Pricing art is less about the number itself and more about the story it tells—about the artist, the journey, and the value within.
Many artists find that pricing their work is like walking a tightrope. Unlike mass-produced items with precise production costs, emotions, skill, and personal investment shape fine art’s unique and subjective value. By understanding the psychology behind how buyers perceive prices and make decisions, artists can set prices that accurately reflect the value of their work and effectively influence purchasing choices.
As an artist, you aspire to earn a fair income from your creations without alienating potential buyers. Mastering the techniques of pricing psychology can be your key to achieving this delicate balance and building a sustainable art career. Knowing how to price art empowers you, putting you firmly in control of your artistic journey and instilling confidence in your pricing decisions.
The Art of Self-Belief: Confidence as a Pricing Foundation
A successful pricing strategy begins with confidence in your work. Undervaluing your art can reduce its perceived value in the eyes of potential buyers. This process isn’t just about setting high prices without reason; it requires a deep understanding of your artistic practice. Compare your prices with those of similar artists while considering time, materials, skill, and market benchmarks. By setting prices based on this knowledge, you effectively communicate the value of your work, encouraging potential buyers to recognize its worth as well.
Establishing a solid pricing foundation requires thorough research and market understanding, which is essential for pricing art. Knowing who your competitors are, what they are doing, and how that contributes to their success is crucial. This knowledge will make you feel more informed and prepared in the art market, boosting your confidence in your pricing decisions and making you feel ready to navigate the market.
Exploring the Basics of Pricing Psychology
Pricing psychology examines how pricing strategies influence consumer behavior, impacting value perception and purchasing decisions. For artists, understanding these principles is essential. A well-crafted pricing strategy ensures fair compensation, positions your artwork within the market, influences buyer perceptions and boosts sales success. It gives you control and influence over how your work is perceived and valued in the market.
Dynamic Pricing and Flexibility Based on Demand
Some artists adjust prices based on demand. For instance, as a particular piece or style gains popularity, prices can gradually increase to reflect its market appeal. This approach allows your pricing to evolve with your reputation, making your work feel exclusive and in demand. For example, if a particular style of your paintings becomes popular, you can gradually increase the prices of those paintings to reflect their increasing demand and your growing reputation.
Educating Buyers About the Value of Art
Buyers sometimes need help understanding the depth of effort, skill, and creativity in creating art. Educating them about the artistry, technique, and history behind each piece enhances perceived value and justifies your pricing. A powerful way to achieve this is through storytelling. By sharing the inspiration, process, or journey behind your work, you’re offering buyers a deeper connection to the piece, helping them see its worth beyond the visual alone.
Storytelling becomes a natural tool to validate and support your pricing, turning the focus from mere cost to each piece’s value. When you tell the story of your art, you’re not just sharing information—you’re strengthening your perception of its value, boosting your confidence in pricing. As buyers learn your stories, these become the basis of the stories they’ll tell about you, further enriching your work’s reputation and expanding its reach through their narratives. Buyers who feel engaged and connected to your story are often more willing to invest as they gain a sense of the uniqueness and significance of each piece.
The Value and Context of Charm Pricing in Art Sales
Charm pricing—setting prices just below a round number (e.g., $499 instead of $500)—can be a double-edged sword in the fine art world. While this technique can create a perception of value and make prices more appealing, it’s often more suited to specific contexts than high-end original art sales.
Charm pricing may work best for artists who offer smaller items or open-edition prints. For example, an artist producing a series of small prints might price them at $49 instead of $50, making the pieces accessible to new buyers just beginning to collect. Similarly, at art fairs or online shops, where the goal might be to reach a wider audience with a range of price points, charm pricing can help make the work feel like a good deal without compromising its appeal.
However, for higher-value original pieces, whole-number pricing (such as $1,500 rather than $1,499) is typically more in line with collector expectations. Rounding prices in this way conveys confidence and reinforces the work’s exclusivity, making it clear that these pieces are crafted with unique, enduring value in mind.
In short, while charm pricing can be effective for accessible, entry-level pieces for serious collectors or higher-value artwork, precise, whole-number pricing often better aligns with fine art standards and the overall presentation of your brand. This approach can give you confidence in your pricing decisions.
Leveraging Value-Based Pricing
Value-based pricing, which sets prices based on perceived value rather than production costs, allows artists to capture the true worth of their work. Buyers often consider factors like the artist’s reputation, originality of the work, and emotional response. By understanding these elements, you can set prices that align with your audience’s perception of value.
