How Grainger Gets It Done By Putting Customers First

At first blush, most marketers would be hard-pressed to think of a less flashy business than Grainger’s. Probably at second blush as well.

And that’s just fine with Grainger. Find out why on Thursday, March 5, when Don Scheibenreif, Grainger’s Vice President of Strategic Marketing, keynotes BMA’s next MarketingMasters Luncheon Seminar at The Standard Club.

Grainger is the leading distributor of facilities maintenance products—things that keep facilities running and the people inside them safe and comfortable. Products like light bulbs, heaters, air conditioners, nuts and bolts, hydraulics, safety equipment, relays and motors, to name a few. It’s not real spine-tingling stuff, but Grainger quietly wins with its customers over and over again.

At the March luncheon, Scheibenreif will explain how a consistent, customer-driven marketing strategy has helped Grainger become a Fortune 500 company with more than 18,000 employees serving customers in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Panama and China.

“With revenue of $6.9 billion, we are probably the largest business-to-business company you’ve never heard of,” he says.
Through a highly integrated network that includes nearly 600 branches, 18 distribution centers, an industry-leading Web site and an iconic almost 4,000-page catalog sporting more than 240,000 products, Grainger consistently adds value to its customers. Its value proposition is simple: help businesses and institutions save time and money by consolidating maintenance, repair and operating supplies.

Scheibenreif attributes the company’s success in large part to Grainger’s adherence to a strategy founded on understanding the basic needs of its customers. The company’s customer-driven marketing strategy emphasizes focus over flash, and Scheibenreif says sticking with that strategy helps Grainger deliver its value proposition in good economic times and bad.

The times don’t get much worse than they are in 2009. Fortunately for Grainger, it is in the business of supplying things its customers can’t do without.
Grainger is North America’s largest distributor of MRO (maintenance, repair and operating) supplies, which is approximately a $120 billion business in the United States. These are the products that the working men and women in commercial businesses and government institutions rely on every day to get their jobs done.

Scheibenreif will explain how the company’s connection with its customers—“the ones who get it done”—plays into Grainger’s brand architecture. He will discuss how his background in consumer packaged goods prepared him to be customer-driven and to not get caught up in the flash. In business-to-business marketing, stability and basics are what counts.

About Don Scheibenreif
Don Scheibenreif joined Grainger in 2005 and is currently vice president of strategic marketing. He is responsible for segment marketing, segment strategy, marketing planning, service development, brand management, customer solutions and customer analytics in Grainger’s U.S. Industrial Supply Division.

Prior to joining Grainger, Scheibenreif was director of customer marketing for True Value Company, a retailer-owned hardware cooperative based in Chicago. During his tenure at True Value, he was responsible for field marketing, member marketing and member communications.

Scheibenreif began his marketing career in 1987 with The Quaker Oats Company, where he held a number of increasingly responsible roles in brand management and customer marketing. In 1995, he joined The Coca-Cola Company in Atlanta as marketing manager in the U.S. Fountain Division and progressed to marketing director positions in the Fountain Division and then in the North America Consumer Marketing Division.

Scheibenreif received a Bachelor of Science in Marketing from DePaul University and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business.

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