Merchandising the holidays: Gallery owners share strategies for selling art during the gift-giving season

Art Business News, Oct, 2004 by Erika Rasmusson Janes

When Bill Lowe decided to mount an ambitious group show at his 13,000-square-foot Lowe Gallery in Atlanta several years ago, it seemed like a sure plan for a successful holiday sales season. Lowe painstakingly displayed works by 70 different artists and priced every piece at or below $1,500. He expected that the affordable and diverse selection of works would draw customers eager to cross names off of their holiday gift giving lists.

What he discovered was quite the opposite. "The sales were highly unremarkable," Lowe says, noting that the gallery sold just $85,000 worth of art. The response--or lack thereof--baffled him, but taught him an important lesson.

"We learned that we are a primary works gallery," he recalls, "and we aren't a place to buy lots of little pieces for $200."

In addition, he says, it made him realize that art, so personal and subjective, is something people tend to buy for themselves and/or for their spouses, but not as gifts for friends and/or business associates.

"So to build a marketing strategy around that gift-giving expectation has proved futile," Lowe says.

When it comes to marketing for the holidays, some gallery owners are going against the conventional wisdom of stocking "a tittle something for everyone" and, instead, are marketing a well-edited selection of high-end art. While it may seem counter-intuitive, retailers like Lowe are proving that it can be a successful strategy.

Compare the dismal sales from Lowe's 70-artist show to the sales from one that he mounted the following year. The 2002 holiday show featured work by a single artist, Todd Murphy, whose pieces range from $14,000 to $75,000. It generated half-a-million dollars in sales for the gallery, and the show didn't even open until Dec. 4.

"It was a huge difference," Lowe says, "and a lot less work for us."

Lowe will continue his high-end holiday concept this year by presenting shows that feature highly regarded glass sculptors. In Atlanta, the work of William Morris (which runs $20,000 to $40,000 per piece) will be on display beginning in October; Richard Jolley's work will anchor the holiday show at Lowe's second gallery location, in Santa Monica, CA, starting in early November. Both shows will run through the end of 2004. To promote them, Lowe will send direct mail pieces touting the shows to 12,000 people in each market; catalogs to 1,200 carefully screened collectors; and an e-mail message to 8,000 names in his database. Additionally, he will leave a prerecorded phone message to those in his database who have given the gallery permission to do so.

"What we're trying to do is recognize that we're dealing with a lot of competition for people's share of mind," he says. "It's easy for people to ignore you if you're doing something small, so we're trying to create a stellar exhibition. People will come from all over to see [these] shows, and they're going to have to be prepared to part with some bucks."

Tom Hilligoss, owner of Hilligoss Galleries in Chicago and The Studio of Long Grove in Long Grove, IL, is also expecting patrons to part with their hard-earned dollars this holiday season. He's trying to appeal to couples who might be interested in giving a gift of art to each other after they've done their holiday shopping for others. "We bring in shows that might have products that would be appropriate for couples to give to one another as house gifts," he says.

Such products have, in the past, included fine art glass ranging from $600 to $10,000, and prints and originals by artist Michael Gerry, who does florals, ranging from $600 to $3,000 for framed prints, and $3,000 to $16,000 for originals. This year, Hilligoss is planning a fine print show based on the work of Salvador Dali, with pieces ranging from $2,000 to $15,000. Fine prints "are really good for this kind of event, because people can always give themselves the gift of a lasting treasure like a master print," he says. To promote the show, Hilligoss plans to do a direct mailing to his list of 15,000, as well as advertise in local newspapers.

For both Lowe and Hilligoss, another reason to focus more on high-ticket items that individuals or couples tend to buy for themselves, rather than on less expensive gifts of art, stems from the subjective nature of art as well as the subjective nature of the word "affordable."

"Everyone has a different budget to work within," Hilligoss says, "and if they're affluent, as many art buyers are, we see that they're more generous with each other if it's a 'loving couple' gift. But it's always good to have some affordable works there that may also do the same thing for lower budgets."

Still, as Lowe puts it, "We forget that for art collectors, $1,500 isn't a lot of money. But if you're giving a gift, it is a lot of money."

To that end, not all gallery owners are abandoning the idea of hosting holiday shows that feature works with a wide variety of price tags. Tim Davis, director of International Visions--The Gallery in Washington, DC--plans to mount a group show of small works this December.