Morgan Britt on fri 26 mar 99
Paul,
I attended the "Small Studio Marketing Workshop". I went and looked for my
notes and handout but they seem to have entered the great black hole. I'll
do my best without.
I'm not going to keep repeating "if I recall correctly" so pardon any
miscommunications and I'd appreciate help from anyone else who attended.
The moderator had great intentions but had a hard time speaking in front of
the group and staying focused so it was a bit hard to track. Each panel
member showed a slide show of their studio and their work.
One person did retail/craft shows and galleries, another almost exclusively
wholesale, and the other both. The wholesaler is the one who pretty much
supported (92%) of the household income. The others were right around
50%. They showed the amount of clay purchased and the number of finished
pieces made per year on a chart. The full timer made (I believe) 2-3000 per
year. She also sold ikebana bowls to a broker who took them to wholesale
flower shows.
Marketing ideas were typical; retail location, pricing so as not to undercut
galleries, allowing for fallout (breakage, kiln disaster or just downright
ugly), the importance of a good display booth, scheduling to make sure you
can be reliable with your orders, looking for an alternative to the
traditional outlets (ie ikebana), keeping your work displayed in theme
groups (color, type of use, vary heights within a group) etc.
The main figures I actually recall were in order to clear $40,000 worth of
income, you had to sell $100,000 worth of work. That really makes one think
about the expected take home after the costs of booth/time away from studio
when attending a craft fair. (Surely that sentence could have been better
constructed, o well).
Another great source for marketing information was the breakfast hosted by
Wendy Rosen Thursday morning. That woman is a business woman. I bought her
book and picked up Niche magazine. Even though I don't intend to sell
wholesale, I think there will be some great insight to just plain plain
smart business practice. Hope the book is as impressive as you are - thank
you Wendy.
Hope this helps
Morgan
Paul Lewing wrote:
> ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> I really would have liked to go to the "Small Studio Marketing" panel.
> What did they have to say? Did they offer any good tips on marketing?
>
--
Morgan Britt
morgan@unlimited.net
| |
|
