Advertising has always been the immediate solution to slumping sales, but nowadays businesses are finding newer, better, and cheaper ways to get noticed and build their image. Chipotle restaurants, you may have heard of them, is a chain specializing in burritos. Currently, they are one of the hottest proprieties in the quick serve biz. Their stock has tripled since January of 06 and they rank 4th out of 2400 among quick serve brands. And they have built this up by spending less money in a year in advertising than McDonalds does in 48 hours. How do they do it? Chipotle got their start through buzz marketing and they have stuck to it. For example, Chipotle came to midtown Manhattan last July and gave free burritos away to 6,000 people, some of whom stood in line for two hours. "The stunt cost $35,000, figures James W. Adams, Chipotle's marketing director. In return, the company landed 6,000 new spokespeople. "You could spend that same amount on an ad in The New York Times and you wouldn't have that many people talking about you," Adams points out. "The response to the food is almost always positive. It's unique and it's tasty." But don't just take it from him; any Chipotle regular would probably say the same thing" You can read the full article here.
