The Monsterpots are what you’d call a staple in my Kest Pottery shop. In marketing parlance, it’s called a “signature item” that I make all the time and it’s a unique thing. One might call it a branded work and in doing so, I betray the fact that I’ve been doing waaaaayyyy too much research about marketing.
I’m a still little allergic to formal marketing, though I’m trying to work through it. All that stuff seems to reduce people to “marketing targets.” It says that if I get the right magical keywords and tags on my pages I can be sure that my “product” gets out there in front of them. I’ve got to send “email blasts” and newsletters to be successful in this digital world. I’ve got to be mindful to select just the right words and phrases in my blog so the search engines pick it up and funnel it to the right people. Business-speak is so blerghy. I don’t see my art fans this way but as real people, friends, and as potentially amazing relationships. People become my patrons because hopefully, I have something of value that they need in their life and they’re willing to support me in turn with their hard earned money. So, I’ve decided to redefine marketing as just a way to find and connect with the patrons who want to trade one lovingly made value for another. This shift in my perspective has really helped me to get past the icky bit. Instead of thinking of marketing as “a necessary evil”, I see it as a way to give my people what they didn’t know they wanted.
When I started the Kest Pottery shop on Etsy in 2020, I was prompted by the platform to create unique descriptions of my work for each listing. This ended up being really fun because each Monsterpot has its own name and birth certificate (each kiln-fired cohort or “litter” has the same birth date), and I was already starting to imagine that they each had their own little personal back story. I wrote each story with the intention that buyers aren’t just getting pottery from me but adopting a funny little character who comes home to live with them. This went over fabulously with my pottery fans who will occasionally send me little notes about their monsterpot’s continued shenanigans. Of course I love and encourage this— it’s a collaboration — because it means that the story lives on and the pottery has meaning deeper than the materials or its fixed shape. It feels like an organic and authentic connection.
I was reminded of “Seinfeld”. In the show, Elaine is an copy-editor for the J. Peterman Company Catalog which utilizes the owner’s bizarre stories of traveling all over the world (i.e. “exotic” locations) as a means to sell the company’s various catalog items. At the time I wasn’t aware that this is a real marketing strategy; I thought it was interesting though, and amusingly different.
It’s brilliant because it gives the catalog reader an “in'“ to connect with a thing that’s being sold: J. Peterman is giving an intimate read of his diary and pulling his audence along for the ride. People don’t just buy your art, they buy an object that provokes certain thoughts which make a them feel good; they know they belong to its little corner of the universe and it makes them happier to be in its influence. Perhaps they know they’re not alone there and the art is proof. They’re buying your work and they’re buying a piece of you because you also belong to that universe.
If you could invent a story or backstory for the art you’re making right now, what would it be? Sky’s the limit then. Gentle Art Gnome; may your imagination take you to the stars.
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Just a reminder that the Monsterpots and eyeball mugs will be migrating to KestFineArt in 2023. If you sign up to get my newsletters (see box below; yay, marketing), I can send you WIPs and shop updates, just sayin'.
