Chipotle Mexican Grill
I worked for Chipotle for close to ten years, first as a marketing consultant and then full time for eight years. I was the first marketing person and helped build the brand from the fourth restaurant to just under 500, expanding to over 35 markets around the country. In the Early Days, nobody knew […]
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ADVERTISING, BRANDING, CULTURE, DESIGN, DIGITAL, GRASSROOTS
I worked for Chipotle for close to ten years, first as a marketing consultant and then full time for eight years. I was the first marketing person and helped build the brand from the fourth restaurant to just under 500, expanding to over 35 markets around the country.
In the Early Days, nobody knew what a gourmet burrito was, nor a Fast Casual restaurant — we’d open in Dallas and people would call up to make reservations. So we had to not only build the brand, but introduce a new type of gourmet food and a brand new restaurant category.
We built the brand ourselves, with very little advertising dollars, no agencies, using our “food as our currency” by getting burritos into the mouths of people all over the country. We also built one of the best corporate cultures I’ve ever seen, that is what really drove Chipotle’s early success. Lots of fun, smart and like-minded people who were out to prove that a chain restaurant good be good… and do good. As we got better, we decided to know more about our food, how it was grown and what made it taste better. That’s how I came about writing Chipotle’s Food With Integrity Manifesto. It changed the restaurant world.