Branding is sensitive. Luxury brands understand that the slightest misstep can damage their brand. Luxury marketers understand that the perception of the media or event in which they are participating is important in reinforcing the brand itself.

Why do you not find high end retailers in low end shopping malls? Environment. A high end brand of course is less likely to sell in a low end environment. But more important… if a high end brand’s customers feel their brand is not exclusive, is being made available to "average" people (or below average) it deteriorates the special essence of the brand.

Mercedes, in my opinion, lost their panache when they started producing lower cost models for the middle class. Though I don’t know if it was good for their business financially I do believe it drove affluent customers to seek something the middle could not afford. After all, cars are transportation. If affluent people only wanted transportation they would by a low cost KIA (by the way, KIA has become a HOT! brand and is growing in popularity among the middle affluent due to service, quality, and design of some models). Many affluent want an automobile which reflects their stature and thus the reason brands like Bentley, Rolls Royce and others excel.

So what does environment have to do with gallery marketing? Of course it depends on who you are targeting and what you are selling. IF you are selling expensive paintings to affluent people they have expectations of your environment. They expect the environment of your gallery space to be up to the level of quality and design of their homes. If your space is low end their subconscious mind will tell them the quality you offer is not worth the price.

An acquaintance of mine had a very important painting to sell. His gallery was mid-level, selling mid-priced artworks. He advertised and displayed this important work for sale at a very high price but it did not sell. It was not a fit and therefore sent the message that there must be something wrong. So the gallery owner syndicated the painting to a high end gallery whose customers were used to buying expensive paintings. It sold immediately.

Environment is also important to high end galleries in their advertising. If the paper is thin, the content is of poor quality, the writers are not known these galleries may not support a particular advertising environment. In spite of proof of readership advertisers will often avoid publications which do not project quality. Bottom line is that they are protective of their image and brand and do not want their high-end clients to feel as though they associate themselves with anything other than the highest and best quality.

"I’m calling to discuss why my advertising did not work" said an advertiser on the phone. It’s a call I’ve had before and one every magazine person on earth gets once in a while.

Advertisers expect results and it’s our responsibility to help them get results. So a phone call like this from time to time is not unusual.

Frankly, it’s never fun to have this dialogue. The customer always wants to blame the media and rarely do they want to look at what they may have done to cause the problem. But, if it’s my fault I’m ready to take the blame.

So… why is it that I can have six advertisers in the magazine who call with RAVE results… lots of business generated from the ads and in the same issue I can have one or two who get no results?
Why, if all things are equal do some ads work and others do not?

First, all things are never equal in marketing. For instance one advertiser may be more established, have a stronger brand (translation awareness and trust), taste in what was advertised that appeals to the taste of the reader, have a more effective web site, a better ad, a better receptionist….

Let’s start with the receptionist. An advertiser phoned me and said I’m not getting any phone calls from your advertising. After our discussion I was curious, so I waited a couple of days and phoned the gallery. "XYZ Gallery. May I help you?" I answered, "Yes, I’m looking at and ad and I am curious about the painting by Gerome which is shown in the ad." Her reply, "OH that’s been sold." ….long pause. "OK", I said, "thank you." "You’re welcome sir, thanks for calling."
What’s wrong with this picture? She did not engage me? She did not ask my interests? She did not ask if I would be interested in seeing another painting from the same artist. She did not ask my name or contact information. She did not ask where I had seen the ad.
Poorly trained receptionists are frequently one of the reasons advertising does not work.

I recently asked my friend, who is a marketing and sales consultant to visit a gallery when he was in town. I good friend had work hanging in the gallery and had complained that they were not selling any of his work. I asked him to seek that artist on the wall, ask about him, and see how well they pushed it. So he entered the gallery… did what I asked. He said he had seen the ad for so and so… and wanted to see his work. She took him to two paintings on the wall. He asked, "What can you tell me about this artist" and she said, "He’s new, I don’t know anything about him." He persisted, "certainly you have something in writing." She said, "No sir, I don’t." He left. Later I told the gallery owner about this and he told me this was a "temp" who was filling in while someone was out. He was not happy that I was "spying" on him (I told him I was trying to find out what was wrong, why the artist was not selling). He told me nothing was wrong. Chances are if this "temp" was not trained, maybe others were not as well….

In another case where I heard from an advertiser that things were not working I asked how things were being tracked…he said "we track the incoming phone calls." So again I waited a few days and phoned. "I saw an ad and I want to find out about the painting," I said. She very kindly said, "Where did you see the ad sir." Rather than telling her, I wanted to see what would happen if I did not know, so I said, “I’m not sure. I ripped it out of one of the magazines I was reading." She said, "That’s ok sir, what was advertised?" I told her and she said, "well sir that was in XYZ publication. Thank you." She then answered questions about the painting. Well, it may have been in XYZ publication too… but it was also in mine. They got credit. I did not. Now I know this happens from time to time, I know I fold pages and rip them out to call on ads.

Recall studies are a good way to track things but they can also backfire. Why? Often when people are asked they say what is "top of mind." For instance they may have seen the ad in five different publications and said the one they remembered the most, maybe the one they had subscribed to the longest. Or, they may not have even seen it in that magazine and still said what was top of mind. I once had an advertiser tell me that a magazine scored high in the recall study and they had not even advertised there. This is normal. Quick name a fast food restaurant? Its human nature. SO it’s a great way to track top of mind awareness but not always actual recall.

One last mention… in one case I made a call and the receptionist asked where I had seen the ad… she gave me a list to choose from. My publication was not on the list.

