Artistic Serendipity From Brain Trauma
Here are some stories about mishap’s with an artistic seredepity. While this isnt really pertinent to social media marketing or selling your artwork, it is an interesting article about some folks who had some type of brain injury discovered the powerful and creative right-brain. In a light sided way it also lends credence to those friends and family members of mine who jokingly say I have brain damage.
http://weburbanist.com/2009/07/12/stroke-of-genius-abilities-borne-of-brain-damage/
Benefits Win Over Features…Again
Great Marketing is everywhere. This was sent to me from my parents. They know I am a marketing geek and are always on the lookout for cool copy or attention grabbing ads.
This has got to be one of the best singles ads ever printed. It is reported to have been listed in the Atlanta Journal.
SINGLE BLACK FEMALE seeks male companionship, ethnicity unimportant. I’m a very good girl who LOVES to play. I love long walks in the woods, riding in your pickup truck, hunting, camping and fishing trips, cozy winter nights lying by the fire. Candlelight dinners will have me eating out of your hand.. I’ll be at the front door when you get home from work, wearing only what nature gave me. Call (404) 875-6420 and ask for Daisy, I’ll be waiting. …..
Please scroll down . . ..
Puppy example of great copywriting and Self promotion
Not only is this funny, at least to my warped sense of humor, it truly is good copy. Lets break it down. The copy was written specifically for the target market of that puppy. Think about it. We have a lab so, the market for a lab would be a male who likes outdoor activity. Hunting especially as labs are well known for their abilities in the field.
The other important note here is the play towards an emotive response. In the ole case of features and benefits I am always harping on selling the benefits right? Selling features will only work on a very small percentage of people. (hint-if you have a guy sporting black horn-rim glasses, white socks and black tennis shoes, a pocket protector with color-coded pencils lined up in order of heighth, and a NASA badge on come to your gallery….you MIGHT decide to sell on features).
The feature of this pup may look like this (made up of course). Sir Isac Runs A Lot is a pedigreed pooch from a long line of show winners. His ancent bloodlines allow stellar 100 point confirmation by harsh judges. 100′s of Best in Show and Best of Breed in his family. Blah blah blah. You get the idea.
The benefits on the other hand are what the writer chose to tell us. They are the things that make us FEEL. Right brain, emotional.
Now if I can just figure out how to write an ad for my art that would work in the singles section.
Tim
Social Media Sports Evians Babies on Skates
World wide brand Evian takes the internet by storm. Evians new ad campaign themed, “Live Young” has made no US TV Media buy to support the new ads. Interesting yes? Evian may be one of the first big corporations (big dumb comanies as Dan Kennedy calls them) to actually put a long term vested interest in social media.
Check this out. The skating babies has over 5 million views on Youtube. For FREE! Production costs would come about no matter how you used the media. CGI is not cheap but again that cost would have been the same if you rolled the ad campaign out on TV. Whats missing is the very pricey cost for air time. There is an international TV media campaign just not including the US.
The video is viral. People will write about it and send it via email to their friends. Last Thurs the video had been watched 2.7 million times.
In this ad the babies groove to a remix of the Sugarhill Gang’s Rapper’s Delight by Dan the Automator, who has produced albums for Gorillaz, DJ Shadow and Kasabian. It was shot at Pinewood Studios, and features 96 babies created using special effects.
I think its hilarious. Admittedly I am a raging CGI fan. I am thinking it is hard to go wrong with babies, although the Ally McBeal 3D rendered dancing baby back in the day was creepy. The Evian babies are more realistically rendered and way cuter: question I have for you is…cool or creepy. Let me know.
Digital Finger Painting
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-
Feature’s and Benefits: Price not included
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/
