Chipotle has recently announced a new summer-long loyalty-like program to lure back some of those guests who were scared away by the troubles the company has recently faced. I label this loyalty-like because it’s more of a short-term promotion rather than the long-term strategy that loyalty marketing represents. It’s tough to make significant short-term progress with a loyalty program because by nature those who will get on board first are typically a brand’s best and most frequent guests. So short-term efforts at loyalty can become break-even at best and quite possible negative, with many visit unnecessarily discounted.
This Chipotle Chiptopia program goes live on July 1, 2016 and runs through the end of September. On the one hand, Chipotle has attempted to create a program that aims specifically at the creation of incremental visits. However, the program they have created is complicated. I often say that a loyalty program has to be simple enough for a server to explain in one, maybe two sentences.
Here is the graphic they’re using to explain the program:
It’s takes some work to figure this thing out. I think plenty of guests will join and figure “why not?” Those who really try to figure this out are likely to be who? Those who really like Chipotle and already visit Chipotle a lot.
If you don’t want to study the graphic you can watch a video about the program:
Chiptopia Summer Rewards Program from Chipotle Mexican Grill on Vimeo.