These days, my shopping list contains tissues, wash powder and tonic water, rather than Kleenex, Ariel and Schweppes. Which is not great news for major brands, but promising for cheaper own-brand labels (page 4). However, we are beginning to hear about ‘frugal fatigue’ (page 6), wherein consumers are tiring of the financial sanity check and, like junkies, are on the prowl for a shopping hit once more.

   Indeed, governments are urging us to hit the malls, telling us that not going shopping is costing our economies dear. Those of us who still have jobs should start buying again to pump funds back into the money-go-round and regenerate business, since moderation will merely fuel the recession. This sounds logical . . . but dare we start spending? What if the skies rain down again . . ?

 Tesco has not shown fear and is instead showing competitors its winning form. With profits topping £3bn, the world’s second largest retailer – after Wal-Mart – is a careful, customer-centric strategist (page 36). When rivals offered cheaper lines, it launched a Discounter range to keep customers loyal and has thus hung on to some 31 per cent of UK grocery sales. Meanwhile, CEO Sir Terry Leahy has been in the press expounding the virtues of international expansion in a downturn and is busy looking onwards and upwards at increasing non-food and financial services offers. ‘Keep spending’ is his message and his example.

  By way of encouragement, my doorstep and especially my in-box are awash with loyalty scheme deals from Sir Terry’s team (page 22). The global financial nose-dive has meant coupon-clipping has become not just acceptable but desirable and FMCG brands are falling over themselves to offer deals via voucher, particularly online. Brits are currently in love with such discounts – Couponstar reports that last year the number of coupon campaigns run by their clients rose by 140 per cent – and, in the US, Internet and mobile coupons are very much the latest trend (page 32).
 

Of course, you have to segment your customer data effectively to engage with your audience and ensure you’ll get a response (page 18) since scattergun methods are simply not ethical (page 26). And some say we should not even be striving to build a relationship, but merely to enhance it (page 24).
 

  Sadly, when it comes to that charm offensive, some firms still have much to learn. Those who chant ‘the customer is king’ have probably never travelled
cattle-class on a British train: When I wearily asked a National Express customer services man why I had been sold a £50 ticket for what was clearly an already full train, he snapped: “No refunds here: complain by post.” There! A lucrative revenue stream for Royal Mail, at last.