first to define the brand and really what makes the brand’s DNA up what’s important

about the brand and to really make sure that’s understood within the business. Secondly,

to put the customers right at the heart of our decision making and to bring, the understanding

of who our customers are and the kind of key dynamics within our customer metrics, bring

it to life within the business. The third thing really is to connect with

those customers. The main thing I’ve learnt as a leader of

marketing is the way there is no god given right to be able to lead an organisation or

the customer. We’ve got to earn the right and that’s about getting trust and that

means a whole range of things; first it means moving at a pace which is right for the business,

marketers often want to go at one hundred miles an hour and that’s not always possible

because you’ve got to take people with you. And secondly I think it means that sometimes

you’ve got to make compromises that perhaps you wouldn’t want to so we don’t always

have the right to having the answer, and certainly in the case of John Lewis, we’ve had to

do exactly that because, it’s really important that the marketing ties up with the proposition.