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Why does a tire company rate restaurants?

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📓 The short answer

The Michelin tire company started rating restaurants to encourage more people to drive (and buy car tires). Today, the Michelin Guide lives on as a powerful branding tool that keeps Michelin top of mind for premium customers.

📚 The long answer

Fine-dining chefs push themselves to the limits of culinary excellence — in the hopes of impressing a tire company.

Michelin, the world's second-largest tire manufacturer, also publishes the world’s most prestigious restaurant guide: the Michelin Guide.

Why did Michelin start rating restaurants?

Brothers André and Édouard Michelin took over their grandfather's struggling rubber company, convinced that rubber had a bright future as the French automobile industry emerged. So in 1895, they created the first inflatable car tires.

Despite the thrilling innovations around automobiles, the Michelin brothers had a problem: few people actually owned cars.

In 1889, there were fewer than 3,000 automobiles in France. The biggest business challenge for Michelin wasn't competing against other tire companies; it was having enough customers needing to purchase tires.

The brothers published the first Michelin Guide in 1900, hoping its information on hotels, car maintenance, and roadways would convince more wealthy travelers to purchase cars — and Michelin tires.

Whereas most travel guides at the time assumed people rode trains, the Michelin Guide filled a gap by providing information specifically for automobile travel.

In 1900, drivers needed detailed information to travel from point A to B. Gas stations didn't exist, so the guide included which pharmacies sold gasoline. Roadways didn't have lights, so the guide included timetables of when the sun set during the year. The bulk of the guide's pages were filled with maps and information about French towns, alongside dozens of pages about Michelin tire maintenance and ads for other car parts. The first guide didn’t rate restaurants — it simply listed those attached to hotels.

The Michelin brothers' bet paid off, with the "Red Book" selling over 100,000 copies a year by 1920. In 1926, the 3-star rating system of restaurants was introduced, and the company hired full-time critics to judge the best restaurants to be included in the guide. By 1930, the Michelin Guide held international renown in the culinary world.

Because Michelin’s customers could afford the luxury of automobiles, the guide focused exclusively on elite fine-dining establishments.

Michelin's brand reinforced this high-class nature in its advertisements as well, showcasing the now-iconic Michelin Man with champagne, fancy pince-nez glasses, cigars, and jewelry.

Why does Michelin continue to rate restaurants?

With an estimated 1.47 billion cars being driven around the world today, Michelin has arguably achieved its goal of driving up demand for car tires. So why does it continue to publish its Michelin Guide today?

If you pore over Michelin's financial documents, you won’t find any mention of Michelin stars. But the company continues to invest heavily into its travel guides and restaurant reviews. In 2016 and 2017, Michelin acquired the online restaurant booking companies Restaurantes.com and BookaTable, respectively, to develop its own online restaurant platform.

It's all about branding. The Michelin Guide is probably one of the first examples of content marketing, a strategy of providing valuable content to attract and engage customers. The Michelin Guide keeps the brand top of mind, especially among customers with the means to purchase its premium tires.

Left: "Dishes made by Michelin star restaurants" by Charles Haynes, Arnaud 25, andrew, and misskoslow is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
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Right: "White Car Parked in a Garage" by Matheus Bertelli.

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​Sources for this week's newsletter​

🌐 Wikipedia article of the week

​Akon City​

"Akon City is a planned community and city in the M'bour Department of Senegal by Senegalese-American singer and entrepreneur Akon....Akon said he was inspired by the movie Black Panther, and he refers to Akon City as a "real-life Wakanda" that uses modern technologies, including blockchain and cryptocurrency."

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