Branding art and artists

The brand apparently means "economic quality." Tide is an incredibly successful brand of laundry detergent.

I wouldn't advise altering your brand name meanings.

Proper Product Branding

Report: Branding art and artists

Recently I visited an art exhibition of a young artist in a reputed art gallery of Delhi. The artist said she had no work left and all the paintings were sold. The reply was just to create hype and attract attention towards an ‘artist's branding'. Comments renowned art curator Alka Raghuvanshi, "branded artists, branded galleries, and branded collectors. Art will sell for crores if the artist is a brand. Most of the artists are focussed on carving more canvasses than a quality art piece." The word brand considered to be a part of the corporate jargon, is inherently visual—brand logos, product design, packaging, brand identity, and brand marketing campaigns each drawn upon visual materials to create distinctive brand images. But today, the power of brand is felt in the art world too. Reveals PR company owner Bhupesh Kumar, "I have been working closely with the artists for some time now. The trend of hiring PR companies is becoming common among the art fraternity. No efforts can sustain the artist without extraordinary talent."

Quips Annie Mathai, co-founder, art village online gallery, "Societies like the Spastic Society organise art exhibitions with the purpose of fund raising.

But once a painting is sold in crores, does it fetch crores for every painting of the artist? Initially even artist Harshvardhan was considered safe investment. His work sold in lakhs and the artist was catapulted to fame. Artist Subodh Gupta was supported heavily by a group of investors abroad and art galleries. Any major brand strategy decision involves major decisions like brand positioning, brand name selection, brand sponsorship and brand development. These tools are used to brand an artist too where the PR firms does the brand positioning and brand name selection and later, the corporates, investors and auction houses play the role of brand sponsors and work hand in hand towards brand development of the artist. Then there are certain artists like Sanjay Bhattacharya who besides producing fine art works possess excellent PR skills that helps in their own branding. The artist couple Nupur Kundu and Subrata Kundu are a Page-3 staple today.

Many in the art fraternity call stalwart artist MF Hussain as the father of branding exercise. Shares artist Dinesh Goswami, "Aritst Chandramohan made a provocative painting of Jesus Christ and shivling which made the artist a brand instantly. Also artists like Jatin Das are purely known for their nude paintings.

There also have been artists who caught great media attention by avoiding the media. Mentions another art curator without disclosing the name, "Artist Rajesh Bhaderia is a spiritual artist besides being an astrologer. Once the network is developed, sale of art works begins.