The Importance of Light Buyers in Marketing History: Evidence From the Sales Ledgers of a Luxury Tailor, 1890–1899

The sales ledgers from Henry Poole & Co., the founder of bespoke tailoring on London’s Savile Row, were used to calculate the frequency and value of all purchases for a sample of 665 customers from 1890 to 1899. The findings show that the 20 percent of buyers who bought most frequently only accounted for just over 40 percent of Henry Poole’s total purchases, and the 20 percent who spent most heavily accounted for 61 percent of sales by value. This confirms previous research which contradicts the Pareto Law that 80 percent of a brand’s sales come from 20 percent of its buyers. As the first quantitative historical study of the relationship between a brand and its buyers, this article considers the implications for marketing history if there is a 60/20 pattern of purchasing. Marketing strategies that increased availability for light buyers may be more historically significant for growing a brand than segmentation, targeting, and positioning strategies aimed at heavy buyers.