Marketing Shenanigans (#015)

Chipotle has a strategy for turning mistakes into opportunities to upsell you—and it’s genius.

Imagine this: You place an online order at Chipotle. You’re excited, but when your food arrives... it’s a letdown. Maybe the portions are off, or the guac looks sad. Frustrated, you decide to complain.

Enter Chipotle’s AI bot, Pepper.

Pepper handles your complaint like a pro:

• You get a refund.

• You also get three free coupons for:

  🥤 A free drink.

  🥑 Free guac.

  🧀 Free queso.

At first glance, it seems like stellar customer service. But dig a little deeper, and you’ll see it’s actually a brilliant upsell strategy.

Here’s Why It Works

1️⃣ It builds trust. By owning up to the mistake and making it right, Chipotle strengthens your loyalty.

2️⃣ The cost is low. Guac, queso, and drinks cost them very little to make, but they feel valuable to you.

3️⃣ It encourages future purchases. When you use a coupon, you’re likely to buy more items alongside your freebie.

But the real genius lies in the data.

Whichever coupon you use first tells Chipotle something valuable about you:

• If you redeem the free guac coupon, they know you value guac the most.

  Think about it this way - If you don’t come back for a while, sending you another guac offer will likely bring you back.

It’s not just about fixing mistakes—it’s about learning from them. Chipotle collects insights from your behavior and uses it to refine how they market to you in the future.

The Takeaway

Chipotle has found a way to turn a negative experience into a win for both you and their bottom line:

• You feel valued because you got free stuff.

• They gain insights into your preferences and another opportunity to sell to you.

The big question: How can your brand do the same?

When things go wrong, don’t just solve the problem—turn it into a chance to:

• Build trust.

• Create loyalty.

• Collect data to serve your customers better.

Conclusion: Mistakes don’t have to be roadblocks. They can be opportunities. Chipotle turned a disappointing order into a data goldmine. Next time your brand faces an issue, think beyond damage control—think strategy.

Teddy Giard

In case you don’t already know, my name is Teddy, and I operate a firm that specializes in marketing strategies for outdoor brands. Our approach is simple: align your product development timeline with your marketing production timeline; by doing so, we can own the distribution of our message and our products.

If you’d like to explore working together, feel free to fill out this form, and if we’re a good fit, we can schedule a discovery call. We ask this because we keep a fairly narrow target for whom we work, and we like to be as open about that on the front end as possible. After all, time is life’s most valuable resource.