Pricing and Marketing Research

© Greg Spalenka

It is amazing how much time can be taken up by doing research. After a day of scanning the internet looking for venues and blogs to connect with, checking out supplies, seeing what others are doing can sometimes feel like wasting time. But it isn't!

Market research is vital for your art business. Unless you are making art for a hobby or part of the old paradigm of hoping your gallery will do it for you then you are the marketing research department. You can team up with others to glean the gems each has found but most likely you will have to focus on your own products.

Most artists underprice their art. A formula that works for most products is-  Materials + Labor + Expenses + Profit = Wholesale x 2 = Retail

Here are two articles from Etsy that offer some good advice on price points. Some of this info pertains specifically to Etsy but much of it is simply good marketing sense.

A Simple Formula for Pricing Your Work

Market Research Tool Strategies