Burrito, Big Burrito

Imagine building an entire marketing campaign around one signature product. With lines such as "Burrito? or Body pillow?" and "Burrito's so big they should be called Burros" one company has done just that. Created in 1993 Chipotle (pronounced chi-POAT-lay) has grown to more than 500 stores, across the United States.

I had been doing research for a McDonald's project, and remembered that McDonald owned shares in Chipotle, which of course led me over to their site. Once there, their ads called to me. 149 ads using a burrito and a tag line. And no, I don't mean 149 ads showing different types of burritos with glamor shots of the ingredients. I mean 149 ads showing the same simple silver wrapped burrito as above.

The image that comes to my mind is a scene of a conference room with the entire marketing staff sitting around it. In the middle of the table sits the burrito. Then, they are asked to come up with as many tag lines as possible. No idea is pushed out as being horrible. This leads to such great lines as, "Donde esta la casa de big-ass burritos?" and "It's like one of those Freaky dreams where everything is really big." What amazes me about Chipotle is that they are so on target with their target market, the 18-24 year old category.

With everything from t-shirts to a burrito costume contest, Chipotle easily portrays a fun environment with good quality food. Even their website conveys this. When you go to visit the ads area (and I highly suggest you do) their icons fall down like Tetris tiles! So far as I can tell, the smallest detail has not been overlooked. The one bad press thing I've heard about Chipotle is that they are tied to McDonald's.