Marketing: Take it to the People
A week ago, Karen’s Absurd Art participated for the first time as a vendor at the 16th Annual Heartland Apicultural Society Conference held on the campus of the University of Southern Indiana at Evansville.
In previous weeks, I’ve been talking about Art vs. Commerce and how to decide what direction you want to take as an artist – produce art for yourself vs. selling your art, etc. As we were gathering products for the bee conference, I promised to let you know what we discovered in our first attempt as a vendor of spin-off commercial products from Karen’s Absurd Art.
So if you’re interested in what we learned, here goes …
RULE 1: When participating as a vendor at a conference show, try to arrive on time.
√ Check.
The night before the show, the Karen’s Absurd Art team of BJ, Soo and I loaded the SUV with T-shirts, hats, stickers, and holiday cards inspired by my absurd art drawings – plus some framed posters and giclee prints reproduced from two original drawings. At 4:30 a.m. the next morning, we headed south for the 4-hour drive to Evansville.
None of us had slept well the previous night, so BJ and I talked back and forth up front to make sure he stayed awake while driving. Since the car was packed pretty tight, Soo volunteered to sit in the little cave created around the seat behind the driver. Soo’s pretty sharp: since we could barely see her, let alone talk, she tucked into a bag of Korean shrimp crackers and then promptly fell asleep for the rest of the trip.
We pulled into Evansville with 15 minutes to spare before the Friday vendor show started.
RULE 2: Try to anticipate how you will get the contents of your car inside the hall.
√ Check.
We actually signed up to arrive on the second day of the conference, so understandably there was no-one to greet us on the dock when we pulled in. But we were told to send a quick text to the vendor organizer, who said she would send someone down with a cart.
They were kinda busy inside and no-one came, so Soo headed in to see what she could find out, returning 5 minutes later with vendor credentials around her neck and the good news that someone with a cart would be down soon. BJ then headed in to grab his credentials.
While he was gone, a nice man arrived with a cart about 2 feet wide by 4 feet deep. I looked at the packed SUV and looked back to the cart and did a quick calculation that we probably had at least 10 loads. But the nice man dreamed big and loaded about four large tubs of T-shirts onto the cart and started off. He got about 5 feet out when the front wheel of the cart snapped and the bins slid off. He was able to re-attach the wheel, reloaded just two of the four bins, and left with Soo following.
OK, so maybe it would be 20 loads.
But then Soo came back with BJ, pulling an adult-size heavy-duty cart, and we loaded the rest of the stuff. Soo and I headed inside while BJ left to park the car and secure our keys for the dorm rooms we had booked. Within a few minutes, we had found our vendor spot.
Karen's Absurd Art Team
RULE 3: Be prepared to discover that not everything runs as expected.
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When we loaded the SUV at home, it was with the belief that we were packing for an 8’x10’ vendor spot with room for the 6’x3’ table provided for us and also the 2’x4’ table that was part of our setup, plus a rack to hang the T-shirts.
Upon arrival, we found that the vendor area was not being held in a separate room, but rather, the vendors were strung out against the walls of a long hallway on the main floor of the conference, each behind one table in a space about 10’x4’. In her defense, this layout was a surprise to the vendor organizer, too.
"Saloon Showdown" Featured in the Art Show!
She very kindly put us right next to the room holding the Art Show and not closely bordered by any other vendor, and thankfully there was room for three chairs.
So, we punted.
Soo put together the rolling rack for the shirts – which we placed at the end of the table – and set out all the products, squishing them a bit to get them all to fit. For our first conference, we thought we had done pretty well. Nothing fell off the table.
T-shirts set up
Rule 4: Listen to your customers.
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Time to sell!
When we were deciding what to take to the bee conference, it was tough to decide whether we should take some art prints in addition to the commercial products like T-shirts, a hat, and window stickers. Not really knowing what would sell, I quickly framed some posters I had of my drawing “Waiting for 45 Degrees” and packed up five giclee prints of “The Drone Zone.”
Interestingly enough, one of the “Waiting” posters was our first sale, which really boosted my spirits as the artist. I liked the drawing, but to have a stranger stop and decide to buy a copy for their home was a pretty good ego booster.
As the day continued, we found the T-shirts and the art prints were doing the best. In retrospect, we think we may have overpriced the car window stickers, and it was just too hot outside for anyone to be inspired into buying holiday cards.
Holiday Cards
Save the bees sticker
But we also learned another good lesson: people come in all sizes, and we had neglected to provide enough shirt size choices for them all.
When having the final set of shirts made by the Tee Shirt Shoppe in West Lafayette, I had a discussion with Ryan, the owner, over what sizes to have made. He considered his usual customers and recommended that I at least do a few 1XL shirts along with the S, M, L and XL. So I added a few 1XL to the “Long Live the Queen” order.
What I learned was that beekeepers put comfort above everything, and they wanted even larger shirts. We lost several sales because most of my shirts offered nothing larger than XL.
So we made a note to add 2x, 3x and 4x shirts to our inventory – they will be on the store for sale at Amazon.com sometime in August.
T-shirts for sale
Honeybees campaign hat
Rule 5: Appreciate the contacts and friends made at art shows, conferences, exhibits, or anywhere else you have the opportunity to mingle with like-minded people.
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We met some really nice people at the bee conference, from vendors, to company reps, to conference speakers, to beekeepers. It was interesting to see what people were promoting and selling, and also to find out what concerns beekeepers had.
Rule 6: Learn what you can from the experience.
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We managed to be cheerful and to punt with the revised table setup; the dorm rooms were boring but clean and serviceable; and we met a lot of nice people.
What we thought would sell well didn’t – stickers and holiday cards.
What we didn’t think would sell well did – T-shirts, a hat, and the artwork.
We found a great Cajun restaurant in Vincennes – halfway home – and because of a decision not to dawdle, arrived home before the thunderstorm coming in from the West.
In conclusion:
Selling your original art, reproductions, or commercial spinoff products is challenging and can be expensive, with no promise of return – regardless of where you sell.
Whether it’s a gallery or a conference, there’s no guarantee that anyone will like your stuff, or that you will make enough money to cover expenses.
Therefore …
Realize that you need a plan, a budget, and the ability to objectively judge your progress. Making lots of money is not the only mark of success.
This conference was not large, so we didn’t get rich, but we learned a lot about navigating as a vendor, about what people liked among our products, and that there are quite a few people out there who are attracted to absurd art. Who knew?
So for the Karen’s Absurd Art team, we decided that the lack of sleep, drain on the budget, and time away from home was worth it as an “educational moment.”
We went home with some cash in our pockets and enough products to keep the cost of the next conference reasonable.
As always, stay tuned ….