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Elite Suits - Official Affiliate Thread - Page 9

post #121 of 245
10/19/12 at 3:09pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Simon at Elite View Post

 

If this sounds rude or arrogant please forgive me as it's definitely not my intention but I'm sure you understand context is difficult in written form.

 

In the just over two weeks since this thread started both site traffic and sales have increase measurably. I can also trace six new customers directly back to this thread. Furthermore, referrals from Styleforum spend more time on the site and visit more pages than those that stumble across the site from search engines. So all in all I'm far from unhappy.

 

While I certainly accept the criticism as valid I think many people are willing to look past critical internet postings and make up their own mind. No matter what I do there will always people ready to make critical comments. Also don''t forget the comments here from people that have actually purchased something form Elite Suits are in the main very positive

 

My marketing strategy is based on four simple principles

 

  1. We are not aiming to go mass market. 
  2. There are already many pretty websites that sell cheap fused suits poorly made in Asian factories.
  3. There is at least a small percentage of customers who want a better made suit at a better price and want to know as much as possible about why our suits are better.
  4. If you can provide a superior suit combined with excellent service people will buy from you again and again.

 

Seeing both site traffic and sales are both up more than 50% year on year over a not exactly insubstantial base and continue to grow every month as existing customers reorder and new ones join then you might agree that it's not just my personal stubbornness that's stopping me from rethinking my marketing strategy.

 

Simon, I don't doubt your core business model - in fact, I like the idea a lot. But I think you are confusing my comments about marketing with an attack on your core business ideas. 

 

For example, it is not a black and white a choice between:

 

1. producing good quality suits at a reasonable price sold through a bad-looking website; and

2. producing cheap fused suits sold through a pretty website.

 

Why not simply sell your good quality suits at a reasonable price through a functional and attractive website?

 

This would be the best of both worlds, and then instead of traffic and sales being up 50%, they might be up 100% or much more. At the moment, I suspect your sales are growing simply because of exposure, and despite your website (and the poor photos and dubious testimonials here). If you're happy with that, fine, there isn't much anyone can do to persuade you otherwise - and good luck to you.

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post #122 of 245
10/19/12 at 3:45pm
I agree, this thread needs to be shut down while work is done on making everything better for the customer. So far we have good advice given (for the most part), which has essentially been ignored and a business owner who assures us he's doing well. I'm sure that's most likely the case, but we only have his word for it.

If orders are high from his appalling website (and I guess we have to take his word for it), all I can say is...imagine how much more orders he'd get with a website that isn't actually painful to look at and read.
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post #123 of 245
10/19/12 at 8:07pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Archibald Longfellow View Post


If you werent the worst offender I might take your comment seriously. You have done nothing but write one snide comment after another. You obviously have some sort of beef with simon so how about doing us a favor and ntelling us what he has done to you?


My earlier comments were snide (the first couple pages); something which I had already apologized for both on this thread and in private. Since then, I've tried to make everything constructive, something I think I succeeded in. Perhaps some frustration came through in that last post, but I think it was understandable. The majority of the posts have been asking for better pictures and suggestions as to who to give a suit for review to (again, both in this thread and in private messages). Giving a suit to an established member is a lot to ask (though Simon has been open to the idea) but the lack of pictures is really......uchhhhh.

 

I understand if you didn't read past the first few pages of the thread (seriously, totally get it).

 

The best way to shut me up, and really all of us, is to post some good pictures of that suit of yours. I've spent over $1000 dollars on a suit once, and it was a mistake (Hugo Boss: always a mistake at full price) (though I'm not sure how that's relevant). I buy sale or clearance unless absolutely necessary not to. But if Simon's tailors make excellent suits, I think that's something we all want to know.
 

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by TheWraith View Post
If orders are high from his appalling website (and I guess we have to take his word for it), all I can say is...imagine how much more orders he'd get with a website that isn't actually painful to look at and read.

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by FlyingMonkey View Post

This would be the best of both worlds, and then instead of traffic and sales being up 50%, they might be up 100% or much more. At the moment, I suspect your sales are growing simply because of exposure, and despite your website (and the poor photos and dubious testimonials here). If you're happy with that, fine, there isn't much anyone can do to persuade you otherwise - and good luck to you.

+1

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post #124 of 245
10/20/12 at 10:44am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Prof. B. Bear View Post


Take detailed photos of the construction and finished product if you can.

These were sent to me by one of the tailors to show me the progress of one of the suits. They look like camera photos so the quality isn't great

 

 

 

 

 

I'm off on one of my six monthly trips around Asia in a few weeks. While the purpose of the trip is mostly to look to see if we can further improve the quality of the various trimmings on our suits in order to offer even better value I will be visiting some tailors as well. I will take some photos of suits in the various stages of construction. It will be a great opportunity to test out my new camera.

