Successful Art Business, Planning and Marketing Tools and Techniques You Can Use

Next to creating your art, the most important function in your art business is marketing. If you are not concerned about marketing then you are more likely just pursuing your passion or engaging in a hobby. If you are looking to grow your brand, expand your markets and make money, then marketing should be on your list of business skills to master.

What is marketing?

There are a lot of ways to look at a subject or concept and marketing is no different. People confuse marketing with sales or marketing with advertising. Marketing is a broad concept that encompasses much more.

According to the American Marketing Association, “Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large “ While this is certainly a comprehensive definition what does it really mean?

The Four P’s

One way to look at marketing is what has become to be known as the Four P’s. The concept of the Four P’s was developed by E. Jerome McCarthy in his 1960 book, Basic Marketing: A Managerial Approach as a way to categorize the main elements that go into marketing. As a business owner or marketing manager you have control of how you use these elements in your marketing efforts in what has become known as your “marketing mix”.

The Four P’s stand for:

• Product
• Price
• Place (Distribution)
• Promotion

Product

This part of the model is about your art, your products and the services you provide. You may have a hard time of thinking of your art as a product but to succeed in the marketing world you will need to put these thoughts aside. Here are some of the ingredients that go into the Product part of the marketing mix:

• Product offerings – originals, prints, reproductions, designs
• Service offerings – hanging, coordination, framing
• Selection, options
• Sizes
• Packaging
• Genre, style, fashion
• Service and support
• Guarantees and warranties

Price

• The price element of your marketing mix relates to your pricing strategy. Some of the ingredients of price are:
• Your overall pricing strategy with respect to your competition and your market.
• Payment and terms your offer
• Discounts and other types of sales promotions
• Pricing for retail, galleries, wholesalers and other channels
• Types of payments accepted

Place

Place is better described as where you distribute and sell your art. Examples of distribution alternatives include: selling out of your studio, having a gallery represent you, utilizing an art representative or selling on the internet just to name a few. The Place components of your marketing mix include:

• Channels of distribution – gallery, studio, retail, shows, internet
• Geographic coverage – local, regional, national, worldwide
• Inventory levels and management
• Transportation and delivery
• Order processing and fulfillment

Promotion

When most people (and many business people as well) think of marketing they are really describing the Promotion piece of the marketing mix. As you have seen there is much more to marketing! Here are a few of the components that go into making up the Promotion part of the Four P’s:

• Advertising
• Public relations
• Selling
• Promotions
• Internet
• Social media and networking
• Direct marketing

Ok, these are the basic elements of marketing. Take some time and think about what you want to change about your marketing efforts.