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One of the facts that was not highlighted in this week's story about consumer goods and their advanced customer strategy was the amount of cash these companies have on hand. According to Columbia Universoty professor Larry Selden, consumer goods companies have an embarrasing amount of cash in the bank. Instead of using this cash to reinvest in customers, they are buying back stocks and buying other companies. The most recent example is Johnson & Johnson's plan to pay $18 billion for Pfizer's consumer goods business. This is not a sustainable strategy. At some point the M&A opportunties dry up. At some point, companies have to realize that their customers are not Wall Street analysts. Yes, Wall Street analysts are important people. But their judgments are fickle. Customer judgments are rarely fickle. Invest in customers and they will repay with a larger share of wallet and their long-term loyalty. Grow customer value. It's predictable.