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post #125 of 245
10/20/12 at 11:16am
Thread Starter 

Some more suit pictures sent to me by one of my customers. Again straight out of the box (a quick press first would have been good)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For a first try I think he's done fairly well. Certainly nothing a few minor tweaks can't fix. The fabric is an English milled nice deep rich blue from our Shanghai Collection suits

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post #126 of 245
10/20/12 at 11:55am
Thread Starter 

A little bit of fun this time.

 

Weddings are a very important part of our business. We normally do between three and six every week sending suits all over the globe. Get a couple decent size wedding parties add in the fathers of the bride and groom and you can easily be looking at over 30 suits in one week. Now well into triple figures of weddings we have supplied the suits for we are getting pretty good at it.

 

However, not all weddings are the staid boring and traditional affairs that some can be as these pictures prove

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hang on! What are those guns? OMG they're not are they???

 

 

May I say that at first I was a little horrified (although I soon got over it). The interesting part was this message for the customer

 

Also wanted to note that ALL of the suits survived the day.  The paint washed straight out and they came up like brand new :)  Very happy with the quality.

 

One more satisfied Elite Suits customer

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post #127 of 245
10/20/12 at 3:22pm
Thread Starter 

I was highly surprised at some of the comment about the super slim fit suit I posted HERE the other week. To save you looking here's yet another photo

 

 

 

Most of the comments centred around the overall tightness of the jacket and the shirt length of the jacket. I was surprised as both are exactly the way they are supposed to be. Super slim suits are tight with shorter jacket sleeves and trousers.The customer decided to stick with the shorter jacket but retain a more traditional length on the sleeves and trousers which is the benefit of custom tailoring over OTR suits.. We sell around three or four of these a month and I can sat if it went to a Scandinavian country the customer may have even had the jacket shorter and the legs and arms made tighter.

 

It's not a suit I'd wear now but looking back to what I wore when I was 20 I can see myself in something like it. However it wasn't made for me or you, it was made for the customer and he got exactly what he asked for and that's our job. On the jacket length he ordered a 68cm long jacket and that's what we delivered. Some people are suggesting we somehow should have made the jacket to a different length to what was ordered to fulfil their idea of what's acceptable.

 

The goal of online MTM tailoring is to fulfil each individual customers own expectation of what they want in their suit. Using actual tailors allows us greater flexibility in design over other MTM operations who mainly sell factory made suits. Did we meet this customers expectations? Yes and seeing he purchased the suit for his graduation prom and won the best dressed boy out of over 100 contenders, I'd say he's extremely happy with his Elite Suit experience and will come back to us for his next suit. Winning the award would also prove these super slim fit suits are more fashionable among the young then a lot of people here think.

 

A comment was made that the suit didn't meet the "SF approved style" and as such I shouldn't have posted the pics. I'm sorry but to suggest that that the tens of thousands of SF members want their suit in a particular approved style is just ridiculous as the extensive discussions in other MTM threads clearly proves.

 

Frankly for the type of suit that it's designed to be I think the customer has done a sterling job. If he ever comes back for another suit there are some issues I'd address. The buttoning stance could be a bit lower (these are generally single button suits though) and there seems to be a slight issue with the sleeve pitch we we would need to find the cause of. Apart from that not a bad effort for a young bloke for his first suit.

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post #128 of 245
10/20/12 at 4:50pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Simon at Elite View Post

To save you looking here's yet another photo

 

 

 

The buttoning stance could be a bit lower (these are generally single button suits though) and there seems to be a slight issue with the sleeve pitch we we would need to find the cause of. Apart from that not a bad effort for a young bloke for his first suit.

 

Good post Simon!

 

I notice that your tailor cuts a larger shirt lapel (collar). The classic collar shown here is too big for me. Does your MTM service allow for a smaller collared lapel for the shirt?

 

Does your tailor allow for a lower button stance as well, because there isn't exactly a 'measurement' for such an option?

 

Other than that, loving the photos and construction photos!

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post #129 of 245
10/21/12 at 3:41pm
Top buttoning point is a little too high for my liking, and the fit is still an issue.
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post #130 of 245
10/21/12 at 4:17pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael Sy View Post

I notice that your tailor cuts a larger shirt lapel (collar). The classic collar shown here is too big for me. Does your MTM service allow for a smaller collared lapel for the shirt?

Setting aside stylistic considerations such as the the length of the collar points and the style of the shirt collar, the collar is too big for the person wearing it as there is a noticeable gap at the front of the collar.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael Sy View Post

Other than that, loving the photos and construction photos!

Agreed - it's good to see some photos of actual products, instead of dense walls of text that do little to demonstrate the quality of the product.
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post #131 of 245
10/22/12 at 3:42am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Simon at Elite View Post

Some more suit pictures sent to me by one of my customers. Again straight out of the box (a quick press first would have been good)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For a first try I think he's done fairly well. Certainly nothing a few minor tweaks can't fix. The fabric is an English milled nice deep rich blue from our Shanghai Collection suits

 

 

The suit seems fine except maybe the pleats on the pants and yes as one of the members mentioned, a nice press would be good.

