Art, Marketing & Art of Marketing. Being evergreen.
This is my first Marketing post. STOP
I think it will be hard at first. STOP
I guess I have to stop to put a STOP each line, you may think I don’t know what to write about it. Ok, I will tell you the truth. For me it’s not so easy to talk about it cuz Marketing is the cause of a kind of division in a creative opinion. When you are going “to meet” it for the first time, you will go through a new dimension, a new way of living art.
I come clean: MARKETING IT’S THE LIGHT!
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AN ARTIST, WITHOUT MARKETING
You are in your favorite room (or place, or area, etc.). It’s YOUR place. You are with YOUR paintbrush (or mouse, or keyboard, or piano, or pencil, or screwdriver etc.) in front of YOUR artwork. You peer at it (or test it) and you said (with your head inclined to the left):
“WOW.. That’s great! I really love it!” You feel highly satisfied. You keep looking your result then, 2 minutes later, a deep sense of dissatisfaction top you up. “What does will ppl think about it??” -IT’S HORRIBLE! IT’S BANAL!- “Oh, oh my… Wha.. what it’s wrong with it?” -AAH.. TRASH! NOTHING IS RIGHT WITH IT! USELESS!-.
Once your subconscios stop keeping the capslock actvated, you decide to hide your artwork far away from the world (look of disapproval in YOUR opinion).
That’s the end of your artwork.
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AN EGOCENTRIC ARTIST, WITHOUT MARKETING
“Me, me, me. Yes, me. I love my self. Meee. M-E.“. He’s surely a great artist, he surely have the sense of beauty (his own). He decide one day to create something great which represent him. “Uhmm.. I feel ORANGE today! I’m extremely great in orange! Wonderful, let’s have an orange chair (or pictures, or whatever)”. He means: a chair with his name in orange on it, or a picture with him in an orange composition, etc.).
He’s famous all over the web. His website has thousand & thousand of visitors every day.
Two years later, he woke up: “What a terrible weather today! Soo dark.. Uhhmm.. Oh, I’m sooo sexy in black” or “my name is sooo great in a black varnished chair“.
He’s still famous (as out-of-date hero). His website has hundreds of visitors (monthly). 70% of them come on it just cuz google did not understand that he (and its content) is out of date. There is also a lot of keyword stuffing on it (Me, me, me, me, meee). That’s an old glory, wake up Google!
Two years, 45 days, 3 hours later. He’s in front of his mirror (you know what is talking about). His website is smashed in the latest versions of IE. Nobody around.
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AN ARTIST, WITH MARKETING
You cannot born artist and apply marketing tactics on your own. (If I’m wrong, and you are able to, please send me your curriculum!!!). Usually, you have to meet at first a marketing manager. After that, maybe one day you will learn how to do it, but only partially.
You are working on a idea, good or service in an artistic way. While doing it, you pay attention on esthetic issues (composition, shades, shapes, perspective etc.) without taking some material points into account.
Here comes the marketing. Your concept will be improved considering the target, the relevance of the components and the aim.
Once you get used to this process, a second step comes for the marketing manager.
Now you are able to create a concept which meet a target. BUT! Are you able to sell it? At the moment the only you can get is the attention of a potential purchasers audience. You have to prevale upon them to buy your product.
Here comes the second step of the marketing manager. He will plan the promotion, distribution and the pricing of your concept to satisfy market objectives.
At this point an artist has to make a decision:
- Let the marketing manager do his job.
You learn that your esthetic knowledge and your artistic skill can be marged with marketing to sell products. You keep learning from market. You are up to date with market. You create standards for a market. You are a trendsetter. You are evergreen. - Do the marketing manager job + your art.
You learn that you can do anybody. You are seller of yourself. You improve your artistic and esthetic tecniques but you stop over a market. You are out of date. Your target range is permanently the same. You are old-fashioned.
From here you can read back to “AN EGOCENTRIC ARTIST, WITHOUT MARKETING” in this post. - Leave it off. I’m an artist not a seller.
Your art is for you. Go back to “AN ARTIST, WITHOUT MARKETING” in this post.
