The 5 P’s of Marketing
Thanks go to Cynthia Ryder (www.mboot.net)
for her article.
Recently a fellow art jeweler posted a question in a forum regarding
people who “don't think twice about spending $100 in a department store
for a piece of jewelry that everyone is wearing but think spending $50
for a one of a kind piece is too much”. She was wondering how to get
those people to understand that they would be “getting a great bargain
for an artisan piece of jewelry”.
This query leads to the following response on my part:
This will be a round about sort of answer, so be patient. It's based
on the 5 P's of marketing, which are Product, Place, Price, Packaging,
and Promotion and the idea that sometimes we should not even try to
convince people that they are getting a bargain on one of kind (OOAK)
artisan jewelry.
The hardest part about understanding selling and marketing for our art
jewelry is to actually understand the wants, needs and expectations our
real target market segments or the people who buy it. The reality for
most of us that make art jewelry is that people who really like and
understand OOAK art jewelry expect to pay a premium for it and are
rarely ever shopping for a bargain and they are also not the people that
shop for $100 pieces at the department store so that they can have one
just like everybody else.
I know that for our business, our biggest actual target market is our
“Dynamic Darlings” or female, ages 45-65, no dependant children,
post-secondary education, professional working or self-employed (they
have their own disposable income), they are liberal thinking artistic
types who wear high-end, high quality classic designer clothes and great
shoes. They “hate” to see the same jewelry design they bought on someone
else, so we know that they expect OOAK pieces. They know who they are
and are comfortable with it and do not mind letting others see it. They
also have an expectation of quality and for them quality is not often in
a product with a price tag of less than $100.00. That said, we do have
lower end jewelry items for the people looking to 'gift' others or
people warming up to what we do and these people are market segments.
Know them, name them and then market to each of them.
Once you have identified your real target market segments, you have
to figure out where they shop (which A&C shows, galleries, boutiques...)
and then work like the dickens to get your jewelry in those places. The
other caveat is that your work will evolve, you will refine your style
and your target market will change with your changes so your
marketing/selling strategy will have to evolve too, so stay aware of
those changes and change your marketing accordingly. Speaking from
experience it is actually very easy to leave yourself behind, and you’ll
discover that a location that worked well for a few years no longer
works for you because either you have changed (extremely likely) or the
buying demographic of the site has changed (quite probable).
Art jewelry is not for everyone, so don't apologize for that, and don't
bother trying to justify it to the people who “Just Don't Get It”. There
is always a market segment that will not understand the
nature of OOAK work, so all you should do is explain that you do
handcraft each item, that it is OOAK and that it is not for everyone.
Always price the work in accordance with your main target market's
expectations. To do otherwise will not work well for your business. You
are going to differentiate yourself because of the uniqueness of your
product, the quality of your personal service and presentation (part of
promotion), congruent packaging and the place you are selling at, not on
your price.
An artist or artisan will rarely succeed in business if they are basing
their product differentiation on price alone. A department store will
most always win that battle but it can rarely win in regards to product,
place, packaging or promotion. So focus on what it is that makes you
different and market the dickens out of that; and really, it is 'YOU'
that makes what you do different from what any other artisan does. It
does work and it does take work, but it can be done.
In coming back to the topic of the original question about changing
their minds, for those minds that can be changed, education is the way.
Explain the work, but again, not everyone that you explain the work to
is going to 'get it'. For those that do understand, that is why we
should also have the more moderately priced simple pieces, it allows
them to experience the nature or essence of the work without the larger
price tag.
Explaining or educating about the work also comes down you understanding
both the features of the work and the benefits of it. The features are
the tangible bits (sterling silver, type of stone, construction methods,
etc.) and the benefits are the intangibles (our wearers always get
complimented by others on their special pieces, it is OOAK so you will
have the only one like it, sterling is such a precious metal of heirloom
quality). The features and benefits of the work will be as different as
each artisan's work and you will have to figure what is relevant to
yours and which benefit(s) will apply to the browsing client at that
moment.
To sum this up, know and understand your own product, know who your
target market segments are and the price range they typically attach to
items of value, know the places they shop and be there, know how to talk
to or promote yourself to them, and know what kind of packaging (from
booth to boxes to bags) they expect for the price of the product.
Lastly, the easiest way to find out about a lot of this is to ask the
help of your shoppers by asking their opinions. They will do a
surprising amount of this work for you for a mere “Thank you”.
Cynthia Ryder © 2007
Used with permission of the author
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