Dear fellow artists... "Perceived value is everything." please remember this when you next have promotional photos taken, a professional brochure or business cards printed, redesign your website, or decide what markets and venues to sell your entertainment into.

A few years ago as an experiment, world famous virtuoso violinist Joshua Bell set his violin to his cheek, and standing in a busy arcade near the escalators in the Washington D.C. Metro Subway, treated commuters to some of the most difficult and beautiful pieces of music ever written for his chosen instrument (his violin alone, handcrafted by Antonio Stradivari in 1713, is appraised at about three-and-one-half million dollars by the way)!

After a rush-hour concert of just under an hour, the world-famous classical musician's tip can was stuffed with a little over $30.00 in profits. This for a gentleman who that week had sold out a huge Boston Concert Hall, where happy arts patrons shelled out up to $200.00 per-ticket for an up-close musical experience.

What role does context play in our artistic perceptions? Same man, same music, same artistry.... but out of context the "perceived value" of his talent and performance plummeted in the subway, where he was lauded as a prodigy in his marketing and appearance in the upscale venue.

A valuable lesson when creating your marketing and sales strategies and budgeting for your promotional materials.

My two-cents,
Walt

Great story Walt. Thanks.

Tom

Sometimes it's not under your control. Put any million-dollar famous chef on the grill at McDonald's, and he's still not getting more than 99c for a burger.

But I've always said of any question (think of it as a 3-layer cake) that the analysis of it, and thus the answer, looks entirely different depending on which angle you cut it, and all those answers are, in a large sense, right. This is a cake in which all those ways of coming at it are very much right, IMO. Any way you can connect the customer to an impression of your service that seems to have more value, your saleability and your customer's satisfaction will increase ... unless, of course (one big flaw) the customer comes to believe that he/she can't afford your wonderful service.

I would venture to guess that the first place to start is in your perceived value of yourself, yes?

Ed