August 10, 2005
nobody genuinely wants to hand over their hard-earned money to lawyers and consultants
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Paul Hatton over at Hard Diamond talks about a watch he was comissioned to design.
This watch is made of 18ct white gold, with an 18ct rose gold face, and is stepped at the sides. As it was for a woman, and a celebration, I chose to set the ends of the watch with pink, yellow and blue sapphires, and white diamonds. As it was her 50th birthday, I also decided to highlight the 50th minute.
Just so you know, I receive a small commission for every piece of jewelry that sells via Hard Diamond. I suppose if I wanted to go into the jewelry business, I could.
We’ll see. Right now it interests me less as a money spinner, and more of a good example of how blogs are the prefect medium for building a “Global Microbrand”.
Hard Diamond and English Cut have an added advantage over other business blogs, in that they actually sell stuff people actually want. People actually do want fine jewelry and clothes, and in my experience it seems that if they can afford it, they don’t mind spending the money.
Other professions– lawyers, accountants, consultants, marketing schmoes etc– they may have embraced the blogosphere more avidly than the traditional craftsman, but in many ways their job is harder.
Because nobody genuinely wants to hand over their hard-earned money to lawyers and consultants [believe me, as a marketing consultant, I know]. We just happen to live in a world where it has become a pained necessity.
We’ll see how this bejewelled story unfolds. Watch this space.
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Had an interesting conversation with a local artisan who would fit the Thomas Mahon/Paul Hatton mold. Won’t get into what she does, but it’s definitely a unique type of handmade luxury purchase with a ton of personal touch and a bit of science thrown in.
I was talking to her about English Cut and Hard Diamond and the Hughtrain concept just to feel her out about the possibilities of working together and creating a global microbrand. Surprisingly to me she comprehended everything about the concept on the first take.
I’m thinking to myself, “OK, if Hugh can make some scratch from this model, so can I.“
And then she says, “I don’t want to work that hard. I LIKE having a small customer base. I like that everything is word of mouth and that I can fulfill everyone’s expectations. No, I don’t want to get involved with blogging. That would mean too much work and I wouldn’t enjoy it as much. I want to stay small.“
Well, fuck me.
You can lead a horse to water and I need a drink.
Sad truth for marketers is that we can be great marketers, but we need willing accomplices to be great.
So I’m now wondering, how did you get Thomas and Paul over that hump?
It was easy, Rich. Paul Hatton contacted me; I didn’t have to “sell” the idea to them.
As for English Cut; Tom was feeling the pressure to do something online, and his old conventional website wasn’t cutting it.
Since setting up a blog is so cheap, there wasn’t a lot of risk attached to the project. And I think Tom found he actually quite liked keeping a blog and sharing his knowledge with a new audience.
One advantage Tom and Paul have going for them– they’re world class professionals at what they do. I think if they were lower down the food chain, then my job would be a lot harder.
Of course, if they were lower down the food chain I don’t think I would have been that interested in working with them in the first place.
It just struck me, that this may be the real force behind Alist-envy. The envious are the people trying to sell what nobody wants to pay for, ergo they’re really in a serious zero-sum game against the equally hand-waving subset of A-listers.
Quote of the day: “Nobody ever got fired for hiring Clay Shirky as a consultant.”