Social Data Show No Signs Of Recovery For Chipotle

According to the latest data from TickerTags, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE: CMG) hasn’t made much progress in restoring its tarnished reputation.

TickerTags monitors social media sites to identify trends by searching for words or phrases that appear together in social media content, such as tweets.

When it comes to social media engagement, Chipotle still remains well below the level it had achieved prior to last year’s E. coli outbreak.

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Although the media moved on from the story months ago, social media data indicate the public has not forgotten about the health scare. In fact, comparing current social conversation volume related to customers eating at, intending to eat at, or who recently ate at Chipotle to levels seen prior to the outbreak paints a bleak picture for the company.

Organic social media mentions of “Chipotle” + “lunch” and “Chipotle” + “dinner” remain 43 percent and 50 percent lower than pre-outbreak levels, respectively.

Social media mentions briefly spiked back in February during Chipotle’s free burrito giveaway PR campaign, but they quickly fell back well below pre-outbreak levels.

Chipotle’s stock is down 35.6 percent in the past year in the aftermath of the E. coli outbreak. If investors are hoping for the stock to eventually regain its pre-outbreak highs, the company clearly has a lot of PR work left to do.

Disclosure: The author holds no position in the stocks mentioned.