Can you give examples of how changing subject matter dramatically increased art sales?

One artist was struggling with almost no sales despite doing marketing and promotion. The issue wasn’t the marketing—it was the product. When encouraged to paint something more marketable as a test, they painted a celebrity. Their sales exploded immediately—about $10,000 in prints sold the day they released it. They realized they’d been pushing a cart uphill instead of going downhill with momentum. Another photographer was shooting a local city and selling okay, but wanted to reach $100,000 per year to retire from his job. When he started photographing Disneyland instead, his sales exploded to that $100,000 level and he was able to retire and do photography full time. The lesson isn’t necessarily about licensing (neither got licensing deals initially)—it’s about choosing subject matter that has a broader, more passionate audience.

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Asked by a podcast host · Answered by Nick Friend · art-marketing-podcast · 2023-05-22