Chipotle Competitive Asstment Essay

As a pioneer in fast-casual Mexican food, Chipotle has played an important role in developing this category. Currently, Chipotle’s direct competitors include Taco Bell, Qdoba Mexican Grill, Moe’s Southwest Grill, so on. Their competition also includes a variety of locally owned and franchised restaurants. Many of Chipotle’s competitors have more financial resources, greater name recognition, or are better established in the markets in which their restaurants are located. However, Chipotle has their competitive strength due to their upscale menu selections and especially higher – quality ingredients. They use a variety of fresh ingredients, as well as their commitment to â€Å"Food with Integrity†. Chipotle can utilize their relationships with local farmers to create a stronger marketing message and differentiate themselves relative to competitors by focusing on their locally farmed, free range, antibiotic and hormone free meat. (Chen b? ng) From the table of Competitive Strength Assessments of 4 restaurants, it can be seen that Chipotle Mexican Grill still has net competitive strength over Moe’s Southwest Grill (0. 4) and Qdoba Mexican Grill (0. 2). Only Taco Bell has the same overall competitive strength rating as Chipotle. Therefore, of 3 competitors, Taco Bell seems to have the strongest set of resource strengths and competitive capabilities and is most likely to achieve the best financial performance. It is recognized as of the best Mexican fast food chains in the United States of America with a specialized quick service approach. It had a total of 1,201 company-owned and 4,029 franchised restaurant locations in the United States, plus another 3 company-owned and 237 franchised international locations in 2012. Besides that, the change in the management and organizational structure trickled prosperity in Taco bell’s overall set up. However, Taco Bell, their rival, was scored the lowest in food quality and atmosphere among limited-service Mexican eateries by Nation’s Restaurant News and consultant WD Partners in September 2011. Therefore, Chipotle have a good enough strategy and adequate resource strengths and competitive capabilities to compete effectively against Taco Bell if they try their best to upscale menu selections, service atmosphere and especially keep their commitment to â€Å"Food with Integrity†