Recently I faced an important question – how about competition in the arts and among artists? Let’s try to “decompose” this question.
What is competition? Competition in business is when the same buyer has an equal choice how to spend money. In case of everyday goods and services, it means that we as consumers can choose to buy baguette from one bakery or the other, a milk made by one producer or other, to buy a wine from one winery or other.
Moving up the hierarchy of needs (from basic food to luxury items), the question is more – should I spend money on opera tickets or dinner in a fancy restaurant? Should I spend long holidays in neighbouring countries or shorter somewhere in a longer distance? Or maybe I could stay home and indulge in something special that I haven’t experienced yet. Or moving even higher – should I buy a yacht or another house?
If in the lower level of pyramid competition is among likelihood products – one bread or another, but still bread, then moving up to the top, competition is more about emotions, experience, adventure, values.
Since art is at the very top of the pyramid, actually the highest form of luxury, it means that artists compete in the field of values and emotions and not directly artist vs artist. One artist painting classical still life is not directly competing with another artist painting abstracts. Rather the classic artist competes with antiques and expensive original classic furniture. If styles and values of the two artists are similar, their brands are equally positioned and they sell in the same price group, then yes, they might be competing with each other. Or if two artists are listed in the top 500 list of best-selling artists, then they have become an investment option. In this case the content and values are not so important for the buyer. They see an art piece as an alternative to other investment possibilities.
So, there is a competition, just the question – whom are you competing with – other artists or totally different product groups?
SOURCE: Business blog for artists – Read entire story here.