Anchoring Perceptions: Using Price as a Quality Signal
Price often acts as a signal of quality. A higher price can sometimes imply superior craftsmanship or exclusivity, especially if buyers are unfamiliar with your work. However, it’s essential to strike balance. Anchoring perceptions, a pricing strategy, involves setting a high reference price, which can make mid-range prices more reasonable. For instance, displaying a few high-priced pieces alongside more affordable ones creates a benchmark, making the latter appear like good deals. This strategy can be particularly effective in art galleries or exhibitions, where the juxtaposition of high and mid-range prices can influence buyers’ perceptions of your work’s value.
Techniques for Influencing Buyer Decisions with Pricing
Once you have a baseline price that reflects your work’s value, you can use specific strategies to nudge buyers toward a purchase:
- Charm Pricing: Setting a price just below a round number (e.g., $399 instead of $400).
- Price Decoys: Offering a range of work at different price points. Lower-priced pieces make higher-priced ones seem more valuable by comparison.
- Bundling: Consider offering packages like an original piece and a limited-edition print. This offer adds value for buyers and encourages them to invest in the entire bundle.
- Limited Editions: Limited-edition prints or variations can add exclusivity, justifying a higher price.
Building Value Beyond the Price Tag
While price plays a significant role in purchasing decisions, it’s not the only factor. Consider these methods for enhancing perceived value:
- Storytelling: Share the inspiration behind your work. A compelling story can create an emotional connection, making the price feel justified.
- Presentation: Invest in professional framing and presentation to elevate perceived value and showcase professionalism.
- Behind-the-Scenes Insight: Offer glimpses into your creative process through artist talks, studio visits, or social media content, fostering an appreciation for the time and skill involved.
- Developing a Brand: Cultivate an online presence and engage with your audience. Consistently sharing your work and journey builds a community, adding value to your brand.
Overcoming Undervaluing: Owning Your Worth
Many artists fear that high prices will make them seem greedy. Yet undervaluing your work can limit your ability to sustain your art practice and invest in quality materials. Pricing reasonably allows you to continue your career and contribute to art. Building confidence in your pricing will help you communicate the actual value of your art to buyers.
Tailoring Prices to Your Market
A one-size-fits-all approach rarely works in art pricing. Consider these factors when setting your prices:
- Target Audience: Are you selling to collectors, interior designers, or corporate buyers? Each group has different budget expectations.
- Location: Living costs and gallery fees vary by region. Factor these into your pricing while remaining competitive in your market.
- Career Stage: Emerging artists often start with lower prices, gradually increasing them as their reputation grows. But remember, “emerging” doesn’t mean undervaluing—build with purpose.
- Sales Channels: Direct sales through your website or studio allow for more control over pricing, whereas galleries often take a commission, so factor this in when working with them.
Confidently Navigating Sales Conversations
Setting a firm price is essential, but some buyers may still try to negotiate. Here’s how to handle these conversations professionally:
- Be Prepared: Know your minimum acceptable price, and be ready to walk away if necessary.
- Highlight Value: Focus on the uniqueness, time, and skill invested in the piece.
- Offer Flexibility: If price is an issue, suggest payment plans or bundles as alternatives.
- Stay Professional: Even if a sale doesn’t go through, leave a positive impression that could lead to future interest.
The Long Game: Building a Sustainable Art Career
Effective pricing isn’t just about individual sales. It’s about creating a sustainable art career where your work is appreciated over time. Here are some tips to guide you:
- Track Sales and Trends: Keep your sales records, noting price points and buyer demographics. This data will help you refine your pricing strategy.
- Invest in Growth: Improve your skills and engage in exhibitions or residencies to build your profile and justify price increases.
- Stay Informed on Market Trends: Understanding the market can ensure you stay competitive.
- Build Connections: Networking with other artists, galleries, and critics can open doors to new opportunities.
Conclusion
Pricing art is both an art and a science. By understanding pricing psychology and using effective strategies, artists can set prices that attract the right buyers and reflect the true worth of their work. Balancing perceived value, strategic pricing techniques, and clear communication creates a compelling pricing approach that benefits both the artist and the collector. As you navigate pricing complexities, staying adaptable and informed will help you build a sustainable, rewarding career in the art world.
Be well, take care.
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AWESOME article! More artists need to read this one. I am a giclee printer and I talk to artists everyday and for some reason this is the one thing they seem to struggle with the most.
