Burritos Beyond Borders - Global Marketing Professor

Chipotle’s reach may seem ubiquitous to those living in the American Southwest. Their no-nonsense cafeteria style Mexican cuisine has become a major hit, achieving $9.9 billion in revenue in 2023. Though popular here in the States, Chipotle has struggled to gain traction in international markets. Their international portfolio contains only 39 locations in Canada, 15 in the United Kingdom, 6 in France, and 2 in Germany. This is compared to 3200 locations in the US [1].

Global market intelligence is a major issue facing companies like Chipotle. How to collect and process accurate data on its consumers and their preferences is not as straightforward as it may initially seem. By and large, Chipotle is not transparent with the methods by which it conducts market research both abroad or even internally on its core customer base. That being said, we can make some generalizations based on what past data collection efforts we can see.

But before Chipotle collects data, what is it looking for? The data the company collects in its raw form is called primary data. Broadly, it’s any data that is readily available without much research effort. For instance, think about data points like how often customers choose avocado despite it being an extra charge, overall sales figures, traffic to each restaurant, or peak hours. Using this information combined with previous quarterly data, the company can make assumptions about future performance. What is more difficult for us to ascertain about Chipotle is their secondary data, or data which has been processed into a more usable form. Think back to your statistics class, running regressions and identifying patterns in the data would both be classified as secondary data. Chipotle doesn’t publish how it does this.

So anyways, how does Chipotle get to know you? Chipotle launched its loyalty program in March 2019, collecting every bit of info on us as possible. Within the exclusive club (just kidding, anyone can join), members can order ahead, see store hours, and earn points over time for free meals. Additionally, it is a space through which the company offers surveys to customers in exchange for coupons and discounts.

“In an environment full of pricey subscription programs, we’re introducing a pass to our real food that is free to join and will provide more value to our community than ever before,” said Chris Brandt, Chief Marketing Officer. “‘Freepotle’ makes Chipotle Rewards a must-join program for all Chipotle fans in 2023.”
https://www.nrn.com/marketing/chipotle-adds-free-food-incentives-its-loyalty-program

Chipotle to open restaurants in the Middle East in partnership with Alshaya Group

Using the information gathered from the app and pilots, Chipotle leadership has recently entered an agreement with Alshaya Group, an international franchise retail operator to open locations in Dubai and Kuwait [2]. This group has other companies on their books, like Starbucks and even American Eagle. Rather than enter a foreign market essentially blind, Alshaya’s existing marketing expertise will allow Chipotle to adapt quicker and more easily to the palates of local Middle Eastern diners. After all, we don’t know what they want in their Mexican food and neither would Chipotle, other than some surface-level religious food restraints. We know as a fact research like this influenced the decision to limit spice in UK dishes, and rename their cilantro-lime rice to coriander-lime rice [6].

Ultimately, global market intelligence is the force by which Chipotle and all other international restaurants gauge performance and make macro decisions like what to serve, where, and to whom. Centralization and processing of vast amounts of user data is the driving factor behind corporate international expansion, and Chipotle is no exception. We should expect to see the rise and fall of many fast-casual restaurants abroad in our lifetime, and if there’s one unifying factor, somebody crunched the data. I’m sure it’s a loud, tortilla chip crunch, too.

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