Branding for the Fine Artist : Part I

UPDATE NOTE: A good number of people have noted on social media and elsewhere that they didn't realize the post below is satirical. I've left it up untouched for a few days anyway, believing that straight-faced satire works best when the reader is unsure how serious the author is, but now, rather than have anyone ever cite this post as evidence that I had advocated self-branding as a career move for fine artists, I think it's now time to make clear I conceived of this post as a scathing satire. After the first two paragraphs, I would never offer the advice that follows. I honestly thought that would be obvious to more people. Perhaps my satire skills need some sharpening. Moreover, though, such responses have clarified for me that there's a true sea-change in perception about such issues and what I meant to make readers gasp and then hopefully laugh about is actually something many apparently embrace. I'll be giving all that some additional thought.

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Frequently art dealers are frustrated at how MFA programs often fail to prepare their graduates for the real art world of today, neglecting to instruct them in the most basic business realities of the primary art market. Consignment agreements, commission splits, representation contracts, and so on; these fundamental art business principles and practices often catch young artists by surprise, leading to needless misunderstandings, feelings of being taken advantage of, and, in worst case scenarios, a lasting mistrust of the art market in general. 

To combat such mistrust, I have advocated, upon nearly every given opportunity, for at least one course on the business side of the art world to become mandatory for both BFA and MFA programs, so that, once fully prepared, newly minted art stars are able to focus on their studio practice and not waste time anonymously trolling the art blogs and social media, hurling aspersions at the entire gallery world, just to learn that a 50% split is, in fact, as their new dealer had tried to tell them, the standard across the industry. Indeed, it has been an ongoing mission of this very blog to help demystify the workings of the gallery world, as a service to both artists and dealers, knowing that a shared awareness of the common practices reduces the otherwise commonly reached assumptions that one or other of the two is the demon spawn of Bernie Maddoff and Leona Helmsley.

Lately, however, as the art market has become increasingly global, lucrative, and hence more sophisticatedly manipulated, I've begun to realize that business basics alone are not sufficient instruction for helping BFA and MFA graduates be fully prepared for the market that awaits them. No, to enter the new art world armed with the knowledge that will make you truly successful, artists must acquire a more sophisticated understanding of the science of branding.

And so, as part of this blog's ongoing mission to educate and illuminate, I will attempt to offer a series of humble primers on "Branding for the Fine Artist." Part I of the series outlines the hierarchical levels of successful branding for artists, as shown in this chart:




This framework actually includes a few perhaps surprising realities about artist branding. Indeed, given all the mainstream press attention it receives, the causal student of artist branding could be forgiven for believing that "brand awareness" is the pinnacle of art world branding achievement. Having collectors, curators, and critics recognize your name (or possibly even buy, curate, or review your artwork) is often mistaken for having "made it" in the new art world. The fact is, however, that "brand awareness" is the lowest level of successful artist branding. 

You may be thinking that "brand awareness" is still good enough for you, but as you progress up the ladder of successful branding, you'll find that "success" not only comes more easily to those who have achieved the highest level of branding, it's all but entirely taken care of for you.

Moreover, "brand awareness" could just as likely equal a negative view as it might a positive view of your work. Simply knowing your name or buying your work doesn't necessarily mean those who are aware of you associate good things with your name. Perhaps they bring home a work from a fair to then discover your name has made it into the "Liquidate" column on ArtRank. Perhaps on the way to buy your work at an auction, they read a HuffPo article by a respected conservator who singled out your Play-Doh-on-canvas abstractions as an example of high-maintenance (i.e., expensive) art to preserve, giving your works, in their professional and trusted opinion, at most a 10-month shelf-life. Mind you, most of the thousands of new MFAs pouring out of art schools each year would give a private body part to ever achieve even "brand awareness," but though most of us are standing in the gutter, those destined for greatness are looking to the stars.

And so, the next level of branding that fine artists should understand is "brand preference," which indicates that you're viewed positively enough that you will likely get repeat purchases or opportunities via curators, or decent reviews, which of course is good, but there's not yet any loyalty toward your brand among your "consumers." If your work is available, they'll go for it, but they won't lose any sleep if it's not. A collector, for example, may want one of Jeff Koons' polished stainless steal balloon "Rabbit"s, but as there are currently none for sale (in his price range...there is always one for sale), he's just as happy to purchase artwork by another artist who works with mirrored or really shiny surfaces, just so long as he can see his own reflection in it. 

In other words, consumers are still somewhat ambivalent at the "brand preference" level. They like you...they're just not willing to go too far out of their way or, God forbid, wait for you.

That all changes in the third level: "brand loyalty." This is often as high as most artists can truly hope to climb, but that's OK...this is a great level to be operating on. At the "brand loyalty" level, your consumers will not only prefer you, but insist on you. They will only buy, curate, or write (with any passion) about you. Even if there's another artists making similar work that might be confused for yours at the gallery down the street...even if that other work is significantly less expensive, more archival, less potentially litigious, or has no existentially offensive waiting list, they will still flock to your work with their notepads or wallets open.

Mind you, as any branding expert will tell you, sometimes what seems like "brand loyalty" is actually just inertia. This may manifest itself in the form of a visceral inability on the part of your consumers to suck up to yet another artist's new art dealer. Or perhaps it means that artist with the exhibition down the street has a foreign name consumers are too embarrassed to try to pronounce. Or it doesn't matter that the artist down the street actually perfected the process you work in and it's hard to imagine you didn't study them for some time, and everyone who knows anything knows it, even if they're not willing to write it or argue it in front of their purchasing committees because eveyone also knows that the artist down the street is stuck in some lower branding level for reasons not even God understands. 

Normally, though, artists who reach the "brand loyalty" level do so because consumers truly like and trust them. And so, they'll happily suffer the gallery associate sales director, whose annual salary wouldn't equal their monthly "social media life coach" budget, haughtily sighing "there's a waiting list," just so long as they're reassured they'll get to buy one of your pieces one day. 

But even loyalty pales in comparsion with the most successful level of branding: "brand advocacy." This is where your consumers are not only willing to wait for your work, but they'll proselytize for you to anyone who will listen. It's obvious how selflessly they work to promote you. They rave about your work and tell other collectors they should buy it too, perhaps even one of theirs. And not only other collectors. No, once they're "advocates," they'll recruit others to become true believers...especially those they view as one would an "apprentice," like curators at museums they're trustees of or younger dealers for whom that one purchase they "might" make is the difference between eating actual meat or eating Alpo. The power of "brand advocacy" extends into every bright corner of the art market, even the auction houses, where experts on art that's barely been reviewed manage to wrangle contemporary masterworks from unopened crates, still doning "Miami" address labels, residing in the storage units of the sincerest of brand advocates on a semi-annual basis. This, dear fine artist, is the prize you must keep your eyes on.

In Part II of this series, we'll explore how fine artists should go about scaling this pyramid of branding levels.