Art Marketing Buzz

The link here is to a review of a very cool digital paint app for IPOD touch or your IPhone.  I was first introduced to this when Jorge Columbo did the cover for New Yorker magazine last month.  I was in the process of jurying for an art show that was on the bubble of allowing a “Digital Artist” in the show.  I sent the youtube video with my juried pieces so they could see basically one process for applying digital paint.  This link is the original article in MAC World magazine I saw, it has a time lapse video of Jorge painting the cover . 

Here is another Iphone drawing video, this  from 26 year old Harpo from Okinawa.  Digital Paint Video

Very cool stuff-

One of the most difficult areas for many business owners is how to price their products or services. Many times a prospect or client say, “Well I would buy it if it were in my price range.” That idea then sticks with a business owner and they are tempted to lower the price–just to sell more products.

Many times lowering the price can create more challenges than one had to start with. Here are a few things that happen when you choose to lower your price: Price reductions decrease net profits, require more sales to hit the income or profit target, likely increase demands to drop price even more, raises the number of products you need to create, and, in the end, as John Jantsch (author of Duct Tape Marketing) says, “There will always be someone willing to go out of business faster than you.”



So, in selling your work remember, price is not a benefit. Most generally a sale is not determined by the cost of your product. If you truly “sell” your customers and prospects, they will purchase your products/services no matter what price you determine.


When a prospect or client chooses not to buy…and they claim the cost had something to do with it…they probably wouldn’t have purchased anyway.



As an artist, or other small business entrepreneur, we have two primary jobs. Create passionate art (insert your business or service) and, marketer. Our job is to produce and sell our products or services, even if you use an agent. The art of selling has nothing to do with the price of the product.

If done properly price should not be an issue, when your contacts find out about the price, they should be determined to purchase no matter what the cost.



So, find “real” benefits (value) to sell to your customers and prospects. Focus on emotion. Help them to see how great their life will be with your creation in their home and you’ve got a customer. Find pain points, help them recognize them, provide the solution and you will have a new client. Set your prices and hold fast. If you’ve marketed correctly, you will still have customers anxious to do business with you!


See also these other articles from the blog

http://www.artmarketingbuzz.com/marketing/the-art-of-pricing-for-profit/

There are many ways to build your brand while marketing your art.  As fine artists we have a difficult time, like many others, trying to stand apart from everyone else.  Vocal artists have it even tougher…small acappella groups tougher even yet. I mean how do you separate yourself when you have the same music and the same parts to sing, or the same canvas and palette?  That is what makes an  artist an artist.  Check out this uber cool vid.  The vocalist do a great job of branding while adding some visual entertainment to a “audio” piece of art.

Voca People, A Lesson in Branding Art
 

let me know what you think.

There are a ton of things we can do that will build our brand.  Outlined below are a few basics that should be a given but truly are not that common.

1-Thank-you cards.  Yep, I know very boring.  But the bottom line is very few people do this.   Think for just a minute when was the last time you were sent a thank-you card for a purchase? So I have found the best way to do this is to send a thank-you about a week after you deliver your product or service. Handwritten is best.

Then a few days later follow up with a phone call.  Yep old fashioned talk-on-the phone communication. Thank-your client again and ask if everything arrived in good order (if you had to ship it).  If you hand delivered your masterpiece for a local or regional client ask if they are still happy with the placement of their piece.

A month after that follow up with another courtesy call making sure everything is ok and that there are no quality challenges.

These follow up touches are not a pitch fest to pimp your product or backend sales.  Do that through your regular content driven ezine, newsletter or blog.

Finally make sure you use permission base marketing to keep your client informed of upcoming projects and work in progress.

2-Elevator speech.  I have harped on this before as is it critical yet few people take advantage of this simple process.  When you have the opportunity to meet new people, a well thought out 30 second speech can speak volumes in presenting yourself as an artist.   Even in the professional high end sales ranks it amazes me how few people actually do this. So, write it, edit it, finalize it, practice it and present it.

Until next time.

Live-Love-Laugh

Wheeew…that has been an absolute drag.  What I am talking about is a snafu I ran into when I upgraded my WP software to 2.7.1.  Yikes.  I did a few things way to casually and it cost me 4 months of posts.  Here is what I did wrong.

1-I didn’t back up my current db right before I installed the upgrade.

2-I didn’t turn-off all of the plugins.

