When it comes to the holiday season, in both business and in life, there's really no better time of year. It's a time to reflect, give thanks and gather with family and friends. But it is also a time when success is as vital to the survival of retail establishments as paint was to Picasso's canvas.
The holiday season presents a special set of opportunities that enables artists and art gallery owners alike to stretch their minds and imaginations to bring customers into the shop during the season and beyond. Whether an art gallery specializes in six-figure sales of high-profile pieces or $60 sales of paper, posters and plates, creative marketing techniques can increase sales during the holiday season and bring customers back after the last ornament has been taken off the tree.
Don't just rely on the tried-and-true holiday art walk to increase your seasonal sales. Sylvia White, owner of Contemporary Artists' Services, a management-consulting firm in Los Angeles which specializes in career development for visual artists, encourages gallery owners to tap into artists' creativity to bring customers in. Ask a group of artists to make Christmas-tree ornaments, she suggested, or ask a them to make menorahs. Ask a group of artists to use their creativity in a way they never have before.
"What I like to do is think of the artist I am working with and ask them to make something that might be particularly relevant to their work," she said. "I once asked a bronze sculptor to do a fireplace screen, and it turned out great. It's something he would have never done himself, and he loved the idea of someone suggesting it."
Once the artist creates that holiday piece, White recommended the gallery owner display it next to some of the artist's traditional work. Ask a glass blower to make an ornament, for example, and display it next to one of his $2,000 vases or bowls. Ask a woodworker to carve a dreidel, she said, and sit it next to one of his most exquisite works. "If the artist is a painter, have them use their style and adapt it to a functional object for the season," she said.
Give the Gift of Creative Shows
White also recommends gallery owners create a show around a holiday theme. "There was a toy show once where artists were invited to make toys that really worked," White added. "It was fabulous." Or, recommended Susan Schear, owner of ArtIsIn LTC, an Oradell, N.J.-based marketing firm that helps artists develop and market their businesses, "you could do a whole lighting show with all different candlesticks made by different artists in several different media," she said. "Kwanzaa is really evolved," she added. "Why not do a show on the history behind Kwanzaa?"
Jack Appelman, c.e.o. of Applejack Art Partners in Manchester, Vt., a company that prints and licenses artists' works, said gallery owners need to do more than just package items together to create an unforgettable show. "Years ago, a gallery could have a Christmas print released for the Christmas season," he said. "They would do a show with an artist and have some kind of event, and it would bring people in. That doesn't do it any longer. Successful galleries are moving toward the model of a gift shop in a way, where they revolve a show around a print and include other products that carry that theme as well."
For example, a gallery might hang a print of an angel and couple it with a piece of glass work that is an angel or a box of hand-painted cards with angels featured on the front. "It also plants the seed for the customer to come back," he said. "And it allows that customer to make impulse buys."
Festive Promotions
You can be impulsive about your promotional ideas as well, White said. For example, why not stop in at the five-and-dime and buy regular items--colorful string, or a Plexiglas box--and ask your artists to create something holiday-themed in their own individual way? "When you give an artist a generic tool to work with and say, `Do something,' you can use the pieces as a hook to get people in there," White said.
If you're more comfortable with traditional marketing techniques, such as a direct-mail campaign, White strongly suggested you don't simply send out a black-and-white postcard. She advised investing in design and color to guarantee your customers will come in. "A lot of gallery owners and artists make the mistake of saving money by not printing a color image on an announcement or by not sending out something that is really gorgeous," she said. "What you send out can really make or break someone's mind in terms of coming to see the show."
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