Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc announced on Monday it is aiming to get back to its roots with an emphasis on “radical ingredient transparency” in its latest ad campaign.
The “For Real” campaign, which is the fast-casual restaurant’s largest in terms of spending within a quarter, aims to “celebrate real ingredients”, with a special focus on the main 51 ingredients used in the 2,450 locations across the U.S., Canada, United Kingdom, France and Germany.
“Chipotle has always emphasized food prepared fresh daily in all of our restaurants and we wanted this campaign to highlight that, reflecting our real principles and ‘real’ as a way of acting in the world,” said Chris Brandt, chief marketing officer at Chipotle. Brandt joins one-time Taco Bell CEO, Brian Niccol in recent hires as part of a larger management overhaul from earlier this year. Brandt said Chipotle is hoping to revamp into more of a “purpose-driven lifestyle brand.”
In addition to traditional print, digital and television advertisements, Chipotle has also created a supplementary Instagram account for its 51 ingredients, called @ChipotleForReal. Each Chipotle For Real Instagram post highlights one of the 51 ingredients — for example, a simply shot overhead image of black beans — and includes a short caption on Chipotle’s preparation and use of the ingredient.
“While often long and complicated ingredient lists are common in today’s food industry, we like to say the only ingredient that’s hard to pronounce at Chipotle is ‘Chipotle’,” Brandt said. While the word ‘chipotle’ certainly isn’t difficult to pronounce, that seems to be exactly the restaurant’s point.
Chipotle’s longtime focus on real food versus the processed food typically found at fast food/fast-casual restaurants has mattered little to consumers who are worried about the infamous food safety issues stemming from 2015 and as recently as this summer. 56% of millennials, who are literally changing the food industry, are reportedly visiting Chipotle less frequently as of June 2018.
Two weeks ago, Chipotle announced it was bringing back its chicken/pork chorizo for a limited time, and just last week the burrito chain reported it would be partnering with Zenput, a San Francisoc-based software company used to remotely monitor restaurant operations, in an effort to improve food safety. When Niccol came on as CEO earlier this year, he brought with him similar marketing tactics that were implemented while at Taco Bell. Key to these marketing plans are a more tech-driven approach, as well as plans to reinforce menu innovation.
With all the effort and investment Chipotle has recently put into revamping, their spotlight on its minimal ingredients list is probably necessary. Ingredients are a backbone to any restaurant, and inviting customers to peek behind the ingredient curtain is a radical move to make, even as brand transparency has become something most consumers demand. A 2016 study conducted by Label Insight disclosed that a very large 94% of consumers are “likely to be loyal to a brand that offers complete transparency.” Chipotle seems to have taken note.
