August 27, 2005
the 800-pound gorilla
Kind words about English Cut from Shel Israel, courtesy of BL Ochman:
The Best Blogs Have Passion and AuthorityAfter doing more than 100 interviews with bloggers certain trends emerge. "The bloggers that we find to be the most interesting display passion and authority. The great poster child is the English Cut guy. Thomas Mahon started English Cut and we all went to it. At first," Israel says, "everyone was fascinated about thread counts, how they tailor a suit, whether guy dresses right or left. In a matter of a couple of months, Mahon became the world's authority."
People wandered away from the English Cut blog because there is only so much they want to know about how to make a $4000 suit. But, says Israel, it doesn’t matter for Mahon. He will "always be the guy to read if you want to know about $4000 suits. The second English tailor to blog will have a hard time being remarkable."
The big initial rush of traffic that came English Cut's way wasn't people wanting to buy suits, but people who found the business model fascinating, and wanted to see how it could apply to what they're doing. Once they got the necessary info, they moved on. None of that is surprising.
But in the process a lot of suit buyers found out about it, and stayed. Ker. Ching.
It's weird watching the English Cut story evolve from first-hand experience. Right now it just seems like an unstoppable idea-virus. Case in point: next Tuesday I have to go to the local radio station, because NPR want to interview me. National U.S. Big Media exposure and all that. "Using blogs to transform business" and all that. Last week BBC Radio Four [arguably the most authoratative radio station in the world] interviewed Thomas as well. Stuff like that keeps happening all the time. Sometimes it feel like we created this 800-pound gorilla.
Thomas is in the South of France at the moment, taking a well-earned seaside break. The poor guy is exhausted. The thing is, $4000 suits don't scale. You sell twice as many, you have to work twice as hard. Though it's a lovely trade to be in, it doesn't make money while you sleep. And poor Tom is on the receiving end of that.
I get paid by sales, Thomas gets paid by the piece. It's damn unfair for him. He has to work harder, I don't. I've created this income-generating idea-virus that makes money while I sleep, but he just has to work harder and harder.
So he's running around like crazy, while there's me at my desk, blogging away in my pyjamas. No, it's not fair, and long-term I don't think it's sustainable.
So we're thinking what to do about it. We'll work it out. We're an interesting pair. The blogger and the tailor, creating this wonderful thing that is English Cut.
Meanwhile, the idea-virus creates more opportunity for me- Stormhoek, Thingamy etc. We'll see where that takes us. On one level, I worry that it'll make gapingvoid too commercial. On the other level, hey, commercial is often far more interesting.
Watch this space.
Posted by hugh macleod at August 27, 2005 9:33 PM | TrackBackNo, it's not fair, and long-term I don't think it's sustainable.
I disagree, unless you're hinting that he, perhaps, should work harder at getting his own sales to "cut out the middleman".
It's certainly fair though. He wants to make suits, and make a handsome sum doing so. You want to sit in your pajamas, blog, and come up with unique ways of selling stuff. You both do what you want, everyone wins. Being a gymnast or a football player is harder work than being a tailor too, but you can't think for a second how unfair it is that they have to put in more effort than their managers.
Posted by: Peter Cooper at August 28, 2005 1:49 AMI am certainly not hinting that, Peter. I'm happy as a bug in a rug, selling his work... with him sewing like a maniac.
But Jeeze Louise, the amount of new business that has come in during the last few weeks has just been silly... I guess there's worse problems to have.
"The big initial rush of traffic that came English Cut's way wasn't people wanting to buy suits, but people who found the business model fascinating, and wanted to see how it could apply to what they're doing."
The first half of that rings true: I suspect many visited English Cut purely out of cat-walking-on-hind-legs fascination at the idea of a blogging tailor, with the juxtaposition of old-world skills and new-world technology that implies.
But the idea that all of the early visitors were fellow marketers looking for ideas seems a little too egotistical to me. I know I visited fairly early and had no interest in the business model; my initial interest was sheer novelty, and I remain subscribed because the content is interesting and well-written.
Would English Cut have succeeded if the writing (which is Tom, right? comments about "him running around like crazy while I blog away in my pyjamas" make me wonder about ghostwriting) were pedestrian and plodding?
James, of course, the fact that it's well-written is key. Had it been pedestrian and plodding, I doubt it would've have gotten so much attention.
But nobody who knows Thomas would accuse him of being pedestrian and plodding, so it was never really an issue.
I'm not sure if I agree with you 100% on your second point. I think the business model generated a lot of initial interest among the non-suit buyers. It's certainly that which got the attention of the mainstream media. You may not include yourself on that list, but that's OK.
Posted by: hugh macleod at August 28, 2005 3:45 AMNPR and BBC4? Congratulations. That neither of them do commercials is especially sweet. enjoy the ride hugh!
Posted by: teeveedubya at August 29, 2005 4:35 AMHugh: Why not put your prices up a $K or two?
Posted by: Johnnie Moore at August 30, 2005 10:08 AM