Nikki Simmons on thu 5 apr 01
Wendy,
Thank you so much for posting your NCECA lecture. I found it very
informative. Mind if I pick your brain?
> This is an information-needy customer or collector. Work with
>a message that will draw these collectors to your work. Don't ever
>assume that your message is obvious; provide documentation that
>further illustrates your point or perspective.
I was quite struck by this paragraph. Would you mind elaborating a little?
I think I know what you mean by this but I am not quite sure how one would
implement it.
> What makes a person that you meet today interesting? It's
>probably not their job, their sport or even their religion. Chances
>are they have something they will share with you as an identity that
>separates them from other people you may know. They have something to
>talk about-they have a new "country club." It might be traveling,
>scuba diving, hot air ballooning, short wave radio, woodturning or
>art collecting.
I have found this to be very true. I have often had people tell me later
that they bought a pot from me because they felt like we "connected". That
meant that I took the time to talk to them not just about me and my work,
but about them. My favorite "game" to play with people is: what might this
person and I have in common? Sometimes not a whole lot, but one time I
talked with someone with whom I attended kindergarten. The longer we talked
the more pots she picked up. I think people who buy art, specifically
ceramics, want to feel like they had some part in making the pot. And I
think that making a connection with its maker allows them to live
vicariously through my mug :-)
Thanks again for sharing the lecture,
Sincerely,
Nikki Simmons
nsimmons@mid-mo.net
Wendy Rosen on thu 5 apr 01
NECA 2001 Lecture
Marketing Your Work
By Wendy Rosen
For the past 20 years I've watched craft artists create and
build their businesses. One thing I've learned is that no other media
is more all-consuming than that of pottery. In fact, ceramic artists
seem to spend more hours making less money than nearly any other
craft media. Why? Perhaps because it's more tactile than other media.
Perhaps it's because the process doesn't provide instant
gratification like glass or jewelry. Perhaps it's because of the
mystery, risk and the failure rate in the kiln, or the hypnotic state
a wheel can easily provide.
Whatever it is, potters spend 100% of their time making work
and very little time in the planning, merchandising or selling of
their work. Potters work harder, they don't work smarter.
This session hopes to impart some wisdom to help you work
smarter, make fewer mistakes and ultimately survive so that, 20 years
from now, you can say your career path was as rewarding for your
wallet as it was for your soul. Many of you may discover that you
have no Social Security at 65. A few of you may inherit some wealth
allowing you to pursue your passion without financial reward. But
most of you will create families and educate your children, and will
need a reasonable and stable income to do so.
Over the past 20 years the marketplace for selling pottery
and ceramic art has changed dramatically. What began in the '60s with
a handful of hippies at retail fairs has become a sophisticated
marketplace with wholesale trade shows. Your work could end up
anywhere, from a resort boutique to a museum store, direct mail
catalogs to galleries, or even sold on television via QVC.
The demand for quality fine crafts has never been greater.
Dozens of galleries consign ceramics for more than $2,000 per piece.
Hundreds of retailers purchase craft work that sells for as high as
that same amount. And as many as 25,000 stores carry production and
functional work.
What kind of store or gallery will sell your work?
Historically, ceramic artists have created sculptural work only for
consignment or functional work only for outright purchase. Today
things are changing. The store that sells your $300 teapots might be
just as interested in your more limited-edition or one-of-a-kind
pieces. There are fewer and fewer "consignment galleries," while the
number of "production or broad spectrum galleries" that will purchase
your work is growing at an incredible rate.
Why do so many consignment galleries fail? Often it's because
they are under-capitalized. But it's also because the entire job of
advertising, promoting and selling your work falls only on them. The
relationship between artist and gallery is more patronage than
partnership.
Success happens when an artist becomes a true "partner" with
a gallery in the promotion of work, providing great photography,
professionally written materials, prospective client lists and
advertising. Galleries and shops that pay for work instead of
consigning it become partners with an investment in your success.
In their partnerships with galleries, glass artists and
jewelers work together to create demand for their work. The result
provides them with an opportunity to raise their values and prices
(this year in particular), creating more profit and cushion so they
can spend money on branding their image, creating promotional
relationships with their stores and galleries, producing catalogs and
opening their own retail outlets.
These artists have larger studios and higher overhead. Each
year they plan to their growth. Growth requires them to create work
that is fresh, diverse in pricepoints (from production to sculpture)
and that appeals to several market segments. If and when a recession
comes, they are prepared to aggressively support their retailers and
adapt to the new realities of the marketplace.
The glass community has nurtured an army of rabid collectors
who will spend anything for anything. They have educated customers
about process and used celebrity and glamour to romance the value of
work. They have created a network that acts like an "oil cartel" to
keep values in line and collectors hungry. You must intimately know
who the customer or collector is, how to target them and how to sell
them.
Almost 80 percent are women aged 35-54, highly educated with
a home valued at $300,000 or above. They live in both urban and
suburban environments and are individualists.
This is an information-needy customer or collector. Work with
a message that will draw these collectors to your work. Don't ever
assume that your message is obvious; provide documentation that
further illustrates your point or perspective.
