Marketing for Rainmakers

McDonald’s is rightly viewed as one of the best marketing machines in the world. But just as Babe Ruth struck out more times than he hit a home run, McDonald’s occasionally flubs it — and this is one of those times.

My good friend, Wendy, recently purchased a Diet Coke at McDonald’s and noticed these words printed on the cup: “We’re as picky about what we buy as you are.” As Wendy phrased it, “how could they not see the irony” in that statement?

As a lifelong junk food addict, I have ingested many hundreds of pounds of McDonald’s food offerings — but I have never deluded myself into believing I was particularly picky about my eating habits. I went to McDonald’s for the speed and convenience of their operation. And while the quality of the food was consistent, it was certainly not at a level that anyone would view as aspirational.

The essence of market leadership hinges on aspirational excellence. A “just as good” approach leads to mediocrity and, ultimately, failure. It would be far more effective for McDonald’s to tell me that, while they understand my tastes aren’t particularly discerning, they would never use that as an excuse to lessen their own focus on quality ingredients or to take shortcuts of any kind. I’m totally fine with McDonald’s taking such an elitist-type attitude. I want them to believe they have higher culinary standards than I do — just as I want my lawyer, doctor and accountant to be smarter than me about their specialties.

The English poet, Robert Browning, would have chided MacDonald’s for not ascribing to his belief that “a man’s reach should exceed his grasp.” From the perspective of marketing rainmakers, if you only reach as far as your customers, you’ll never reach all your potential customers.

Phil Fragasso — April 19, 2008

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For the most part, effective rainmaker-style marketing is based on commonsense. But there is one aspect of rainmaker marketing that strikes many as counter-intuitive: the concept that you can benefit your own firm by helping competitive firms.

Before examining this idea further, let’s consider a real-life example. Unbeknownst to me - and probably to most of you as well - there is a serious worldwide shortage of hops, a key ingredient in the brewing of beer. While this has been a non-issue for the behemoth brewers of Budweiser, Miller, and Coors, who have long-term guaranteed contracts in place with hops suppliers, it raised the specter of bankruptcy for many small craft brewers around the country.

That’s where Boston Beer Company, the maker of the Samuel Adams family of beers, came to the aid of its countrymen. While not quite a brewing behemoth, Boston Beer is large enough to have contracts with hops suppliers - but it is also small enough, and young enough, to remember what it was like to struggle and confront all the obstacles that threaten a start-up business. So last week, Boston Beer shared 20,000 pounds of its own hops with smaller brewers - making the hops available at cost with no mark-up. Jim Koch, the founder of Boston Beer and already a legend in the craft brewing industry, explained his actions as such: “We view each other as colleagues not as competitors.”

Koch is espousing a very rainmaker-like attitude. Competition is not to be avoided; it is to be embraced. Competition makes us stronger. It makes us work harder for our customers and clients. It makes our customers and clients better able to recognize superior performance. And perhaps most importantly, it keeps us humble.

Without competition, we would sit back on our heels, rest on our laurels, and lose the edge that defines true rainmaking genius.

Phil Fragasso — April 4, 2008

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