Chipotless?

Chipotle is a fast casual chain originating in Denver. Advertising had been handled locally until Butler Shine started doing the work. The rest of the story picks up from there with the Denver Egotist’s campaign against said campaign, complete with companion site.

Reading through the comment thread there, everyone weighs in. People who agree. People telling DE to stfu. People questioning why this matters beyond Denver. While I might not have gone as far as creating a companion site about various ad dragons slain here, (Pepsi and the near-criminal work masquerading as Wendy’s ads), I understand the passion.

Certain brands you live, not just work on, and when something happens to bring them down a notch in your eyes, you tend to get angry. DE’s opinion of the work doesn’t pull punches in that regard. (My only comment on the look would be that the new logo is sufficiently generic, having shed the funk of the previous one.)

Regardless, I’d never eaten there until the second Plaid Nation Tour last year. Proud of ourselves that we managed to avoid all fast food places for two tours, we caved one day and hit a local Chipotle in California, having prayed it was one level up from the Taco Bells of the world. After eating there twice now and liking it, seems like they missed taking this in a direction that to me at least would have felt more true.

First, they may start to get more of the value crowd in now, but use of the value prop across the board is way out of control, not just with Chipotle. It started with the automotive industry years ago and the “We’ll put you in a BMW for $399 a month!” Pretty soon, you could be in anything for $399 a month. Fly here for $1, and so on.

(Is it really a surprise that people always want stuff cheaper, if not free? That won’t ever change.)

Still, you expect that with fast food. McDonald’s current value meal focus is nothing new. The one thing they pushed in commercials way back when was how you could eat dinner and still get change back from a dollar. Burger, fries and drink for .89¢. FF >> to today’s $5 dollar footlong strategy from Subway and now every chain talks value.

I’m not saying chains can’t have their value meals and it eat too, but here, the “value” for me was when I realized holy shit, this is really good, I got a lot, and I was full. (I could just about finish their damn burrito.) Made fresh and quick, I was ready to swear off other chains.

Why walk away from the strength of that and focus only on price then? Position it as an alternative to the Subways of the world because it’s better. Not, let’s align with every chain now and do the me-too thing. (The value in this case is the quality and quantity of food, not a $4.25 price tag. Subtle but important difference.)

There’s going to be a consumer backlash at some point regarding this notion of saving money and everything being about value. Until then, I really doubt it’s going to stop being a focus for brands. In that case, the best thing to do here is order two of those value meals.

They sure look small.

Tags: Chipotle