What Collectors Tell Us
Last year we surveyed thousands of AmericanStyle magazine readers to
find out who they were, so that we could begin the task of expanding
the marketplace for contemporary crafts.
o These craft art consumers spend their weekends gallery hopping and
traveling to museums, art fairs and exhibitions, purchasing art along
the way.
o These new collectors incorporates art into every facet of their
lives, wearing it, entertaining with it and purchasing it for gifts.
o Most are highly educated, and that college education is what
changed their view of the world. They have expectations and demands
that their parents never had.
o In college they studied different cultures, history, art and design
and even architecture. They are the first generation to demand good
design. Now in their forties, they are approaching the peak of their
careers and income potential.
o The role of art in their lives is expanding from paper and canvas
to household items, furniture, clothing, television and CD-ROM. Art
has indeed entered the mainstream of American life. The art of the
next generation is not the art of their fathers.
Unlike their parents, the country club or church social group
is less important to boomers. These educated and affluent baby
boomers are developing new and unusual identities that make them
unique as compared to their family, friends and colleagues. They
expected to find personal fulfillment in their jobs, and when that
didn't happen they went elsewhere in pursuit of adventure and passion.
What makes a person that you meet today interesting? It's
probably not their job, their sport or even their religion. Chances
are they have something they will share with you as an identity that
separates them from other people you may know. They have something to
talk about-they have a new "country club." It might be traveling,
scuba diving, hot air ballooning, short wave radio, woodturning or
art collecting.
In this day when most daytime college (non-computer) art
classes are shrinking to the point of extinction, the evening
continuing-education classes are filled with professionals with a
passion, seeking a diversion from their boring lives of law and
accounting, returning to night school to study jewelry, ceramics,
glass art, furniture making and woodturning.
Are these new "artists" your future competitors? Perhaps a
few, but most of them will be your future collectors. They will
understand how much work goes into each piece. They will honor,
respect and even envy your lifestyle and the choice you made to
create a career in art.
The Changing Marketplace
As a community or an industry, artists are changing as well.
They are breaking out of the boxes that have confined them to one
media or one type of work.
Production artists with solid studio businesses are now
discovering that there is time for exploring one-of-a-kind work
again. They are surprised to learn that those same production
galleries that sell $65 boxes and bowls have nurtured their customers
and can now sell work that is priced up to $3,000.
Educators are discovering, like other professionals, that job
security is a thing of the past. The erosion of tenure slots at every
university has forced them to put one foot outside the ivy towers of
academia into the reality of the marketplace. For the first time they
are learning how to make and sell their own work and have become
better teachers by bringing the real world into the classroom.
One-of-a-kind artists like Dale Chihuly have discovered the
need to protect the value of his work in the secondary auction market
by cultivating younger baby boomer collectors. He did this by
creating pieces that sell for less than $3000.
When I entered this community 16 years ago, I discovered a
group of creative people who wanted to move forward in a new
direction, to invent a new industrial revolution for things made by
hand with thoughtful purpose.
Today the marketplace is coming to you. The path to collectors is
getting clearer and easier every day. If you're going to start along
this path be prepared for the dips and bumps in the road-there will
be many. Learn to adapt to change. Successful artists are
quick-change artists. Strategies have to change daily to meet today's
demands.
Get some basic business and writing skills; take a course in
PR or advertising. Right now you're spending most of your time using
the right side of your brain, but success in any career requires
using the left side as well.
You will be entering the marketplace at a time when demand for good
design is at an all-time high. If you respond to their inner needs
and uphold the ideals they hold dear, you'll succeed. It is your work
that gives them hope and nurtures the little voice in them that tells
them that unique individuals can still make a difference in this
complicated world. Identify with their many tribes and groups and
you'll find a market for your work.
Wendy Rosen
The Rosen Group
3000 Chestnut Ave #304
Baltimore, Maryland 21211
410.889-3093 410.243.7089 fax
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Gayle Bair on fri 6 apr 01
There can be a downside to connecting that being taking too much time to
talk...the person becomes so engrossed in the discussion that they don't
buy. I have done that twice now! Hopefully I have learned my lesson! One
person did call me later and wants to come out to my studio.
Gayle Bair-Bainbridge Island WA
Wendy wrote>
> What makes a person that you meet today interesting? It's
>probably not their job, their sport or even their religion. Chances
>are they have something they will share with you as an identity that
>separates them from other people you may know. They have something to
>talk about-they have a new "country club." It might be traveling,
>scuba diving, hot air ballooning, short wave radio, woodturning or
>art collecting.
Nikki wrote>
I have found this to be very true. I have often had people tell me later
that they bought a pot from me because they felt like we "connected". That
meant that I took the time to talk to them not just about me and my work,
but about them. My favorite "game" to play with people is: what might this
person and I have in common? Sometimes not a whole lot, but one time I
talked with someone with whom I attended kindergarten. The longer we talked
the more pots she picked up. I think people who buy art, specifically
ceramics, want to feel like they had some part in making the pot. And I
think that making a connection with its maker allows them to live
vicariously through my mug :-)
Terrance Lazaroff on fri 6 apr 01
>NECA 2001 Lecture
>Marketing Your Work
>By Wendy Rosen
>
Thank you for your insight to the world of marketing one"s work. You are a
jewel amongst the mudpies.
Terrance
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