I am always trying to know my potential collectors better, so that I can connect with them and provide them with great art they will love. In an effort to find out what they think, I recently conducted a bilingual survey about art purchasing habits. There were 10 questions with a choice of answers, as well as room for respondents to leave comments. The anonymous survey was posted on my Facebook page and a link was also included in my weekly newsletter. To get a larger sampling, I encouraged people to share it with friends, so except for a few people who told me they filled it out, I have no way of knowing who answered. I don’t pretend that it is a scientifically valid sample, but I feel it’s safe to assume that most of the people who responded are people that know me or at least know of me or my art. I was interested in knowing more about the art buying habits of people around me, in the hopes that it would help me decide where I should concentrate my attention. I published the question results one per day on my Facebook page, but without commenting or analyzing the results, so that’s what I will do here. Overall, I received more responses than I expected, but fewer than I would have liked. More responses would generate more reliable data statistically, but would it really be more useful to me? I believe there is no point in me collecting data from people who have no interest in my art, and that I should not let their opinion skew my decisions. I know that a lot of people buy art in galleries, for example, and that a lot also buy it from “Winner’s”, but if they are not “my people”, I shouldn’t base my decisions on their opinion. I could be wrong, but that’s what I did. So what surprised me about the results? The first surprise was that 80% of the respondents said their last art purchase was for themselves, and not for a gift. This will certainly have an impact on how I present my work, as I assumed that more people would be buying my art, especially the smaller pieces, as gifts. The second surprise was where people are most likely to buy art. From a list of 10 types of places that sell art, respondents were asked to pick which they would FIRST consider, POSSIBLY consider, and NEVER consider when buying art. I was very surprised that the most popular choice was the artist’s personal website, with 52%. I will certainly have to take a look at mine, especially as the art management site I am currently using will drop their portfolio feature later this month. I have a plan in place, but I will have to take a second look at it. Soon! Festivals and shows, indoor or out, were the second and third most likely places to buy art, so I will continue doing these. One answer that I had not included in the choices, but that was given by several respondents in the comments was “at the artist’s location”. That is very interesting and supports my idea of having a “studio show” in the future. I was really happy to find out that, contrary to what I thought, most people are NOT likely to buy their art at big box or discount stores such as Rona or Winners. In fact these were picked by 71% and 57% of respondents as the places they would NEVER consider to buy art. That was good news, because these stores do appear to sell, or at least offer, a lot of inexpensive “art”. Another surprise about the responses to the “where” questions was how art galleries scored. Only 20% listed them as one of their FIRST choices, 40% as POSSIBLY, and 15% said they would NEVER consider them. Although I have been considering getting into galleries, it appears I will have to think about it a bit more! Not so surprising was the fact that although most people would prefer to own original art, they find reproductions more affordable. In order to keep in line with my mission of promoting the ownership of original art, I will have to think about how I can address this better. I will also have to consider that for almost 40% of the respondents, “overpaying” is the #1 fear when it comes to purchasing art. Cost is definitely a factor, with 74% of respondents indicating, not surprisingly, that they have no specific budget for art. However, all but one of these said that if they saw something they liked under a certain amount (from $50 to $250), they would probably buy it. I was surprised that almost 20% of respondents said they had an annual art budget of $500. Now I wish I had asked for names and addresses!! ;-) Lastly, and not surprisingly, for 80% of the respondents who have a spouse, the opinion of that spouse is at least “moderately” important when buying art over $250. Art purchasing may be a personal thing, but spouse “buy-in” is important. Conclusions People will buy art because they like it. Art galleries are not as popular as art shows and festivals. People like to buy art directly from the artist. They may be afraid of spending on art because they are concerned that they will “fall out of love” with it. Many of the comments indicate that people don’t know enough about art to be comfortable buying it, but most respondents know enough about art not to be buying it at big box stores. I will continue to participate in as many art shows and festivals as I can. I will continue to offer my one year buy-back guarantee to my subscribers, and promote it more so people know I offer it. I will offer tips on my various platforms to help people learn more about art. I will revisit my website to make sure it is doing the best job it can. I will continue to offer affordable original art to fulfill my mission of promoting ownership of original art. I will also consider having an “open studio” type show. If I do another survey, I will ask people a few demographic questions. I purposely avoided these so respondents could answer freely without thinking they were being tracked, but I realize that a few simple questions, such as age, could have afforded some insight into some answers. Again, thank you to everyone who participated in the survey. Your answers have been very useful to me. I have left the survey open if anyone wants to add their opinion or comments. Do you think I made the wrong conclusions? Are you surprised by the results? Let me know in the comments!
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AuthorMy name is Claire Bureau. Archives
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