A tyre company made chefs cry.
That’s not exaggeration. That’s the power of great marketing.
In 1900, Michelin had a problem. People weren’t driving enough, and if people didn’t drive, they didn’t wear out tyres. So the founders came up with an idea: print a free travel guide. It included routes, maps, and lists of good places to stay or eat.
Then something strange happened. The restaurant section took off. People started travelling just to visit the places Michelin recommended. By 1926, the “Michelin Star” was born.
* = worth a stop
** = worth a detour
*** = worth a special journey
A tyre company accidentally became the global authority on fine dining.
That’s not luck. That’s strategy.
They didn’t market tyres, they marketed driving.
They sold the reason to use their product, not the product itself.
Now, look at cybersecurity. There’s a lesson sitting right there.
Don’t market features. Market the behaviour that makes your product inevitable.
Michelin sold movement. You can sell trust. Instead of shouting about packet inspection or detection rates, tell stories about organisations that never had to panic on a Friday night again. Sell the calm that comes after chaos.
Build your own standard.
Michelin didn’t ask permission. They created their own rating system and the world adopted it.
Cybersecurity already has its “Michelin stars”: Gartner’s Magic Quadrant, Forrester Waves, ROI calculators and all those trust badges on vendor sites.
But you don’t need to wait for an analyst firm. Build your own benchmark. Create a “DNS Visibility Index,” “Zero Trust Readiness Report,” or “Incident Response Maturity Scale.”
If it’s credible and consistent, your market will start quoting you.
Reward your users, not yourself.
Chefs fight for stars because stars make them legends.
In cybersecurity, give your customers something similar; digital trust badges, verified partner tiers, or public recognition for good security hygiene.
Palo Alto, CrowdStrike, and Microsoft already celebrate “Partner of the Year” awards, but the smartest play is when even smaller vendors highlight customer excellence.
Make your clients the heroes of your story.
Create emotional gravity.
Michelin stars didn’t make food better, they made it matter.
When you talk about risk reduction, uptime, or DNS protection, don’t talk like a manual. Talk like a movement.
Show what it means to belong to a more secure network, an ecosystem of defenders, a community that values visibility and control.
Play the long game.
Michelin didn’t go viral. It went timeless.
You can do the same by building authority slowly: publishing transparent data, recognising best practices, and staying consistent.
Over time, you become the reference point everyone else uses.
Michelin never needed to say “buy our tyres.”
They made driving irresistible and tyres became a natural consequence.
In cybersecurity, stop shouting “secure everything.”
Instead, make security itself the journey people want to take.
That’s how a tyre company conquered fine dining and how you can make your brand unforgettable.
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