Interview With David Parmet, Blog-Star Maker

Q. Is it all down to the blog?

I looked at this wonderful blog and wondered what else we could do with it. For example, The New York Times Fashion Editor had been for a long time been trying to get a contact at Saville Row but they were ignoring him. Then I helped him find Tom and his blog and that led to a feature. That made him ‘Saville Row To The States’.

Q. So blogs need help?

You’ve got to take it further than the blog itself – yeah getting a hit on Boing Boing created huge traffic and exploded his business – but you have to think longer term. In the long term, it’s important for the brand – for existing and future customers – to get the legitimacy that a publication like The New York Times can give it.

Q. What was your approach?

Men’s fashion was actually quite new to me but I felt there was two options for the story: tailor for bloggers or go to the straight man fashion market with the blogging tied on as a side interest. I went for both – for the bloggers and press focused on marketing and business there is a great story about using blogs in an industry that’s as far from what one would consider cutting edge as possible. For the fashion press, here’s this young smart tailor with one foot in the traditional crafts and another in the digital age. Both compliment each other.

Q. Do you think blogging will always be considered sexy?

I remember when back in the day the fact a company had a website would lead to an article in the press. Blogging is not important – it’s what blogging does. It blows the whole marketing model wide open allowing brands to have conversations with customers all over the world. Something new will come along but this internet paradigm won’t change.

Q. You run your own blog that can be quite flippant at times. Aren’t you concerned that you might upset a future customer?

I’d rather not work with companies who would be upset by someone blogging or what someone might write in a blog.

Thank You

David Parmet runs the blog ‘Marketing Begins At Home‘