Chipotle Mexican Grill: Lululemon Athletica

There are quite a few chief differences between Chipotle’s strategy and the strategy being employed at Moe’s South West Grill’s. The biggest and most noticeable difference is Chipotle’s has company-owned restaurants only whereas Moe’s Southwest grill has franchised restaurants only. While Chipotle’s strategy is more oriented on a focused differentiation Moe’s strategy focuses on a broad differentiation of its menu. For example, the menu at Moe’s features meals such as quesadillas, tacos, burrito bowls, burritos, salads and nachos. Customers can customize main dishes with more than 20 items. Furthermore, Moe’s also offers a kid’s and vegetarian menu as well as two

The brand discussed in this report is Lululemon Athletica Inc. The brand is an athletic apparel retailer, whose main objective is building a community with a healthy lifestyle. Lululemon’s target market is middle/upper class 30-year-old woman. The brand is positioned as a premium high fashion brand for the athletic community. Some of Lululemon’s main competitors include Nike, Under Armour and Gap.

Finally, Lululemon’s founder, Chip Wilson, made a publicly offensive suggestion, that some women’s bodies were not made to wear his yoga pants. “The problem was that the yoga-apparel company has been having with its pants on the size of women 's thighs” (EBSCO, Nov 14, 2013). After making those comments discourage plus size customers were embarrassed and felt like they don’t want to shop at the store anymore. Some women blamed CEO for making products that don’t last long. One of the examples from Financial Post. However, despite the unfortunate occurrences last year Lululemon is in a very healthy position in the Canadian and US markets. In addition to that, Lululemon’s baggiest competitor is now Sears Canada. Sears became a new stop for consumers who want high-quality and affordable yoga gear. “The struggling department store chain says its Pure Energy Athletics line of yoga clothes has been a hit with customers since they were introduced in February. The chain says it sells yoga pants for $14.99 or $29.99 — a steal compared to similar clothing from other retailers, like Lululemon Athletica” (Edmonton Journal, May 21, 2014). However, Lululemon has a tremendous

Chipotle Mexican Grill is a fast casual Mexican Restaurant that operates from the United States. Although the restaurant is specifically segmented to the fast casual Mexican restaurant market, it does not simply operate in this realm. Chipotle is also successful operating in the restaurant market as well. According to the Trefis Team (2014) Chipotle Mexican Grill has managed to take market share from restaurants in the fast food industry.

The rivalry among existing competitors is strong. It is becoming increasingly harder to develop new and unique products based solely around a small niche activity. There are only so many aspects of yoga that can be explored and that products can be developed to accompany. Although Lululemon was the first, new competitors are seeing the profit to be had in this niche market and are entering with the goal of creating new more creative strategies to compete with Lululemon and take part of their large market share. (Morning Star)

The Fast food industry is extremely competitive. Although Chipotle is a step up from most fast food restaurants, it still must

Lululemon Athletica Inc., founded in 1998 in Vancouver by Chip Wilson, is a company which designs and produces high-end yoga and technical athletic clothing. They have operated primarily in North America and Australia; their initial target customer was an educated woman who lives an active and healthy lifestyle. They opened their first store in Kitsilano in BC in November, 2000. The first store was intended to act as a community hub where people could learn and discuss about the physical aspects and mental aspects of a healthy life, in addition to selling yoga clothing.

Lululemon, a yoga-inspired athletic apparel company for women and men was founded by Chip Wilson in Vancouver, Canada in 1998. What began as a design studio by day and a yoga studio by night, became an independent store in November 2000 (Lululemon Athletica, 2017).

Lululemon is a rapidly growing company with a different niche for its products. Its philosophy as well as their business model has allowed them to increase revenue over the past years. The dilemma they faced is how to continue expanding without losing their special niche, grassroots and a nontraditional feel of the brand that sets them apart from their competitors.

Chipotle has opened their stores in few countries such as the UK, the US, Canada, Germany and France. It is now time for the corporation to follow the lead from other companies like Yum. Brands such as KFC and Taco Bell as well as McDonalds expand their footprint in the Asian market like Japan. For example, Chipotle operates less than 2,000 restaurants in only 5 countries, while McDonalds operates more than 35,000 restaurants in 119 countries, and Taco Bell, another Mexican restaurant, operates 6,500 restaurants in 20 countries which shows that the Chipotle could do better if it expands its business.

Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. is a “fast-food service restaurant” under limited service category. It was formed in 1993 and went public in 2006. It has the largest market share in the Mexican-type food segment with a net income of more than

Instead of conducting traditional marketing which has huge marketing budgets, Lululemon heavily relays on word of mouth. Moreover, the grassroots branding strategy make them differentiated from their competitors. Lululemon providing free class and made instructors be their models which become a very successful way to promote their products.

They approach community yoga teachers to wear their products so they can test it and recommend it to their students. Besides this, they give them free items and opportunities to deepen their relationships with them. On the whole, being able to focus on one aspect alone helps lululemon to make them standout among the pool of competitors accompanied by their community based strategy.

One of the reasons that Chipotle has been so successful is because of its management style. The company has set up an adaptive culture that allows employees, managers, and customers to thrive. Managers appreciate people and the new

Chipotle has recently approved the project for a new product expansion. The products that will be now offered will be red chile and green chile. This project was approved for many reasons. The project will help boost Chipotle’s sales overall. It will also add more menu items to Chipotle’s current offerings. Chipotle can capitalize and eventually also add more locations pending project success. There are so many more benefits from product expansion than risk. This definitely makes the project more feasible. I am confident that this new product expansion will bring favorable results. It will result as the stepping stone to more successful product launches.