4 A Marketer’s Dilemma
In the cutthroat fast-food industry, Chipotle has differentiated itself by rejecting the traditional tactics of its rivals. Along with investing heavily in the freshness of its ingredients, the company avoided pandering to its audience with limited-time stunts like the McRib or KFC’s chicken-encased Double Down sandwich. Other chains peddle Happy Meals and PlayPlaces, dollar menus, and blockbuster-movie tie-ins. Chipotle never even gave in to number-coded meal items (“I’ll have the No. 3, please”).
The mastermind behind all this was Chipotle’s chief marketing officer, Mark Crumpacker, yet another college friend of Ells’s. Crumpacker, who ran a branding agency before joining Chipotle in 2009, was careful not to let these types of gimmicky initiatives drive the company’s direction and identity. “It’s the crack of marketing,” he told Fast Company in 2012. “Once you’re on it, it’s really, really hard to
