September 11, 2005
fuck-you pinstripes
Back home in Cumbria, after four nights in London. Lovely.
Our Social World was a nice wee conference. It seemed like it was successful. And Stormhoek supplied the wine.
What else? English Cut is visiting America in mid-October (New York, San Franciso and Chicago) if anyone fancies a $4000 suit.
English Cut is going through a very happy phase. Thomas keeps blogging, and the orders keep coming in. Plus some of the newer customers are beginning to get their first suits in, and are now re-ordering. Very good news.
Savile Row suits are funny that way. As soon as you have one, you want another. And another. And another. They’re addictive. We like that.
My first English Cut suit is now being made. Navy blue three-piece with bright blue “fuck-you pinstripes”. It’ll be weeks before it’s finished and I can wear it around the place, but it gives me something to look forward to.
English Cut has proved to me beyond resonable doubt that business blogging works. But it certainly helps if you have a product well-suited to it.
“well-suited!” Ha! Love a good pun.
Almost any kind of artisan or craft endeavor should do extremely well with a blog, because the artisan or craftperson can blog her process as it happens, perhaps even taking pictures and posting them along the way to a finished item.
When you do this, you’re creating a story. People read your blog and get wrapped up in that story: where were the materials sourced from, what symbolism do they carry, how your process shows the world what a cool endeavor you’re running, how your customers totally fucking love you, etc. When a purchase is made, the buyer is placing herself into that story that you started. She becomes a part of it. She has a relationship with it… and with you.
This is how blogs are better marketing than you could ever have hoped for, and yet, they’re not marketing at all – at least not in the advertising agency sense.