Ed Fowkes

I think the first time I can recall coming across this idea was reading Naomi Klein's wonderful No Logo around the turn of the millennium, when she wrote about something called Marlboro Friday. Philip Morris's share price fell by around 23% in a single day. If even Marlboro now had to compete primarily on price, perhaps that brand value wasn't worth what everyone thought it was.

I have a soft spot for Tesco, having grown up around the corner from where Mr Cohen had his market stall. And in the 1990s, around the time I first started in business, Tesco became famous for understanding something rather more valuable than how much money had gone through its tills. It wanted to understand customers. And to do so, it launched Clubcard. Launched nationally in 1995, Clubcard gave Tesco detailed information about what people bought, how frequently they visited and how...

Have you noticed that cause and effect don’t seem to happen at the same time? The result is that one is hard to pin to the other. Change your pricing today and you may not know the real effect for months. Hire a great salesperson and their first few weeks tell you almost nothing. Improve your culture and nobody hands you a graph on Friday showing a 7% increase in enthusiasm. Spend money on marketing and the customer who notices you today might buy six months from now.