Chipo­tle, which per­haps ush­ered in the “quick ser­vice” era as it rede­fined what was pos­si­ble with fast food, is one brand with a strong sto­ry that has long embraced mes­sag­ing around “Food with Integri­ty.” Now faced with a cri­sis – one that under­mines its core premise – will Chipotle’s strong brand sto­ry be its sal­va­tion?

Chipotle’s sto­ry high­lights an obses­sion with three com­po­nents: fresh, high-qual­i­ty raw ingre­di­ents, clas­sic cook­ing meth­ods, and dis­tinc­tive atmos­pheres. And the result was an army of rabid fans and an increas­ing­ly com­pet­i­tive land­scape. How­ev­er, well-pub­li­cized E. coli and norovirus out­breaks have put the brand on the defen­sive and, for the first time, this dar­ling of the chain restau­rant com­mu­ni­ty has dis­played con­tri­tion instead of fur­ther mes­sag­ing meant to dis­tance itself from its fast food for­bears, such as The Scare­crow and Unneces-scary.

Anatomy Of A Response

In response to the out­breaks, Chipo­tle closed its 1900 loca­tions for four hours on Feb­ru­ary 8 for a com­pa­ny-wide meet­ing that dis­cussed what it has learned and so it could “[out­line] for [more than 50,000 employ­ees] the steps that have been tak­en out­side the restau­rants to make Chipo­tle ingre­di­ents safer than ever.” That includes a food safe­ty pro­gram with high-res­o­lu­tion DNA-based test­ing of ingre­di­ents, changes to food prep and han­dling prac­tices, enhanced inter­nal train­ing, and paid sick leave. Chipo­tle has also been rel­a­tive­ly trans­par­ent through­out, live tweet­ing the Feb­ru­ary 8 meet­ing with the hash­tag #ChipotleAll­Team, as well as adding details about its new food safe­ty pro­gram on its web­site, along with a let­ter from founder and co-CEO Steve Ells. The brand also attempt­ed to soft­en the restau­rant clo­sure blow by offer­ing free bur­ri­tos “if we messed up your lunch plans [on Feb­ru­ary 8].” And like Sub­way in the wake of its Jared Fogle cri­sis, time will tell if the out­breaks do any long-term dam­age to the Chipo­tle brand.

What About Chipotle’s Super Fans?

Chipotle’s his­toric appeal, how­ev­er, was not just bur­ri­tos. Like Toms Shoes and War­by Park­er, there’s an ele­ment of social good – in which ingre­di­ents “are sus­tain­ably grown and raised respon­si­bly with respect for the ani­mals, the land, and the farm­ers who pro­duce the food” – which has giv­en Chipo­tle a key com­pet­i­tive advan­tage to date and fueled brand love, includ­ing cus­tomers who have gone as far as incor­po­rat­ing Chipo­tle into their wed­dings. Will this remain the case if it turns out Food with Integri­ty had an aster­isk?

Other Brands Just Aren’t in the Same League

In the mean­time, com­peti­tors like Qdo­ba and Moe’s South­west Grill smelled blood and were quick to try to cap­i­tal­ize. How­ev­er, their eager­ness to dog pile is also per­haps a tes­ta­ment to Chipotle’s pow­er, which is intrin­si­cal­ly linked to its brand sto­ry.

Hunger does­n’t accept rain checks. ☀️ pic.twitter.com/RUeZOJXdX2

— Qdo­ba (@qdoba) Feb­ru­ary 8, 2016

Today’s gonna be crazy, but we’ve pre­pared like a champ. #Wel­come­To­Moes https://t.co/OkwIIoqqgK — Moe’s­South­west­Grill (@Moes_HQ) Feb­ru­ary 8, 2016

