Marketing at Bain & Co.

David Bechhofer, a partner responsible for Bain & Co.’s marketing strategy, faces a dilemma: Traditional marketing is foreign to Bain’s corporate culture (which is rather based on customer relationships), yet the firm cannot ignore traditional marketing tools if it wants to face global competition in the rapidly growing consulting industry. Indeed, all of Bain’s traditional competitors as well as a lot of new players use aggressive marketing to acquire new segments from the growing customer base. David has to respond to this challenge while staying consistent with the firm’s original value proposition, which is highly appreciated by its existing customers. The case provides an opportunity to discuss how to communicate a consistent global corporate image for a services firm whose “raison d`etre” is based on customer relationships.