Brand, Market, and Re-brand your Message

When was the last time you performed a gallery audit?  If you did an audit today, would it reflect what you see and what your visitors experience?  All businesses evolve whether by internal direction or out of necessity.  When you launched your business, were you clear about what your brand story in the market would be?  Do you guide the story with mission and vision that reflects your initial intentions or has your business evolved differently?  It would be normal that there have been changes. Some may have been large while other’s more subtle.  Finally, does your staff and team know what you stand for?

If you are a founder, does what your gallery do now feel like a different gallery?  It is so easy to go from one year to the next. Don’t overlook your gallery compared to when you started ten years ago.  Doing a new deep dive into where you are now will give you wonderful stories to tell.  It will also allow you to court new artists and new patrons!

Expand Your Brand Story

If there has been little change to your business,your founder’s story, and vision, then it would be wise to expand your brand’s story.  What is new will always matter when it comes to your market.  Even the most luxurious, rare auto brands introduce new elements to classic styling.  Gallery owners know that their bottom line depends on a percentage of fresh and new details on a regular enough basis.

Strategic Adjustments

Waiting too long to refresh your core brand in the market causes confusion for your audience and the artists that you represent.  The most sophisticated brands in all spaces, fashion, lifestyle, entertainment, or luxury goods, make changes and adjustments.  Institute progressive changes, some subtle and some not so subtle.  As the digital world continues to reinvent platforms, markets, and speeds up, expectations change.  And here’s the profound truth.  “Clients do not announce that they have left a brand” and moved their attention to a new venue.  They simply and quietly “drift away,” often not to be seen again.  

One of my honed skills is to “see writing, so to speak, on the wall.” Make strategic adjustments before it’s too late.  Many years ago, Ivan Barnett led a team meeting at the height of the 2008 global economic meltdown. He asked his dear colleague and friend, a Harvard Press best-selling business author, to sit in on the meeting.  He guided him as to how to best facilitate what was going to be a difficult meeting with his gallery staff.  As they were getting their tea in the gallery’s kitchen, Kent turned to Barnett and said. “Ivan, remember this as you relay the news to your staff about their hours being condensed. Human beings fear loss more than change.”

Does Your Brand Deliver?

This goes for clients and artists alike. If your branding is not delivering in the market, and at the same time delivers the unexpected, it will affect your bottom line. This evolution can often creep up on a business. Barnett says the key is to “catch any slippage” early enough. The world has thousands of great brands and businesses who simply “waited too long.” A gallery isn’t any different. The same is true of an artist’s career.  Reinvent yourself before your audience gets tired. Great performers know, especially in the world of contemporary music, always save that one hit, for the next concert. Scarcity matters. “If you are not giving more, you are not giving enough.” And if you’re not creating anticipation, then you are predictable. In the words of Barnett’s colleague and friend, Ivy Ross, head of Hardware Design at Google, “Its And and Both.”  

A concept far easier said than done.  Barnett refers to the cutting edge of a sword.  We walk that delicate edge, and deliver more of what we do, yet not so much for too long. Simultaneously we find our groove.  Human nature desires more of something that is rare, tremendous, and often mysterious.  If we find the most perfect apple pie that we have ever seen or tasted, and have it every day, it gradually becomes “not so desirable.”  Maintaining a steady stream of desire is where the secret sauce lies.  Let’s work to fine tune your secret sauce.  We will have the best time tossing things back and forth. In the process, you rediscover “magic” that you can harness, sometimes in plain sight.