.... and they're like "It's better than yours!"
Okay, I'm blogging. I'm a little rusty so bear with me. Let's go...
1. We set the cute bar ridiculously high...
I can't compete with that. Next to her I look like a troll.
Speaking of which...
2. Trolls, trolls everywhere!
So sometimes when we have a big jump in peeps hitting the BM fan page, we get lots of interesting new people.
And I'm using the word interesting in the sense of... probably shouldn't be allowed to stay on planet earth.
Yes, we get trolls. There are several varieties I have noticed, but there seems to be one thing that unites them all - they hate Black Milk, and they hate me.
In a world liberally filled with murderers, rapists, and reality TV stars - they choose to hate on a whole bunch of cute girls who wear tight clothing and the guy who sells tight pants for a living.
GET SOME PERSPECTIVE PEOPLE.
So I'm trying to figure it out. What makes these trolls come a trollin'? And then I figured it out...
And I don't mean that in a defensive way... I think peeps genuinely have a hard time with jealous feelings when the see the big beautiful hot mess that is Black Milk. They resent you guys because you have the confidence to step out looking outrageous and awesome. And they resent me for sticking myself in the middle of it.
Think about it - 100 000 hot little bosses... if I wasn't me I'd totally hate me.
4. Well the 100K Noms release was a success. It was our little celebration of our Facebook page (which is undoubtedly the coolest one in the world, in case you weren't aware) hitting 100 000 likes.
We had a few classic pieces:
Scribble leggings + Scribble bodysuit = ...?
Did you say Scribble Catsuit? If so, give yourself a huge high five! This is what the bodysuit looks like by itself.
You don't have to do that thing with your hands, but it helps.
5. I like her bathroom. In a creepy way.
I'm getting pretty familiar with girl's bathrooms at this stage, which is probably not that healthy.
6. I guess if there is one thing on my mind at the moment it is Black Milk's inability to keep up with demand. And I know what you're thinking... you're thinking about cupcakes. Kidding - you're thinking "That's a good problem to have..."
Yes and no.
You can die by drowning as easily as you can die of thirst.
(You like that saying? I made it up myself. Quite proud of that one....)
I used to pride myself on how fast we were, how responsive, how speedy to market. We were like those skinny dogs with the pointy noses (in terms of speed, not appearance).
Now I feel like a whale. And not a cool speedy whale like a dolphin or something. More like a hippo kind of whale. A whalopotamus.
That's life I suppose. Now there is such masive demand for what we do, and such a mighty outcry if we don't make stuff, that we have lost a lot of that mobility. Just so you know... this is what 99% of my communication consists of:
"jL, Y U no make this old style of leggings any moar!? I will DIE without them."
"jL, Y U no make post my leggings to me yet!? I am DYING without them (I'm typing with the last strength I have)."
"jL, Y U no make NEW leggings any moar!? I am anticipating DYING without them ..."
"jL, Y U no open a shop in [insert name of town here]!? The good citizens of [insert name of town here] will DIE without leggings ..."
"jL, Y U no blog any moar!?"
"jL, Y U no visit my school!?
"jL, Y U no cook me breakfast!?
Okay... maybe some exaggeration, but you know what I mean. This bizarre video should explain it. Notice the customer service girls (the self proclaimed 'mega hotties') in background making me seem unprofessional.
7. I thought I'd finish off with a little chat about an interesting topic:
Ethical pricing
Some people get confused when they look at fabric prices and clothing prices - why are clothes so much more expensive than fabric? Isn't that unethical?
Good question. So let's see if we can get some answers... ;)
Fact #1: Fabric is a small part of the cost of clothing
Kind of obvious, right?! There are so many costs involved in producing clothing, and fabric is just one of them. There are big costs such as taxation, shipping of materials, accounting, rent, computers, staff - all the way down to thread, snippers, pencils and lollies for the lolly jar.
Fact #2: Pricing is not derived primarily from cost of materials
Another obvious point right? Have you ever drunk bottled water? Do you think the price of that has ANYTHING to do with the material costs of the product itself? Of course not. Have you ever bought a goldfish? What is the material cost of a goldfish!? How about Coke? Do you really think you're just paying for sugar and water?
How about a Harry Potter book? What is the cost of paper and ink?
How about a concert, where there is NO material transaction at all?
Go to any restaurant in town - you can buy all the ingredients yourself and cook them for a fraction of the price. So why do you pay so much in the restaurant? Becuase, as we all know, it's not the ingredients that you are paying for!
Fact #3: Different products have different levels of profitability
For us, some pieces have a really good profit margin, some not so good, and there are some pieces we sell that we make no money on at all!
And at the end of the day, the market is what it is! If you don't think you're getting a good price, don't buy it. You don't see me emailing sales@ferrari.com saying "Y U no sell ur carz moar cheep!?"
Although I am tempted.
Internet hugs to all.
x
jL
