As with any site, with any brand, the question comes up – who are you? What is this all about? It is a simple question, and the simple version of the answer, if there is such a thing, is that we help people. We help people find ways to live a more luxurious lifestyle, within their means. We help people make better fashion choices, and understand how such choices impact their lifestyle. We help people be better prepared for making conversation, and understanding the world around them. How we do this, though, is what is more complex.
The world these days inundates us with information, and while this is not a bad thing on its face, it creates many problems. A big issue is the problem of how to filter all of the noise… if you want to find something new, but don’t already know almost exactly where to start, it can be nearly impossible to find what you’re looking for… or at least, the best of what you’re looking for. Likely, whatever you may find, if anything, will be heavily influenced by the amount of marketing money behind it. Small businesses, new businesses, and those bucking popular trends, who don’t, or can’t, pour in the big money, drown in the ocean of advertising and paid search results.
Still, perhaps the most pressing issue is that the walls between unbiased reviews and recommendations, and wholly biased paid marketing, are breaking down more and more with every passing day. While it was once relatively easy to tell what was paid advertising – be it in magazines or television – social media has distorted and destroyed that. Now it has moved from product placement and ads to Instagram influencers and YouTube stars hocking goods and services to their followers.
Sadly, this shift has been good for nobody except the so-called influencers. Companies now have to deal with being bombarded with self-proclaimed online stars wanting money or free goods in exchange for providing access to their audiences, sometimes to the point of blackmail… many examples exist of influencers threatening existing or potential clients with negative publicity should they not give them, or pay them, what they ask. On the opposite end, those who wish to provide unbiased reviews, recommendations, and advise, have to fight an increasingly uphill battle to even communicate with companies and manufacturers, as they are, sadly somewhat rightly, forced to assume that anybody reaching out to them is an internet personality soliciting money or merchandise.
In the middle, is you, the consumer, who is put into the worst position of all; not only are you constantly hit with a deluge of paid marketing schlock, but even when you do try to find unbiased information, it has become nearly impossible to filter out what is unbiased, and what is just paid influencer advertising.
Not to impugn marketing, it has its place, of course, but it has gone too far. To see the negative effects, you can look at a single industry, where a similar, and similarly destructive, revolution took place not long ago, which is still having the same sort of impact on us today. Restaurants, long dependent on a combination of paid advertising, professional reviews, and unbiased word-of-mouth reviews, collided head-on with the internet, and the advent of sites such as Yelp. Sorry, I’m not giving it an exclamation mark. Suddenly, these restaurants were finding themselves awash with non-professional, but extraordinarily self-important, Yelp reviewers, who declared themselves often and loudly… and they all expected special treatment. Free food, discounts, exceptional treatment. After all, they were important Yelp reviewers!
Of note: multiple accusations exist that Yelp corporate even engaged in this type of extortion, lowering or raising ratings based on whether restaurants paid for Yelp advertising.
What was the price for this? Well, it was sort of a question of what the price was if you didn’t comply. If they were not kowtowed-to, the reviewer would make clearly they would leave scathing reviews, which would be damaging for business. Ironically, negative reviews would be most damaging for small businesses just starting out, which already could not afford to provide free handouts to the slew of Yelp-ers. This trend got so bad that it even sparked a South Park episode lampooning the path of destruction.
The end result became that, if you were looking for a restaurant, you were left with good reviews from people who got something for free, bad reviews from people who were upset they didn’t get something for free, and neither really had anything to do with the actual quality. Coinciding with this trend, was the fact that genuine, experienced, professional reviewers couldn’t keep up with the number of restaurants that needed reviewing. Worse still, even if you assume that all reviews should be ignored, it limits the market to those businesses that can pay for the best marketing. Can they afford to get their name at the top of the search results? Or a nice looking commercial at the right time slot?
A backlash eventually occurred, and restauranteurs finally got fed up, with many banning reviewers of all stripes, yelp and otherwise… it became the only way to even hope of staying in business, avoiding the constant blackmail of ‘free food or you get a bad review’. Personally, I believe that we are on our way toward a similar sort of backlash against social media influencers from businesses in general, but time will tell. I can tell you that, even for us at Well Sewn, reaching out to any business, for something as simple as information, is a fight to ensure they know we are not trying to pry their money from them.
That makes for a very, very important point, that must be clarified. Well Sewn is not, and will never, do paid marketing. We do not ever solicit money nor goods from any person or business for in exchange for a positive review. While there may be companies out there that try to do reviews and recommendations, while also taking money for paid marketing, and limiting what they get paid for, at the end of the day, they are businesses, and have to focus on what benefits the finances of the business. At Well Sewn, what we do is about our passion for doing what is right for other people… and a consequence of that, we only review what we choose to, and we only recommend that which we find to be worthy of recommendation. No paid marketing involved. It’s the only way to guarantee our integrity.
The only funding that we receive, relating to our marketing, is what we fund from our pockets, and what we get from supporters, such as those through Patreon, who endorse our goals, and not anybody trying to influence how we review anything.
Does that mean that Well Sewn is not a brand, and will not offer any products? Of course not. We already have cooperatives in place with several brands around the world to bring you discounts on products from those partners, co-branded products of exceptional quality, and soon, our own product lines, as well. What it means, though, is that every brand we recommend, and every co-branded product will be something that we have found, tested, and beyond simply recommending, we believe in enough to own and put our money into ourselves. The same goes for our product lines, we will never offer anything that we believe does not offer both phenomenal quality, and exceptional value, to our customers.
We want to help our readers, and the best way to do that is for you to know that you can trust our team is not being influenced into just another paid marketing site. And for companies and partners to know that we will never become another social media nuisance, harassing them for money and merchandise.
At Well Sewn, we believe in our mantra, creating content to help people live better lives through better choices… and helping to refine the connoisseur within. Our integrity is crucial to allowing us to serve you. That is Well Sewn.