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post #132 of 245
10/22/12 at 5:07am
Those pants aren't pleated, they just have a pronounced crease.
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post #133 of 245
10/22/12 at 12:24pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael Sy View Post

 

Good post Simon!

 

I notice that your tailor cuts a larger shirt lapel (collar). The classic collar shown here is too big for me. Does your MTM service allow for a smaller collared lapel for the shirt?

 

Does your tailor allow for a lower button stance as well, because there isn't exactly a 'measurement' for such an option?

 

Other than that, loving the photos and construction photos!

 

A standard collar is usually around 5cm at the back and 7.5cm at the points. There are options for smaller collars like this one

 

 

 

It's 3.5cm at the back and 5.5cm at the points. As for a lower buttoning stance that's fairly easy for us

 

Most MTM retailers (and this includes in store as well) use the Asian suit factories. They are either machine made or made in a production line of seamstresses.The have a single house pattern which is adjusted for every order. It's fine until you want something that moves away from the standard pattern. The machine can't do it so they have to take it off the machine and do it manually and seamstresses aren't tailors and as such don't really have the skills necessary to deviate away from the standard pattern. In either case you need a tailor to step in and complete the variation manually. This adds to the production costs and the factories don't like it and I've seen you post on another forum where one of the posters has now encountered exactly this situation twice.

 

The Elite Suit advantage of having our suits handmade by actual tailors means we can easily accommodate these variations. The higher you go up the available tailoring standards the more options become available. When you get up to our bespoke tailors you can gave almost anything done as instead of using a standard pattern they draw a completely new one tailored specifically to your individual body profile and measurements. These tailors have decades of experience and are highly skilled and can handle just about any request.

 

Someone here mentioned an approved "SF Style" Send me some pictures and for $999 we can have our bespoke tailors make close enough to an exact copy out of a high grade Holland & Sherry wool.

 

One thing we're seeing more requests for is higher armholes. This is something the factory made suits have enormous problems with as it requires a redesign of the whole jacket. While I'm personally not a big fan, as for the inexperienced it can cause more problems than it solves, we can do it if asked. You need to send us the required armhole measurements

 

I

 

and again as we use real tailors they have the skills to do this. Note that this only applies to the personal tailoring service full canvas suits and above. However, they start at only $399 

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post #134 of 245
10/27/12 at 6:38am
Honestly, I don't understand why you simply cannot take pictures of the suits you own yourself and post them up here. Like so many have already advised you to, LET YOUR PRODUCT TALK FOR YOU.

Your entire salesmanlike pitch really doesn't work with the SF crowd. All you are doing is regaling us over and over again about how your suits are of such great value in comparison to other online merchants, and how they are so excellent in construction.

But you fail to supply adequate pictures that can attest to your claims. How hard is it to get a decent camera and take pictures of some of your better suits' construction? You claim to own so many suits from so many lines that you sell, but I haven't seen you post up a single photo of yourself in any of these suits. Your website uses random stock photos which are highly inaccurate - pictures of morning coats listed under "tuxedo", really?

All your sales pitches are long, verbose walls of text that contain repeated hyperlinks. This honestly doesn't create confidence in a crowd like SF. A decent amount of people here possess knowledge of all these subjects and topics that you go on and on about, especially regarding construction, so you can save it. Let your suits speak for you - if they are as good as you claim they are, believe me, we'll know.

You keep saying that you are aware that your website needs work, yet you have done nothing. Being aware of a shortcoming is one thing - addressing it is another entirely different subject. Your excuse that revamping the site will incur costs which translates to costs to the customer (or lesser savings, as you're more wont to saying) is exactly that - an excuse. If you can really afford to write up such incessant paragraphs and blog posts about how good your suits are, you can afford to redesign your website.

So far, all the photos you have posted of people in their suits are pretty horrible and do a terrible job of imparting the excellent quality that you profess your suits have. That wedding photo of four men in grey suits is a monstrosity - a gaping collar and fastened last buttons - if such is the crowd you are aiming to cater for, SF is hardly the place to peddle your wares.

But then again, being an affiliate here certainly does help in driving your site traffic, I guess.


I'm aware that my post may come across as harsh - but this is all constructive criticism, and nothing ad hominem. I don't sugarcoat what I say, so take it as you will.

Believe me, I do want to give you a try - but nothing in this thread is instilling any sort of confidence that I will get what I want.

I'm just trying to understand why it's so hard for you to post decent pictures of say; 10% of the suits you have sold.
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post #135 of 245
10/27/12 at 6:44am
Zarium,

I'm sure Simon at Elite read something about push marketing and decided that it was the best course of action. Meanwhile, he missed the number one objective of marketing: KNOW YOUR MARKET
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