Nei­ther Qdo­ba nor Moe’s can real­ly com­pete sto­ry-wise. To wit: Per Qdo­ba, a whol­ly owned Jack in the Box sub­sidiary, its brand is about “[liv­ing] a more fla­vor­ful life” in which “guests and team mem­bers alike are encour­aged to cel­e­brate indi­vid­u­al­i­ty, break down the walls of con­ven­tion, and bold­ly craft a meal that’s packed full of fla­vors.” For its part, Moe’s calls itself “a fun and engag­ing fast-casu­al restau­rant fran­chise serv­ing a wide vari­ety of fresh, made-to-order South­west fare in a wel­com­ing envi­ron­ment that rocks,” which includes “fun, pop-cul­ture inspired names” for menu items and a cul­ture that wel­comes all “except, of course, fugi­tives.”

Where Does This Leave Chipotle?

Reac­tion among rep­u­ta­tion and brand­ing experts is mixed. Online rep­u­ta­tion man­age­ment con­sul­tant Andy Beal said if the out­breaks had been iso­lat­ed inci­dents, Chipo­tle could have relied on its integri­ty sto­ry to see it through. “Unfor­tu­nate­ly, the out­breaks were wide­spread and per­sis­tent and now with the alleged sex­u­al dis­crim­i­na­tion, Chipotle’s brand sto­ry has been tar­nished,” Beal said. “To win back cus­tomers, Chipo­tle will have to adjust its sto­ry because con­tin­u­ing to focus on integri­ty is not going to con­vince cus­tomers that health and hygiene are top pri­or­i­ties. I sus­pect we’ll see a more hum­ble mes­sage from Chipo­tle over the com­ing months.” Digital/mobile cre­ative direc­tor and con­sul­tant Tom Eslinger, how­ev­er, said the heal­ing pow­er of a brand sto­ry depends on the con­tro­ver­sy in ques­tion and, in this case, “I think their pos­i­tive posi­tion on food, grow­ing and nat­ur­al foods would be an asset.” Fur­ther, Eslinger not­ed, “A brand that can make a point based on their val­ues is at least on the right track. If there were anti-gay slurs a la Chick-fil‑A at a cor­po­rate lev­el, it would be a dif­fer­ent sto­ry.” In addi­tion, Kris­ten Nozell, brand strate­gist at mar­ket­ing agency Red Peak Brand­ing, not­ed every brand faces bumps in the road, which can ulti­mate­ly be oppor­tu­ni­ties to strength­en sto­ries and com­mit­ments in the eyes of con­sumers. “Even in the midst of this cri­sis, Chipo­tle is get­ting some cred­it for address­ing the issue quick­ly and direct­ly and redou­bling its efforts to live up to its brand promise,” she added. Jamie Rodriguez, part­ner at dig­i­tal cre­ative adver­tis­ing agency Tilt­ed Chair Cre­ative, agrees a strong brand sto­ry is the company’s best mar­ket­ing asset, but he doesn’t see piv­ots in Chipotle’s future. “They’ve invest­ed over 20 years in defin­ing them­selves as inno­v­a­tive and con­sci­en­tious – two attrib­ut­es they will now rely heav­i­ly upon to help turn the ship around,” he said. “It will take time and action, but Chipo­tle will sur­vive, large­ly on the mer­its of the brand that it has worked so hard to cre­ate.” Fur­ther, Rodriguez not­ed the over­ar­ch­ing les­son for brands is to have a pur­pose, to live it and to stick to it. “Chipotle’s pur­pose is to change the way the world eats. One of my favorite Gand­hi quotes seems appro­pri­ate here: ‘Action express­es pri­or­i­ties,’” he said. “It’s real­ly a life quote, but it’s applic­a­ble to brand sto­ries as well. ‘Pri­or­i­ties’ are a brand’s pur­pose – its sto­ry. And the deci­sions those brands make express the authen­tic­i­ty of that purpose…Is Chipo­tle chang­ing the way the world eats? I would argue the answer is, ‘Yes,’ and so they tick all three of the afore­men­tioned brand sto­ry box­es: they’re unique, authen­tic and relat­able. A+ on sto­ry.”