Arts & Crafts Booth Display, Things to Consider For Your Next Show Arts & Craft shows are an ever popular way of showcasing your products at this time of year. Relatively minimal cost for hopefully maximum exposure. How do you make the most of every square foot of space in your display area? Usually Arts and Craft shows sell space on a 10 foot by 10 foot space allotment. I will discuss what I think is optimum use of the space. This may vary a bit depending on what you are trying to display. At the average show with customers walking by your booth you only have about 3 seconds to attract your customers attention. In this time the customer is deciding many things in their mind. * What is Your Product? A lot of questions that they are trying to answer in 3 seconds. Your customer must be able to identify exactly what you are selling. If you sell multiple things like things need to be grouped together in display areas. If you intermingle too many items it waters down the impact each display category has. So if you sell bath salts and soap have separate areas that are concentrated for each. If you sell gift baskets with both salts and soap this becomes another category. Unless you are an exceptional salesperson (some people are) you mustrely on your customers interest to bring them into your booth. Make your products interesting. Use colour and movement to attract the eye. A fan blowing on a mobile can create movement. i have seen some people syuccessfully use small waterfalls as movement as well. Sound can attract as well especially in a bigger show with lots of background noise. Be careful
with sound so as to not annoy your neighbors. It is a well known fact that 85% of your customers will be women at a craft show. If you can evoke an positive emotional response from your customer you are more than half way to a sale. I have often been set up beside someone selling adorable hand made Teddy Bears. The response is astounding. People have to come in and touch the bears and choose which one they like best. The only consideration with a strong emotional response is the preferred color etc. And price point. If the price point matches the customers expectation an emotionally attractive product will sell itself. This could be textile, jewellery, pottery or more. The more the item makes a person say "OOOH Look At That!" the better it will sell. After the product your customer is looking at you. If you look like you are having a bad show people will be less likely to bother you. If you are cheery and dare I say bouncy ( I usually don't fit into the bouncy category) people will feel they can ask you questions and generally interact with you which allows you to give your sales pitch. If you have more than one person in your booth it automatically makes it look more interesting as there is more activity. This is not always possible and certainly one should exit if the booth becomes congested with potential customers. Unless they are needed for transactions. What is a fun or interesting booth? If you have been to craft shows recently I am sure you can remember one or two booths that stood out. Perhaps it was the paintings that created a tranquil respite from the show crowd. Or one of the artisans was working in the back corner of the booth on a demonstration related to their craft. Another possibility is that each shelf and level you looked on there was a new surprise in design or whimsy related to the art or craft. It is all about discovery. New colors or shapes not commonly seen before. Are there different ways of displaying the product. Different elevations, mirrors, and well lit. In a 10 x 10 booth I would use the front 10 x 8 deep as my display space then I have hard walls that close off the back 2 foot area as product storage. This storage area would become a shambles by the end of the show but the front display area is always kept neat and clean. The customer needs the impression that you care about your art or craft and that it is the most important thing in the world to you. The look of prosperity makes the customer feel that it is OK for them to give you money for such a highly prized object. It makes them feel that what they are buying is worth the price you are charging. I have used rich tones in fabric covers for shelves and pedestals. The fabric itself need not be expensive but the overall effect should be that your product is worth what you are charging. David Robertson has been making his living for over 20 years from the Arts and Crafts industry. Visit http://e-webincome.com/craft-business/craft-info.htm to learn more about his ebook How To Be Successful In Your Arts and Crafts Business, which he created to help other artisans be successful in this amazing career. Learn how to beat these questionable economic times and still profit from your art or craft. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_G._Robertson |
