Target Market and Competitive: Chipotle - Essay Example

Competitive Advantage Analysis Competitive Advantage Analysis Chiptole Mexican Grill, Inc (CMG) was founded by Steve Ells in the year 1993. The founder is a graduate from the Culinary Institute of America. CMG’s menu comprises of tacos, salads, burritos and burrito bowls. One of the competitive advantages of the restaurant is that the menu is simple and leads to no complications. The restaurant does not offer an extensive range of diverse dishes. Nevertheless, the company offers its customers a facility to create and customize every dish as per the individual’s preference. The mission statement of CMG is, “Food with integrity is our commitment to finding the very best ingredients raised with respect for the animals, the environment, and the farmers.” From the statement, it is clearly evident that the restaurant has ethical practices in line with the mission’s description. The main goal of the restaurant is to provide customers with high quality food associated with a high level of integrity. In fact, the food provided by the restaurant has a reliable source and preparation of the food is carried out with a lot of dedication, integrity and care. Therefore, the high quality service availed by the company is an added advantage because it is tricky to identify the food source people utilize every day (Halverson). Identification of the target markets The target market of Chiptole restaurant is adults aged from 18 years to 24 years old. The targeted customers comprise of high school and college educated persons. The restaurant targets all the people who value freshness in foods such as organic, natural and homemade foods. The income brackets of the target market ranges between $10, 000 to $60,000. 82 percent of the target market is Caucasian and 69 percent do not have children. The target market comprises of individuals who are image conscious, tech shrewdness, love an active lifestyle, financially unfocused and environmentally conscious. The targeted consumers add value to the firm because most of them respond quickly to the products offered by the restaurant. The Values of the target Market Chiptole’s customers are persons who love cooking their foods and others consider cooking as a hobby or a passion. In addition, some of the customers have an interest in issues to do with food network. Overall, the target market is all those people who value freshness in foods, and in their shopping behavior, they value anything fresh. It is evident that the consumer behavior of the target market adds value to the mission of Chiptole restaurant because the main goal of the restaurant is to provide high quality foods to the customers. Nevertheless, the firm uses fresh ingredients in makings its foods and this indicates that it can meet the needs of the target market. The following spider diagram shows the characteristics of the target market of Chiptole’s restaurants. Competitor Analysis in Restaurant Industry The current business environment is extremely dynamic and keeps on changing now and then due to high levels of innovation, technology advancement and many other factors causing competition in every type of business. Most restaurants operate either as a company or as a franchise. However, competition comes in as a result of diversity in business operations of a firm and the management (Traill & Pitts, 1998). CMG faces stiff competition in the food industry and one of the competitors is McDonald’s Restaurants. McDonalds Corporation franchises and carries out operation of the McDonald’s restaurant. The Macdonald’s restaurants serve a wide range menu at various price points and carries out operations in more than a one hundred countries (Gilbert, 2009). However, in this assignment the main focus is on the McDonald’s restaurant in Stonetown. Despite the fact that there are many competitors in the restaurant industry, Chiptole continues to perform better than McDonald’s. The company’s products offer different sizes, a brand image, freshness and make it to cope up with the risks prevailing in the market. The firm utilizes cheap but effective methods of advertising such as simple and humorous print advertisements. The methods used in advertising the company focus on portraying a high quality of ingredients used in preparation of the dishes. The ingredients are natural comprise of naturally raised meats (Parrish, 2007In fact, Chiptole acquires its ingredients from approved farmers. Chipotle applies improved and advanced techniques in food preparation and cooking maintain health safety. The restaurant offers its customers with a fine and clean dining environment. Freshness of the ingredients of the foods in the restaurant creates a competitive advantage. Customers acquire high quality fresh foods at sensible and affordable prices as compared to other restaurants whose prices are extremely high for one to afford. As compared to CMG, Macdonald’s restaurants offer a very complex menu and most of the items listed on the menu are tough to prepare. The complexity is one of the reasons Chiptole is doing better than MacDonald’s. The menu comprises of 145 items and the item heavy menu diminishes the value of new products entry because they get lost in the other many items offered. Menu complexity has given Chiptole a chance to perform ahead of MacDonald’s because the latter offers a simple menu. Chiptole is flexible enough and allows the customers to customize their preference foods on the menu and that is done on the spot. The flexibility implies that Chiptole has the ability to develop new foods upon the requests of the consumers. On the other hand, MacDonald’s experiences a tough time to come up with a new product probably because the restaurant offers a flood of items in the menu (Porter, 1998). Health and safety is vital segment in the restaurant industry. The two factors lead to a good or bad reputation. The healthy aspect of the foods starts ranges from the raw materials to the activities involved in food preparation. For example, Chiptole uses organic raw foods to prepare its meals implying that the foods contain a healthy content. Unlike Chiptole, MacDonald’s reputation in the healthy aspect of the foods suffers lots of criticism because the firm is not dedicated to acquire its foods from farmers with an established good reputation. In other words, the customers are not sure of the freshness of the products used. Chiptole works hand in hand with the suppliers and farmers to ensure that the quality of the raw foods is high. Definitely, healthy foods start from the quality of raw foods. Cooperating with the suppliers and farmers is a good strategy to monitor and maintain the quality of the ingredients. In fact, the suppliers are encouraged to get their supplies from the Chiptole’s recommended farmers. Therefore, Chiptole have a clear understanding of the value of the raw foods supply and at the same time, consumers familiar with the suppliers and farmers that Chiptole collects its raw materials understand the quality of foods offered by Chiptole. Definitely, Chiptole restaurant has an added competitive advantage in terms of offering healthy and safe foods for the consumers (Halverson, 2003). In conclusion, Chiptole understands its target market and does all necessary to meet the needs of the consumers. Simplicity in menu, freshness in the ingredients, advanced technology, healthy aspect in foods, and high quality foods, make up all the aspects keeping the restaurant in the forefront in the market of food and restaurant industry (Parrish, 2007). In addition, use of cheap indoor advertisement has helped the firm reduce its costs of operations and helped the firm reach the right target consumers. Collaborating with farmers and suppliers has helped in maintaining high quality and healthy foods in the restaurant. References Create competitive advantage with innovation. (2011). Upper Saddle River, N.J: FTPress Delivers Gilbert, S. (2009). The story of McDonalds. Mankato, MN: Creative Education Halverson, D. (2003). Chipotle Mexican Grill lakes Humane Standards to the Mass Marketplace. Animal welfare Institute Quarterly, Spring. Lamb, C. W., Hair, J. F., & McDaniel, C. D. (2003). Essentials of marketing. Mason, Ohio: South-Western, Thomson Learning. Paiz, E., Anderson, D., Barone, R., Bollinger, B., Calderon, K., Lin, F., & Toguchi, M. (2011). Analysis of Strategic move by Chipotle. München: GRIN Verlag GmbH. Parrish, M. (2007). Fresh and fast Chipotle Mexican Grill chain sets an example by buying meat and produce from family farms. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, E1. Phillips, J., & Gully, S. M. (2012). Organizational behavior: Tools for success. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning. Porter, M. E. (1998). Competitive advantage: Creating and sustaining superior performance. New York: Free. Ragas, M. W., & Roberts, M. S. (2009). Communicating corporate social responsibility and brand sincerity: A case study of Chipotle Mexican Grills ‘Food with integrity’program. International Journal of Strategic Communication,3(4), 264-280. Traill, B., & Pitts, E. (1998). Competitiveness in the food industry. New York: Blackie Academic & Professional. Read More