Ladies Night at the Wine Merchant

The Wine Merchant last night had a great night for their first premiere of Ladies Night.

My 'wine themed' work was well received after working hard on getting it prepared for the event. In case you missed it, I revealed some surprises last night and in a few days, I will have it uploaded to CalligraphyPets site for you to purchase as well.

The event was interesting. As I watched women walk in as singles, pairs, or even a group, they all had that hunt and gather mentality. If you've ever read our entries on SAVANTBlog on how women are the market, you might want to brief yourself.


A couple of things to remember when selling to women:

Women are different from men, period.
Men are transactional, women form relationships. By this I mean that men buy the product and leave while women form relationships with experts in the stores they purchase.

Women Gather. Women gather everything from information, items, to lists... Women don't like to feel like they've overlooked a product as part of their consideration set; men just move on. The ladies last evening wanted to walk out with a bottle or two of wine, as if those bottles were the coveted personal prize. I watched them immediately gather around the bar to taste the evening's array, as a matter of course. They commenced pacing up and down the aisles to examine each and every bottle, above and beyond the few that were available for tasting.

In some cases, we answered questions or recommended some new bottles as we stood by my art work. Someone asked me about layered cake... I'm not sure what dimension she was coming from, but it was almost like someone in an online forum asking the whereabouts of their hat.

Mid evening, I counted the women, then I counted the men. In addition to the 3 men working, there were 2, including Andrew. It was amazing to see the turn out and I could see my new friend, Kurt, up to his eyeballs in estrogen.

They Came to Buy Wine
While I did get a great reception to my work, I didn't sell a piece -and I didn't expect to. That's indicative of women and purchasing. When people see my work for the first time, but it wasn't part of the consideration set, they dismiss it. They came to buy wine. That's okay, that's how human beings work. Sure, my name was included in the advertising, but it was about: wine, not art about wine.

Andrew and I tried explaining this to Cory later that evening and I expressed how I hope they consider bringing me in again for their next event. Because if I know anything about women, it's also about expectation. While I wasn't part of the consideration set this time, they'll be looking for me next time.

Sure, I felt mildly disappointed, I'm not going to lie. Having been one of the easiest shows I participated in, I almost wanted to equate my effort with sales. Then again, I won't since some of the major shows I've exhibited, I've had rotten luck.

Oh, by the way, I just got a call from the Wine Merchant. Evidently, Andrew had submitted my name into a raffle and now I've won something. I hope they guys down at the store aren't taking pity on me -then again, if it's a bottle of wine, I'll take it.

Amidst the March madness, I will be working hard on the next generation of wine themed work. I'm not going to say much but I can reveal the new series name: Cosmopolitan.

I'm looking forward to participating the next time they decide to host it again.

Hope to see you there!