Before creating your marketing materials, take some time to consider what your brand and products stand for.

If you haven’t done so before (these may already be in your strategic plan), write down your vision, mission and values to clearly define your brand identity. Your marketing efforts should align with these principles and represent your core values.

• Vision: Write down the type of impact and contribution you want to make. This should describe your product brand ideals and aspirations.
• Mission: Write down a summary of your aims. This could include the actions of what, where and how you will reach your vision.
• Values: Write down what you believe in and the guiding principles for how you will get there. These are also your brand values, for instance – authenticity, integrity, ethical.

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Product and promotion

To market your product effectively, focus on the mix of product, price, promotion and place. The goal is to provide great customer experiences that build loyalty and encourage repeat purchases. Highlight what makes the product unique through product differentiation—this means identifying and showcasing its special qualities. A strong value proposition or unique selling point is key to attracting the target audience. Factors like design, marketing, packaging, and pricing can set the product apart by offering everything competitors do, plus extra benefits.

Marketing mix

• Product: What are you selling?
• Promotion: How are you selling?
• Price: The price of the product?
• Place: Where are you selling?

In your marketing, think about what you offer and how it is unique. For instance, the unique cultural story of the product; the distinctive design; the location and context of the artwork on the product; and how the product will give back to the community. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander products offer high quality, authentic fine artwork with profits returned to community organisations and Aboriginal owned-and-run enterprises.

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Develop your unique product story

Now you need to communicate what sets your products apart from your competitors. Sharing your story in an interesting way through photography, words and design can create meaningful product differentiation and engagement.

A connection can be made between the artist, product and consumer through the product story by emphasising that behind every product is an artist, culture and community, and that the customer can create positive impact through purchasing the product.

Themes

Themes for the product may include:

• Culture: Dreaming, Country, identity
• Artwork: Narrative, description of story or design
• Place: Environment, context, location
• Processes: Collaboration, authenticity, ethics and quality
• Social change: Economic development and return of profits to community

Content pillars

Content pillars are the key themes of your promotional strategy. They reflect the value of your brand and can also create a unique product story. Here are some examples:

Artists
You may include biographical information about artists, images of the artists working, or explore the type of places, histories or designs they depict in their subject matter.

Country
Content that shows images of landscape, environment, and place will distinguish your product. Communicating the significance of Country and how the artist’s work captures this environment in a product adds value.

Provenance
Provenance refers to the history of the ownership of a painting or other work of art. The story of the artist and art centre, and the art centre’s commitment to returning profits to its artists are unique and set your product apart from others on the market. How the product is made—specifically its artistic, cultural or ethical qualities—are also distinctive stories that will help your brand build a relationship with customers.