How do you price your work? Do you take into effect what’s going on in the marketplace? Changes in the economy should be affecting the way artists view the current consumer market.
I have been following the recent quarterly reports and have been posting the findings here and there (on Facebook and Twitter) over the last month. It’s an interesting trail of crumbs and I enjoy a good research project.
Companies that sell middle to high-end “luxury” goods are reporting higher than expected earnings. Actually many of the companies are reporting record earnings. Take for example Apple, Coach, Chichos, Urban Outfitters (Anthropolgie), Abercrombie & Fitch, Nordstroms, and Dillards among others.
Why is that?
On my recent trip to Vegas there was no recession “in sight”. People were shopping, spending, eating, and gambling. I did not see this income level shrinking and pulling back from their normal spending habits.
I do see artists that are stifled by the news and relate that to their worth. They shrink in how they price their work, how they get out there and share their gifts with the world. Heck they were shrinking back when the economy was good, thus the plethora of $13-25 earrings on Etsy!
It’s my best summation through reading, observing, and research that this is the time to expand your line of middle to high-end collections and stop focusing on the $18 Etsy earrings. There’s a whole lot of that out there and that target market isn’t buying right now.
It’s also time to evaluate your business and make sure you are actually making a profit margin. If you just cover your materials, labor and overhead you are missing out on the profit segment that is essential to actually having a growing business.
It might be time for you to revisit your methods, your inventory, your price points and your marketing strategies!
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I couldn’t agree more, Tonya. My experience, working in polymer clay, proved to me that it worked out much better to focus on creating higher end, one of a kind, items. Yes, they take longer to sell, but the sale is more profitable and gives a greater emotional reward to the artist-within. Early on, when I was making those five to 15 dollar items, I had to make so many of them, that I started feeling like a machine, just pumping out replicas of something. I needed more time for quality creation and the mass production wasn’t allowing it. I am so much happier for the decision.
Thanks for another great article and encouraging words. I read an article this week that a friend of mine sent to me titled, “Jewelry Style Waits for No man: Buy it for Yourself”. “For Jewelers, a market is emerging for their baubles: the women who actually wear them.” Women are buying what they want and price is no barrier – they aren’t waiting for their men to bring it home:O) I think the article was in the New York Times. Anyway, the point was that high end jewelry is selling and self-purchasers are increasingly treating jewelry like fashion, and “building a wardrobe.”