Back to the Basics: Internet Word of Mouth Marketing

Last month my parents told me to get two tailored suits.  There is a shop on the 4th floor in an old office building located in the financial district in Hong Kong.  I asked them how they knew about it.  They said they were introduced to this shop by a friend, and my dad bought a couple of tailored suits from there.  He was quite pleased with the suits.

I went there and it was an extremely small shop.  However, the moment I stepped into the shop, I saw foreigners trying on their finished suits.  When the elderly gentleman (I suspect he is one of the owners of the shop) was taking my measurement, many customers came in to either get new suits or paid their finished suits.

While I may not know much about this custom tailor business, just by looking at how many people walked in and out of this shop, I would say this business is a high revenue business.  A regular suit costs HK$998/US$129/€94.  I counted there were about 3 people walked in during my 30-minute stay in the shop.  Each suit requires a HK$500/US$64/€47 deposit.  Assuming each person pays that amount on average throughout a business day, the shop makes HK$24,000/US$3,905/€2,259 a day.  From the business card, it says that this custom tailor company has two retail shops.  So the annual revenue can reach up to a total of HK$14M/US$1.8M/€1.3M.

About a month later I got back the suit.  Every suit has this logo stitched in the left inner pocket:

Some people have long heard that US presidents like George W Bush, Bill Clinton or Prince Charles etc often buy tailored suits in Hong Kong.  How did they hear about these tailors in Hong Kong in the first place? Did they do a search in Google?  I doubt it because most of these tailors don't even have websites or any kind of advertising.

Throughout all these years, what still works is the Word of Mouth promotion.  It is never going to change.  When your parents/friends/someone you know recommend something, you normally won't ask too many questions but will listen to their advice and go to their recommended restaurants or visit the same doctors.  

I made my first purchase on Amazon because one of my friends said it's good, not because I saw a banner ad on some random websites.  I created my account on facebook after my friend said I could locate my high school classmates from there, not because I read about this thing in the news.

With all the fancy tools available today for internet marketing, nothing beats your friends' recommendations.