Chipotle grabbed the attention of viewers during the 54th Grammy Awards this year with their thought-provoking animated commercial. The 2 minute long spot was Chipotle’s first National TV Commercial and perpetuated the company’s “Food with Integrity” position.
The commercial told the story of a farmer who turns to factory and processed farming, but eventually returns to more natural and humane farming methods after envisioning the frightening future of industrialized farming. The Coldplay song “The Scientist,” sung by Willie Nelson, played in the background and ironically enough, most people are commenting that the song even overshadowed Coldplay’s performance at the Grammy’s that same night.
The New York Times reports that the ad was the result of trying to get more consumers emotionally involved with the brand after extensive research showed that most patrons hardly differentiate Chipotle from any other fast food restaurants. The chain’s natural food approach has become their top selling point, and they saw a big need to push their message to the masses, even though the company tends to stay away from traditional advertising methods.
Overall, the commercial comes off upbeat and even tugs on the heart strings a bit all while telling a pretty dark truth of the industry. Do you think Chipotle got their message across? Telling from the current outpour of praise and attention, I would say they certainly did.
Recently there has been a lot of buzz around location-based marketing initiatives, such as Foursquare. These consumer-popular applications allows users to "check-in" at venues or retailers and share their current location with their social networks. In return, these apps give retailers insight into who is visiting their location and when. Marketers also gain access to communicate directly to consumers at their point of purchase.
An article in the October edition of Shopper Marketing Magazine highlights this recent shopper technology trend and its evolution into a new service called geo-fencing. According to the article, "a geo-fence is a virtual perimeter around a real-world area. When people enter that area, their mobile device alerts an app or a service that triggers the delivery of a message" to those who have opted-in.
The outdoor outfitter company, The North Face, has been one of the first companies to test out the budding technology. The North Face used geo-fencing to send tailored messages to consumers when they enter into targeted areas such as hiking trails, sporting events and local retailers. The North Face is using the technology to alert subscribers to local offers, closest retail locations and suggestions for useful gear when they are in the ideal shopper mindset.
Geo-fencing is still a developing technology with a great deal of potential for future customizations that can fit the needs of any brand. Geo-fencing seems to be a great new addition to the ever-growing list of ways marketers are able to influence the shopping experience by reaching their target audiences with the right message, at the right time and in the right place.
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