Here’s Chipotle’s $62 Million Plan To Convince America That Their Burritos Won’t Accidentally Kill You

Following Chipotle’s epic health scare, the restaurant witnessed a significant drop in sales. While restaurant executives have worked hard to repair Chipotle’s image, they have another strategy in mind that will hopefully convince everyone that their burritos are safe. Will their plan work?

According to CNBC, Chipotle Mexican Grill is planning on giving away around nine million burritos in the coming weeks in order to win back support. So far, Chipotle has won back around a third of its sales numbers following the food safety concerns and plans on continuing its giveaways to recover even more.

As part of their grand scheme, Chipotle will mail some 21 million coupons for free burritos to its customers in the U.S. The company estimates that around five million of those customers will eventually redeem those coupons, but there is always a potential for more or less. This campaign is targeting Chipotle’s most loyal customers, many of whom have not returned after the health scare.

Meanwhile, the restaurant officially closed its doors back in early February and participated in a town hall-style meeting. During the meeting, company executives took in some 5.3 million requests for free burritos. Around 67 percent of these requests were actually redeemed.

In total, the free burrito campaign will cost the company around $62 million if the redemption estimates are correct. While the company believes that its free burrito giveaway is going to pay off, sales are still much lower than they were in 2015.

That being said, NBC News is reporting that Chipotle did see a short spike in sales that were under $4. However, sales dropped again after the first phase of the free burrito strategy ended. Despite the low numbers, Joe Fersedi, a research analyst for ITG Investment, is optimistic that sales will bounce back as long as Chipotle ups its promotional game.

“We have to wait to see if management turns on the ‘promotion spigot’ again,” he told the outlet. “Sales are still down quite a bit, but they’ve improved meaningfully.”

It’s too early to tell if Chipotle’s strategy will work in the long run. While the verdict is still out on whether or not regular customers will feel safe enough to return to the restaurant, the company’s plan does appeal to its most loyal of customers.

In fact, Tushar Parashar, Vivaldi Partners Group’s marketing strategist, believes that loyal customers will gladly return for a free burrito. Furthermore, there is a good chance that these people will also inform their friends of their experience, who will then be influenced to return as well.

However, Parashar did express some concern over Chipotle’s public image and whether or not the ordinary person will overlook its association with poor food health and hygiene.

“People who are seriously loyal are easy to win over,” he explained in the interview. “A free burrito is not enough to get you to come back.”

Chipotle considers anyone who visits their restaurant a minimum of 25 times per year a loyal customer. These loyal customers have a major impact on Chipotle’s sales and make up some 20 percent of total sales per year. If Chipotle can win back these people, then it will definitely be on the right track in repairing its public image.

At this point, only time will tell if Chipotle can recover from its past health problems. According to Ashley McCown, a communications expert and the president of Solomon McCown & Co., time is the important factor in Chipotle’s recovery.

“Chipotle needs months and months of clean bills of health before they put this in their rear view mirror,” she stated.

Tell us! Are you back to enjoying your Chipotle burritos on a regular basis? Let us know in the comments below.

[Image via Chipotle]