How Most Suit Businesses Aim for the Wrong Customers (And How to Fix It Without Losing Your Shirt)
- Andris Vizulis
- Oct 20
- 4 min read
Updated: Dec 8
I've been watching successful suit businesses, gentlemen who've been killing it for years, suddenly start pulling their hair out over their marketing. And frankly, it's not their fault. The game has changed, and most tailors are still playing by the old rules.
Here's what I'm seeing: We've got two types of sartorial businessmen reaching out to us, and both are dealing with the same fundamental problem, just at different stages:
First group (IT STOPPED WORKING): These are the veterans who built solid businesses the right way. They've been running Google ads or campaigns on Social networks for years, driving folks to their appointment pages or store locations. Worked like a charm... until it didn't. Now their cost per customer has gone through the roof, and they're watching their margins disappear faster than a good scotch at a networking event.
Second group (Scaling plateau): These are the guys who figured out the advertising game and are spending serious money, we're talking tens of thousands per month, profitably. But when they tried to grow bigger and spend more on new customer generation? Everything fell apart.
The campaigns that worked beautifully at smaller budgets just couldn't handle the increased volume.
Sound familiar? Yeah, I thought it might.
The Root Cause: Fighting Over the Wrong Market Segment
From what we've learned, people take a long time to make a decision about buying suits. When it's an affordable, off-the-rack purchase, the decision might take a few days.
But if it's a bespoke, made-to-measure garment, they are not making that decision impulsively...
Here's how any suit marketplace (people in the market for suits, not the total population) approximately breaks down based on general market data and our own findings:
5% of people are ready to make a buying decision within the next 30 days
50% of people will be ready to make a buying decision within 90-180 days
45% of people aren't even thinking about it yet
Most companies—and their competitors—are aggressively targeting that tiny 5% slice. But within that 5%, you're not just competing with other suit providers. You're also facing general competitors like the entire wedding industry and everyone who offers wedding services. It's an incredibly competitive and expensive place to operate.
The Better Strategy: Intent-Based Branding (aka The Hollywood System)
Instead of competing for the expensive 5%, smart suit retailers focus on cultivating the 50% who will be ready in 90-180 days. Think about it this way: Would you rather have a small piece of a tiny, expensive pie, or a generous slice of a much larger, less competitive one?
Real-World Example: The Custom Suit Tailor
Consider our client, a custom suit tailor who had been generating quality leads at low cost through Google Ads for almost a decade. With ad inflation, targeting changes, and increased competition, his customer acquisition costs became unviable.
Instead of fighting harder for those immediate buyers, we asked a different question: "What's going through a man's mind months before he decides he needs a custom suit?"
The answer: It usually starts with doubt about his current wardrobe, or he's got an important event coming up and wants to look his absolute best and appropriate to the dress code.
So here's what we did...
Our intent-based branding approach: We created content that actually helped people on socials. Not pushy sales stuff, but genuinely useful information:
We filmed a video series titled "Are Your Suit Pants Too Long/Short?" and "Is Your Sports Coat Too Tight?" These educational videos helped viewers identify if their suits needed an upgrade. We also created a video called "The Proper Rules of Wearing a Tuxedo."
We ensured this content reached people in positions requiring suits (lawyers, salespeople, fintech professionals, C-level executives, CEOs) and those attending charity galas, events, or weddings.
This wasn't a direct sales pitch pushing transactions. It was genuinely helpful content designed to assist the exact people who would potentially become clients in the future.
When these prospects eventually reach the 5% "ready to buy" segment, you won't be competing for them with the whole market—you'll already be their preferred choice because you were the most helpful, and they've spent time bonding with your brand.
Why This Works
Most businesses are impatient. They want the sale today, this week, this month. They can't see past the immediate transaction to the bigger opportunity.
But you? You can be building relationships with future clients while your competitors are burning cash fighting over today's buyers.
When those future clients are ready to invest in quality craftsmanship, you won't be competing with anyone. You'll be the obvious choice—the helpful expert they already know and trust.
How to Implement This Strategy
The key is developing foresight to understand where the real money lies. Stop thinking like everyone else. The real money isn't in today's urgent buyers—it's in tomorrow's educated ones.
Identify trigger events - Life events, professions, occurrences, and problems that make potential clients think about getting a custom suit in the future
Create genuinely helpful content around these situations. Not sales pitches—actual value that makes their lives better.
Use paid advertising (carefully) to get this content in front of the 50% segment who will need a custom suit within 90-180 days
Build relationships by being genuinely helpful rather than immediately selling
The Bottom Line
If your advertising costs are climbing or you've hit a wall trying to grow, you're probably fighting the wrong battle.
Stop competing for today's 5% and start cultivating tomorrow's 50%.
The real money isn't in competing for today's urgent buyers—it's in becoming the obvious choice for tomorrow's educated ones.
The result? Lower advertising costs, higher-quality clients, and a business that grows sustainably instead of the rollercoaster ride that seasonality and overreliance on word of mouth provide.
Plus, you'll build something valuable: a reputation as the go-to expert in your market. That's worth more than any single sale.
Ready to stop fighting over scraps and start building real market dominance?
Let's have a conversation about implementing the Hollywood System in your business. We'll show you exactly how to generate more qualified appointments and walk-ins without breaking the bank on advertising, and sell more suits here:
To your success,
Andris
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