Today I want to talk a little about PLACEMENT. This has to do with where you sell your product. The distribution channel should be appropriate to the customer's perception of its type and quality. Another way to think about this is to look at the product's position and then find the best place to sell.
So I'm going to try to find the best PLACEMENT for my little original watercolor paintings.
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First I'll look at my market position.
1) Who are my buyers? People who buy original art might be collectors or investors. If they're collectors, then they might be collectors of a particular subject matter (cats or flowers or landscapes), or medium (watercolor), or artist (me), or style (impressionism). People might even be interested in certain colors or sizes for decorating purposes. Buyers of original art tend to think of themselves as individuals, with taste and style.
2) What's the product space? The art market ranges from the very high end (original Picassos) to the mundane (ACEOs, wall murals). You can buy original paintings in galleries or street fairs. You can also buy art online through sites like eBay and Etsy. Reproductions of original art are available as posters everywhere from Walmart to Spencers to posters.com and Cafepress.com
2a) Where are my paintings within the product space? Small, watercolors by unknown artists are pretty close to the mundane end of the spectrum, I'm afraid.
3) What is the public impression of my product? Well-known and popular artists in the public mind include Georgia O'Keeffe, VanGogh, Monet, DaVinci, Picasso, Klimt, etc. Original art evokes an impression of culture and refinement. Reproductions are culture and refinement, once removed.
4) What is the public's 'ideal vector', or preferred combination of attributes? The average art buyer is looking for an original piece that is visually interesting and emotionally compelling, at a "reasonable" price. The value of the piece is favorably affected by its context, such as the reputation of the artist or backstory.
4a) How does my product match the ideal vector? Some of my compositions are interesting, and my use of color is "creative". My prices are low for original art, but my medium is mundane and I'm an unknown artist.
Okay, now I indulge in a bit of personal reflection.
In fact, I am exactly the kind of person who would buy a small piece from an artist like me. I am an art buyer, and I come from a family of art buyers. I love ethnic art, bright colors, landscapes and impressionism. The story of the piece is more important to me than the fame of the artist, or the possiblity of resale. So, I usually buy directly from the artist -- at art fairs or street markets. I'm really hesitant to buy an original piece online... unless, I had already seen a lot of the artist's pieces. Or, maybe if the piece was at a very modest price and I could think of it as an introduction to the artist's work.
I think that a lot of these considerations apply to anything sold online. Potential buyers may hesitate to buy a purse from me because they don't know how well constructed they are, and can't tell from my pictures. It's really hard to judge the color of something online too. Even a different monitor can make a big difference.
Consequently, I've decided to try to sell prints of my watercolors through an alternate channel to see how that goes. Check this out: http://www.cafepress.com/ArtsiBitsi. Right now I'm using the free store model, so I can only have one print per piece, but I'm thinking of paying the extra money so that I can sell t-shirts and calendars and posters in every print. What do you think?
If you are selling handcrafts online, do you find that most of your customers got to know your work offline first?
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