The rise of digital media gives marketers a host of new ways to interact with consumers and customers. We can group communication options into three categories. Paid media include TV, magazine and display ads, paid search, and sponsorships, all of which allow marketers to show their ad or brand for a fee. Owned media are communication channels marketers actually own, like a company or brand brochure, Web site, blog, Facebook page, or Twitter account.
Earned media are streams in which consumers, the press, or other outsiders voluntarily communicate something about the brand via word of mouth, buzz, or viral marketing methods. The emergence of earned media has allowed some companies, such as Chipotle, to reduce paid media expenditures.
One of the fastest-growing restaurant chains over the last decade, Chipotle is committed to fresh food. The company supports family farms and sources sustainable ingredients from local growers who behave responsibly toward animals and the environment. It has over 1,600 stores and over 1.7 million social media fans–yet spends next to nothing on traditional paid media. Instead Chipotle engages customers through Facebook, Twitter, and other social media via its grassroots “Food With Integrity” digital strategy which puts the focus on what it sells and where it comes from. As CMO Mark Crumpacker notes, “Typically, fast-food marketing is a game of trying to obscure the truth. The more people know about most fast-food companies, the less likely they’d want to be a customer.” YouTube videos with country legend Willie Nelson and indie rocker Karen O from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs musically made Chipotle’s case against processed foods and the industrialization of family farms.
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