Taco Bell CEO inspires franchisees to view mainstream fast food chains as competitors, leading to renewed purpose.
Chipotle's focus on high-quality, fresh ingredients and affordable pricing quickly garners popularity and prompts reevaluation of business plans.
Deep dives
Taco Bell's CEO emphasizes the need to focus on the larger fast food market
In a conference hall, Taco Bell's CEO, John Martin, uses pie symbolism to stress the importance of shifting focus from the Mexican fast food market to the broader fast food industry. He encourages franchisees to view rivals like Hardee's, Burger King, and McDonald's as competitors rather than Del Taco. Martin's dramatic pie smashing moment generates excitement among franchisees and gives them a renewed sense of purpose.
Taco Bell's CEO leads a strategic shift towards the mainstream market
CEO John Martin takes steps to make Taco Bell more mainstream by introducing a Mexican-inspired pizza called Pizzazz Pizza. This new addition aims to make Mexican food more familiar and accessible to American consumers. The value menu is also introduced, offering affordable items at 59 cents each. Taco Bell's commitment to value and quality enables its rapid growth, causing panic in the fast food industry. Competitors like Wendy's and McDonald's scramble to match Taco Bell's prices.
Chipotle founder, Steve Ells, discovers the potential of mission-style burritos
Steve Ells, an aspiring fine dining restaurateur, becomes enamored with the mission-style burritos he discovers in San Francisco's taquerias. He realizes the potential of offering fast food with high-quality, fresh ingredients and decides to open his own burrito restaurant called Chipotle. Despite initial skepticism about the higher price of his $5 burritos, Chipotle quickly gains popularity and sales soar, prompting Ells to reevaluate his plans for a fine dining restaurant.
Taco Bell's struggles with menu diversification and the Chihuahua ad campaign
Taco Bell faces challenges with menu diversification, particularly the introduction of the low-fat Border Lights menu. The complex menu slows down operations and negatively impacts sales. In an attempt to regain attention, Taco Bell launches a popular ad campaign featuring a Chihuahua saying 'Yo Quiero Taco Bell.' However, despite the campaign's success, Taco Bell continues to struggle while Chipotle secures a minority stake investment from McDonald's, positioning it for future growth and competition with Taco Bell.
It's 1984 and Taco Bell CEO John Martin's looking for a fight. The PepsiCo-owned chain might be America's número uno when it comes to Mexican fast-food, but growth is tepid. So Martin's on a mission to convince a skeptical nation to put down their Big Macs and eat tacos and burritos instead.
But even as Taco Bell goes all out to disrupt the fast-food status quo, a young chef with a burrito habit is rustling up a different business recipe that will shake fast-food to its foundations.
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