min ago from Echofon · Retweet · Reply· Favorite · Translate

iceyyoutwigguh

RT @Diosa_Preciosa: #HonestlyChipotle is good, but it's not great. It's so over rated.

8 min ago from Twitter for Android ·Retweet · Reply · Favorite · Translate

toyablancobabie

@SquidMaccc I still lubb yah Chipotle

10 min ago from Tweet Button · Retweet ·Reply · Favorite · Translate

The customers also share pictures on Twitter by clicking them live:

Chipotle is mentioned highly on the following social media sources: Identica, Digg, Twitter, Photobucket, Stumbleupon. Since there are many Chipotle customers or target customers using Facebook, Google_blog, Youtube and Picasaweb. We should figure out various ways and strategies in increasing the popularity among the target customers in the above mentioned Social media sources. I have also posted a couple of videos that have been shared by various fans of Chipotle in my blog. Based on these trends, let’s look at some of the Social Media recommendations that I will discuss in my next blog.

Groundswell Transforms!

The Groundswell Transforms attempts to prepare the reader for implications of embracing these new ways of engaging the consumer. A major consideration, and one that organizations are not always prepared for is the notion of giving up control. This is an essential step to truly leverage the power of the Groundswell, but requires a fundamental change throughout the organization.

Another impact to the organization as a whole is the idea of leveraging the tools of the Groundswell inside the company itself. When I worked in CNN, the company provided employees with blogs, wikis and forums to generate internal collaboration. It is not enough, however, to simply make the tools available. Often it is felt that leaders must drive the use of these tools, or they will not be widely adopted. If the company's leadership does not recognize the significance of such relationships or means of engagement, that perception will be perpetuated down the ranks. On the flip-side, however, it is recognized that it's "nearly impossible to force social technologies on organizations from top sown, because by their definition, these technologies require the participation of [the] employees." It's important that everyone in the organization embrace this new way of doing business.

The last chapter, the future of the Groundswell, paints a picture of what the future holds. Again, this is not focused on specific technologies or tools, but rather on how relationships are evolving and how to be prepared for them.

Groundswell is a well-crafted thoughtful book. The book is not a high-level theoretical tome on how organizations must adapt to this new way of business. Rather, it provides guidance, encouragement and plenty of anecdotal evidence to individuals who sense the change, and want to be on the forefront.

Now that I have read the book, I feel even more prepared to actually put these practices in place. This book has provided plenty of evidence showing the benefits of this shift, and hopefully will help accelerate this evolution in how organizations conduct business.

Facebook "like" button - a new marketing strategy

Facebook "Like" button update

After months of updates to "Like" button, Facebook has released an update that fundamentally changes the button's functionality to that of a "Share" button. Now after hitting the Like button, a full story with a headline, blurb and thumbnail will be posted to our profile wall. We will also be given an option to comment on the story link. Previously, only a link to the story would appear in the recent activity, often going unnoticed by users. I feel this is a great marketing strategy to reach out to out target audience and also to give out the message out there in the world! Though, users might think twice about hitting the button, given how prominently it will appear on their walls and in their networks' news feeds, it should ultimately increase traffic to publishers' websites.

Perhaps the change was necessary. Because it was never made clear to users as many never understood what it meant to click Like on a piece of content. Making the result of the same as the Share button could bring stronger user expectations, ultimately fashioning a better user experience.

Facebook "Like" button update

Come to think of it, it was quite a logical move to get rid of the Share button and replace it with the Like one. It also brings more benefits if you have a commercial website. I just hope that they will ass the functionality to change the meta data (like what the "Share" button does), because many times what has been passed from the source is not exactly what you want your friends to look at. Same does for a thumbnail (for example, something unrelated, like a PDF icon). Liking something is much different from wanting to share it. I like things more frequently than I share them - and make a conscious decision to share. Therefore I feel that this idea holds good for commercial websites and organizations. This new action may make it sound dynamic and noticeable initially, but Share button is already doing its job as a good tool for bookmarking content. I also think that the "Like" button is such a casual action by the user. Putting it in prominence to actual comments doesn't make sense. What does make sense it will drive traffic and more page views for those links. From a user's perspective I think it's annoying!