January 13, 2006
as soon as you start cutting corners, you start cutting into your own narrative
It was funny walking down Savile Row yesterday. There were a lot of “SALE” signs in the windows. It’s January, post-Christmas etc, so it wasn’t exactly surprising. But this month we’ve been turning down business. And thinking about raising our prices. When others zig, zag. Exactly.
Thomas and I were down in London this week visiting shirtmakers, to make for us wholesale.
We’ve found somebody. And they’re bloody good. And we like them. And they also supply my favorite Jermyn Street shirtmaker. And the shirts are all made in England, unlike SOME nameless Jermyn Street companies that manufacure in India, Portugal, Pakistan and China.
[NB: Jermyn Street is to hand-made shirts what Savile Row is to hand-made suits. They’re a few minutes’ walk from each other.]
I was holding a competitor’s shirt in my hands yesterday.
1. The company’s illustrious name was proudly emblazened on the collar label.
2. “Jermyn Street” was proudly emblazoned on the collar label.
3. The “Made In China” bit was not-so-proudly emblazoned on a tiny, hard-to-find label nowhere near the collar.
Not that there’s anything wrong with having a Chinese shirt. The quality in this case was high, and the cost was very competitive.
But we think our customers want the “Made In England” story. So do we. Sure, it’s going to cost more, but we think it makes the “English Cut” story more authentic. And “Authenticity” is what people are ultimately buying into, not the actual molecules.
As soon as you start cutting corners, you start cutting into your own narrative. Sometimes the cost savings justify it, but not always. The world is already awash with compromised stories and diluted brands. Sure, the accountants love it, but they’re just looking at the numbers. They’re not the ones who have to go out into the big, wide world and find the actual paying customers.
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Hey Hugh, doesn’t the China versus England story mean that besides being rich your target customers are snubish as well?
Dragos, it has nothing to do with snobbery. The brand is called “English Cut”, not “Chinese Cut”.
Sure, you could argue that where something is made doesn’t matter, but I would disagree.
Having stuff made in China is well and good, but it lessens the “Englishness” of the brand.
Again, you could argue that “Englishness” doesn’t matter, but it matters to me and Thomas.
Also, not all our customers are rich. We just made a tweed jacket to a schoolteacher, who just wanted one good Savile Row garment to call his own.
What this is really pointing towards (and everything that’s happening in American politics bears this out as well) is that the end does not justify the means. That is, in fact, the very definition of cheating. There is no worthy story in that. “Winning” is anything but.
Rather, the means justify the ends, and there is poetry and beauty and the story worth telling. That’s when “winning” actually means what it’s supposed to. This is what “the conversation etc.” is doing to the world. Love it.
Agreed, Michael. Like I wrote in The Hughtrain, “It’s not enough for them to love your product, they have to love the proccess as well”.
Ref: http://www.hughtrain.com
I certainly see your branding consistency perspective, I was thinking by considering an economics point of view — it most likely boils down to different business metrics. The competition having products manufactured in China simply implies that scale and costs are of importance to those gys and hence are looking to exploit the cost differences (which may be significant).
The more your business grows the more you and your partner will be looking for ways to scaling it. Playing the “made in English” card may certainly seem smart and appealing to some individuals, but make sure it will not be(come) just a proxy for not being able to handle the demand side. Because there will be a time when you will have to think about tradeoffs (i.e growth versus staying small).
Of course, you can turn business down or adjust demand from the price (increase it) but I don’t think this could be sustainable a la long. Probably it all depends on the business plans objectives 2 – 3 years down the road.
Just my 2 cents, good luck with it!
ps. You can however use Chinese (lower costs country name) suppliers without having a “made in …” label. A friend of mine is doing it.
Good points, Drago. Having worked in the hand-made, $3000 suit business I know all about scaling issues
I suppose eventually the commercial decision will have to be made as to which is more valuable long term,- the “scalability” of China or the “Englishness” of the brand.
I don’t mind “Made in China” per se. But what would bother me would be if my customers had the common and mistaken perception that the shirts were made in England, when in fact they were made somewhere else.
Authenticity is what America craves most but cannot produce itself.
Just picked up on this. Hugh — bit harsh but unsurprising — Us number crunchers have got a lot of image stuff to sort out. And hey — why not provide a bit of entertainment value along the way?
The job of the ‘real’ accountant is to assist the business person maximise wealth potential. That’s not the same as running the numbers although numbers inevitably come into play. Especially if there’s some funding involved.
Responsible advice comes from attempting to test the likelihood of success in relation to a course of action with a view to balancing wealth creation against the client’s attitude towards risk. What the responsible accountant doesn’t do is poo-poo an idea simply because they don’t understand. Believe me, that happens a LOT I’m ashamed to say.
Equally they will discourage a client executing against ideas that will break them cash wise. We’ve already talked privately about stock and other issues and I don’t recall you telling me to piss off as talking nonsense so I hope you’[d agree that business ideas aside, there is some value in doing a bit of checking and balancing.
The difficulty both ‘sides’ face is exemplified in your ribbing me. IMHO it underpins a more serious problem of communication and perception. Hence I was glad to meet and discuss F2F in Paris.
Heh. Dennis, I would never describe you as a typical “number cruncher”.
But I thought us ribbing the other was standard practice, now
That sounds ominous. Swords mostly have two edges.