Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

What's a little e coli among friends? That's the question US fast-casual dining chain Chipotle will soon be asking its best customers. After publicly eschewing the idea of launching a customer loyalty programme last year, Chipotle executives said on an earnings call last week that they aim to stem the flood of frequent diners abandoning the chain with - wait for it - a loyalty programme. Though the programme is likely to be temporary, Chipotle hopes it will reignite customer passion for bowls and burritos. The problem: Chipotle executives still seem to display a fundamental misunderstanding of the purpose of loyalty programmes.

The announcement was one of the only positives in an earnings call that can only be described as apocalyptic: same store sales fell nearly 30% in the first quarter of 2016 and the company posted a net loss of $26.4 million. The company has tried everything to pull out of the free fall: giving away millions of free burritos, BOGO offers, national advertising campaigns; nothing has worked. Money quote from reporter Virginia Chamlee over at eater.com:

"The aim is to target the most loyal Chipotle consumer — i.e. the one who visits 25 or more times per year. The company saw the largest declines among its top loyal (25+ visits a year) and its 'light' consumers (those that visit two to five times per year). Noting the decline in visits amongst its once most-loyal customers, [Chief Marketing and Development Officer Mark] Crumpacker said the company would love to get that 'habit' back up. "We do believe it's beneficial to us to get people back in the habit of visiting Chipotle [as often as they used to]."...

While shipworkers in Mobile, Ala., are busy scrubbing and sanitizing the ill-fated Carnival Triumph, it seems cruise passengers are cleaning up with big discounts...

Subsequent problems with the Carnival Dream and Carnival Legend, however, put the company back in the spotlight — the Dream cut short a cruise in March while the Legend had to skip a port call — and a soon-to-end sale was extended for another week.

“The word I would use is ‘desperate,’” said Jay Caulk, general manager of The Travel Experts in Pompano Beach, Fla. “They have a lot to do to get rid of the black eye.”

That’s not the reason for the discounts, says Carnival spokesman Vance Gulliksen: “These prices apply to just a handful of close-in sailings,” he told NBC News. “We’re trying to top off the voyages.”...