Service brands could learn some lessons from Sharia Law.Every single marketer seems to have an opinion on the Jade Goody incident.
In the vastly more important debate over Muslim women and the veil, however, the brand community has been silent. Odd, because it is a perfectly sensible defence of the Islamic dress code to suggest that it simply shows a better understanding of loyalty marketing than the code adopted by their sisters in the West.
The Islamic approach - modesty in public, glamour in private - does at least suggest a focus on loyalty rather than acquisition. In the Anglo Saxon world,by contrast, womenfolk return from work to cast off their Manolos and proper frocks in favour of shapeless jogging pants and fluffy slippers. Yet just utter the words "Let's go out" and it's like ringing Pavlov's bell. Cosmetics, wet-look hosiery, chunky jewellery, heels, the lot.
Now I'm a new man, naturally, and accept that it's entirely up to women to dress as they wish. But don't go whingeing to Deirdre if "your man seems distant and distracted". There is, after all, a reason why George's marriage to Lynne has survived so very long.
One person who follows the Sharia approach is the immensely successful retailer Julian Richer, of the eponymous hi-fi retail firm. His mantra? "Underpromise, overdeliver". So you enter an unprepossessing looking shop suddenly to be asked by an assistant whether you'd like a coffee. So often shops operate the other way round.