Yep so guess what happen?  When I upgraded I was no longer able to see the dashboard or the left panel which is where all of the admin stuff is.  I couldn’t just un-install and re-install because I had not backed up and would have lost all of the data. Nice.  So after hours and hours each week and literally months of trying to figure this out, I found the answer on a forum.  Yep.  Sadly I didn’t find it earlier.  My own fault as I must have looked at it 100 times over the last few months, kind of like moving the jelly in the fridge to find the jelly in the fridge….might be a guy thing.  No, better yet, lets use the ADD dyslexia thing.  Ha.  Bottom line, my own ding-dongness.  No biggie got it whipped in about 2 minutes when I figured out the “HOW”.  I figured out what to do and why much earlier, just couldn’t figure out how.  So there you have it. Stay tuned as I bring you up to speed on what is happening with Art Marketing Buzz and the Studio.

Tim

Was just checking out amorphic demonstrations. I am a big fan of Julian Beever who is dubbed “pavement picasso”. Great stuff!

Here are some other street artist.

http://www.european-street-painting.com/
http://streetpainting.tv/
http://www.truveo.com/The-Pavement-Picasso-Julian-Beever/id/275929490

And finally an awesome short pdf on Julian Beevers anamorphism is here.

Very Cool and unique art using data. I have not seen much of this and had not previously considered it as art. Viewed in the manor presented I thought it was awesome. Click here it for your perusal.

Here is an awesome video that Allison sent to me. She is a music geek so was entralled by the harmony. Me, I thought the puppets were a riot. One note though I dont necessarily agree with the “negative” tone regarding economy and so forth. We will make our own way and I choose not to participate in the recession. Business is booming here!

Tim

I am not sure who the originator of this is so unfortunately I cannot give proper attribution. It arrived in my mailbox. I love the short story and it is presented in its entirety.

The Son

This is great. It will make your day!
The ending will surprise you.

Take my Son

A wealthy man and his son loved to collect rare works of art. They had everything in their collection, from Picasso to Raphael. They would often sit together and admire the great works of art.
When the Vietnam conflict broke out, the son went to war. He was very courageous and died in battle while rescuing another soldier. The father was notified and grieved deeply for his only son.
About a month later, just before Christmas, there was a knock at the door. A young man stood at the door with a large package in his hands.

He said, “Sir, you don’t know me, but I am the soldier for whom your son gave his life. He saved many lives that day, and he was carrying me to safety when a bullet struck him in the heart and he died instantly. He often talked about you, and your love for art.” The young man held out this package. “I know this isn’t much. I’m not really a great artist, but I think your son would have wanted you to have this.”
The father opened the package. It was a portrait of his son, painted by the young man. He stared in awe at the way the soldier had captured the personality of his son in the painting. The father was so drawn to the eyes that his own eyes welled up with tears. He thanked the young man and offered to pay him for the picture. “Oh, no sir, I could never repay what your son did for me. It’s a gift.”
The father hung the portrait over his mantle. Every time visitors came to his home he took them to see the portrait of his son before he showed them any of the other great works he had collected.
The man died a few months later. There was to be a great auction of his paintings. Many influential people gathered, excited over seeing the great paintings and having an opportunity to purchase one for their collection.

On the platform sat the painting of the son. The auctioneer pounded his gavel. “We will start the bidding with this picture of the son. Who will bid for this picture?”

There was silence.
Then a voice in the back of the room shouted, “We want to see the famous paintings. Skip this one.”
but the auctioneer persisted. “Will somebody bid for this painting. Who will start the bidding? $100, $200?”
Another voice angrily. “We didn’t come to see this painting. We came to see the Van Goghs, the Rembrandts. Get on with the real bids!”
But still the auctioneer continued. “The son! The son! Who’ll take the son?”
Finally, a voice came from the very back of the room. It was the longtime gardener of the man and his son. “I’ll give $10 for the painting.” Being a poor man, it was all he could afford.
“We have $10, who will bid $20?”
“Give it to him for $10. Let’s see the masters.”
“$10 is the bid, won’t someone bid $20?”
The crowd was becoming angry. They didn’t want the picture of the son.
They wanted the more worthy investments for their collections.
The auctioneer pounded the gavel. “Going once, twice, SOLD for $10!”
A man sitting on the second row shouted, “Now let’s get on with the collection!”
The auctioneer laid down his gavel. “I’m sorry, the auction is over.”

“What about the paintings?”

I am sorry. When I was called to conduct this auction, I was told of a secret stipulation in the will. I was not allowed to reveal that stipulation until this time. Only the painting of the son would be auctioned Whoever bought that painting would inherit the entire estate, including the paintings.
The man who took the son gets everything!”

God gave His son 2,000 years ago to die on the cross. Much like the auctioneer, His message today is:
“The son, the son, who’ll take the son?”
Because, you see, whoever takes the Son gets everything.
FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, WHO SO EVER BELIEVETH, SHALL HAVE ETERNAL LIFE…THAT’S LOVE

God Bless