When it comes down to it, people rarely buy what they need. They always buy what they want. Part of our job as creative entrepreneurs is to make sure that what our niche market wants is what we have to offer. The best way to convince them is by telling our story.
Over the years as I've been an artist, author and marketer, I have come to believe one thing passionately - people buy the story. I remember working as a marketing consultant for a nonprofit in Atlanta when one day a patron came to me and said, "Wow, you make this organization look so much bigger than it really is." I replied "Thanks, I'm just telling the story in the best way I know how."
The same has held true with selling fine craft. I'm a basketmaker and I've been doing that for about twenty years now off and on. When I finally got serious about pursuing my craft, I did a little research on the field and began referring to myself as a contemporary basketry artist. I also started to notice that the pieces I had always made - functional Appalachian-style baskets - were no longer selling like my other more sculptural, one-of-a-kind pieces. I could make those sculptural pieces in half the time and make twice the money. I enjoyed the process even more and so guess what I started making more of? You guessed it, sculptural, non-functional art baskets.
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