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The final of three poaches from Vanessa Friedman's FT interview with Mickey Drexler, chief executive of J Crew, is on his views about brand values. His company is looking for a store in London because a store "really articulates what the brand is. It's an emotional, visual experience in a way a catalogue or website is not." How good is your store at making an emotional and visual connection with local shoppers? How much better than a web site are you? Remember, if you are selling a commodity, Tesco will win every time. Remember also that good customer service takes in the emotional and visual connection. Check how clean your floor is, how welcoming your door mat.

Vanessa Friedman of the FT says there were two reasons why Mickey Drexler helped clothes retailer J Crew to sales of $1.7billion in his eight years with the company (previously he took Gap from $400 million to $14 billion in 18 years). First, he saw the opportunity to raise the style quality and move to where there was a "lot of white space" between very cheap clothes and designer. Second, he "took a page from Brooks Brothers' book and it was a high margin, high profit page: you don't pay wholesale. Because if you pay wholesale you have two problems: one, discounters - you always have to drop your prices; and two, margin. Say something costs you $50 to make. You mark it up to $150 for wholesale. The retailers mark it up 2.2 or 2.3 times, which is standard. You can't undersell them, so you have to sell your sweater for $350. But if you are the only retailer, you sell it for $150." Two questions for local retailers: Where is the white space for you?...

"Wherever I go I always ask what the bestseller is," says Mickey Drexler, chief executive of J Crew, the US preppy clothes company he has headed since 2003. Meeting Vanessa Friedman, fashion editor of the FT, for lunch, Mr Drexler explains that when he dined at the Wolseley in London he asked and was told 1) wiener schnitzel and 2) cobb salad. He ate the second. For pizza, the answer is always Margherita and this was the case at Pulino's in New York where he dined with Ms Friedman. In ice cream it is always chocolate and vanilla. In cookies it is chocolate chip and then oatmeal raisin. "I tell this to my team when we go out together: you need the Margherita! People like consistency. Whether it's a store or a restaurant, they want to come in and see what you are famous for." J Crew's top sellers are: 1) the Jackie sweater, 2) the Café capri and for men the prewashed shirt. What is it you are famous for?