The biggest issue about tracking phone calls with art ads these days is that people are not calling like they used to. If you call you have to deal with someone… and that takes time. A quick visit to a website can answer most of your questions. If the price is out of their range or if something answers their questions they may not call unless ready to buy. (This is often a good thing.)

I don’t want to sound defensive. Advertisers tell us all the time that they get calls… and buyers. But some don’t. It could be what people hear on the other end of the phone, it could be that they went to the web site, or it could be that the ad is not inviting… or the piece advertised is not resonating with the audience, or the brand does not have trust or awareness (or it does and people are aware of a reputation of being difficult, or expensive, or slick, or….). There is never a simple answer.

Rest In Peace… friends of mine just closed their gallery. It was a sad day watching them close the doors, return the artworks to their artists and let their creditors and landlord know that they were not going to get paid for a while.

What went wrong? I’m only guessing of course. This gallery was less than a year old, was based in a prominent art market with substantial art buying traffic.

Why did they fail? It’s never one thing, it’s always many things.

1. Unrealistic Expectations: They opened the doors thinking that their quality inventory, their contacts and location would make them successful. They had just enough capital to get them through about six months time. I think they expected too much too soon. One needs to play the what-if game when opening a new business… what if the market is off? What if it takes us 2x or 3x longer to succeed? What if the economy tanks? Etc. Bottom line: If you don’t have a banker willing to fund you for the ups and downs or if your capital is insufficient… you’re at risk.

2. Promotion: A new business is disadvantaged. The best way to overcome it is to promote like mad. You must tell the world you exist, keep telling them for about three years very consistently, and you must find unique reasons they should do business with you. What do you offer that is different? In the case of this gallery they had a USP (unique selling proposition) BUT…. they bought ads when they could afford them and therefore they were inconsistent. But ads are only part of the picture. You need openings, events, PR, mailings, emailing, etc. You have to assume a heavy presence until established.

3. Location: No amount of money can overcome a poor location. If your rent is 2x, 3x, 4x higher for a better location… probably even 10x…it’s worth it. Nothing is better than traffic and visibility. These people were off of a major street with high traffic. Maybe 1 in 50 people walking by the street glanced down and decided to make the effort to go inside.

4. Being there: If promoting… you need to be there when the phone rings. In this case I know of many days they were not open (to save money). No one was answering the phones or returning calls. The web site was not updated frequently AND they did not respond to emails generated from the web site. They did not seem to understand how important a website is in today’s world of art marketing.

5. Not using artists: They had high profile artists but I did not see the gallery leveraging the contacts of these artists to alert people of the new gallery handling their work. Use every tool you have.

6. Pricing: This may sound unnatural… I think their prices were too low. The artists were high quality but the prices were so low that I feel it sent the signal that the work was not quality. Their argument was that the work was lower priced than the rest of the market, which should give them an advantage. I think it backfired.

7. Margin: If you’ve got a lot of overhead…. lets say its $50,000 a month. You can sell 5 paintings at 10,000 or 10 at $5,000 or 20 at $2,500 or 50 at $1,000! How realistic is it to sell high volume unless you have high traffic. I’d rather have a mix but try to have at least 5 expensive paintings a month. But, that’s just me. And it depends on the market and the demographics visiting the market? It also depends on your mindset. You have to believe you can sell expensive paintings to sell them. Belief is everything.

I hate seeing good friends go out of business. These people are good folks and they worked very hard. They may have done all of these things and maybe I missed it. Sadly, I doubt it.

I look back within a haze of memory on my summers as a boy: days of warm sunlight, relaxed freedom, and magical experiences with friends I thought would never end — the stuff of life.

Each new summer carried the anticipation of the coming school year — and quality time rolling in the grass, blowing poofy dandelions and hearing the sound of lawnmowers, staying up all night and sleeping in the next morning.

My gang all had to be inside by the time the streetlights came on, which in summer was around 9 p.m. Each day, we’d ride our bikes beyond the boundaries our parents had set and play basketball till the neighbors complained about the noise. We mowed lawns to make a few coins to buy Beatle records and Beatle wigs, but we didn’t buy Beatle boots. Only hoodlums wore those. Everyone knew that.

Richard Saul Wurman said something to me the other day, and it has been ringing like a telephone in my head ever since. I’d called him for his advice on a problem that required some perspective: I was financially involved in a project, but my heart wasn’t in it.

“Eric, how old are you?”

“I’ll turn 50 this summer.”

“I’m 68. I figure I’ve got about 12 summers left. You have maybe 30. How you spend them is up to you. My advice is that you spend them doing only what you love. You’ve done well, Eric. Now it’s time to do good.”

Richard’s metaphor of summer hit home with me. Why was I even thinking about doing something I don’t enjoy? Why would I want to go to work and burn my days toiling on a project that offers no compensation other than a wad of pale green paper?

Yesterday, I met with a sales director who’s been out of work for 60 days. “I was on the autobahn, going 150 miles an hour,” he said, “I never slowed down, and there weren’t any exits. I ran like a banshee for several years and was miserable most of the time. But I was afraid to get out of the car. I wanted to quit, but I was afraid. Now that I have my life back, I’ve decided that it’s not for sale anymore.”

People keep telling me that they no longer love what they’re doing, yet I see them keep on doing it. On vacation, they call the office, check their e-mails daily and feel guilty for being away. These peoples’ jobs are eating up their lives. Why do they stay? They certainly aren’t doing themselves or their employers any favors by wearily going through the motions. Why do they keep doing it?

How many summers do you have left? What dreams have you not chased because you thought you were too busy to pursue them? Take a deep breath, and make that overdue change right now. Don’t wait.

[Ring… Ring… Ring…]
Summer is calling. Are you going to pick up the phone?

02/02/04  Radio Ink Magazine. by B. Eric Rhoads