Your paragraph is right on target:
“In a recent online discussion about giclée prints, some artists were complaining that everyone, including printers and galleries, were making money on giclée prints except the artists. Unless an artist is actually overpaying market prices, which in a highly competitive market such as giclée printing should never happen, and as harsh as it may sound, the fault is on the artist. It comes down to not marking up the work for a sufficient profit.”
Being an artist, I struggled with trying to find the balance and profit in printing my work. When I made my business plan to start http://www.artprintexpress.com, I kept in mind my own concerns as an artist and pricing. And I tell each of them that my prices are wholesale and they should price their prints at a minimum of 3x cost. (this covers gallery commissions and still make a profit) Often times they look at me with disbelief and tell me that at that price the prints are close to the original price… then I look at them and say “Maybe you should rethink your pricing on your originals. They’re one of a kind unique, no one else will own the original, don’t you think that you deserve more especially if you are making prints available. You didn’t blink when I quoted you the price for the giclee I just printed for you.”
I don’t know what it is exactly, because I went through the same thing early in my art career too. I think for me, it was so easy for me to create that I lost sight of the real value in my work. I have since gotten over that thought process but I see this same struggle all the time.
Also a comment on whether or not to get prints, I am finding that many “Hobbyist Artists” do not want to sell their original works, the emotional attachment is too high for them to let them go. So getting giclee prints of them are a solution to their problem when someone wants their work. With technology that is now available to get started in prints even on a minimal scale is now reachable even for those artists. I can’t tell you how many of them I get coming to my studio to simply give their art as gifts without loosing the original. And the bonus is that the print they give will last their friend or family a lifetime.
Thank you Barney for sharing this information.
Hi Michelle, Thank you for adding your thoughtful comments to this post. Artists too often sell with what is in their wallet when they should look upon their customers as millionaires. The ones that aren’t will have no problem telling you the cannot afford your originals. That sets up an easy sale for a giclee print with profit built in. If you like what you read here, please forward to others and encourage them to do likewise.
Barney, I would like to ask you a question that I haven’t found anyone yet who is willing to answer. I am a photographer. Along with doing portraits and stuff, I love creating photographic art. What I keep running into is other photographers (some top in the area) and galleries who tell me people will not buy photographs unless they are really cheap. Several gallery owners I have talked to personally say people just don’t appreciate the value of photography. One of them is a photographer herself. People crowd around my work wanting to know how I did it, but when I start talking about the piece being in their home, they say they are just asking questions so they can use their camera better. I know my pieces are unique and it’s taken me years to learn to do what I do now. How do you approach not just the pricing of the piece, but increasing the perceived value… not just of my piece, but others who are talented as well?
I have just stumbled onto a new revelation in the last few days that maybe I need to change my approach. I still need to flesh it out though. When there is a lack of appreciation, it not only devalues my work, but it devalues how I perceive myself as an artist.
I think the key is to look for an area that does appreciate photographic art, as opposed to trying to convince people there is value there. And to look for a clients and locations to sell my work that care about what I do, learn what goes into a quality photographic print and an understanding of technique. At this point, I just don’t know where to start to find a place like that.
Do you have any suggestions or ideas to increase the value of photographic art so that it doesn’t sell only when deeply discounted? Or am I just fighting a losing battle with where our culture is now in how it views photography?
Jillian, the answer you seek is in the post and in your own comment. There are photographers who make bank on their images, such as Peter Lik http://www.lik.com.There are photographers whose work is considered the highest level of collectible fine art, such as Cindy Sherman. Being a realist, I know most photographers are not going to become the next Peter Lik or Cindy Sherman. Nevertheless, their examples show what is possible. I don’t have a magic wand for you, but I can tell you if you are showing your work to people who don’t get the value of what you are doing that you are wasting your time on them. If you are casting for the best and biggest catch and only coming up with puny throw back minnows, you need to change your bait or change your fishing spot or both. It is not the job of high value collectors to find you, at least that is not a business model. It is your job to find them and market to them in a way that converts them to buyers. One of the basic tenets of the classic marketing book titled Positioning is if you want to deepen your sales you need to narrow your focus. Or, as someone else said, “There’s riches in niches.”
The niche thing is what I really struggle with. I have never been able to feel comfortable with narrowing my work down to a single subject, but I keep the overall style and colors the same. I have finally come down to the conclusion that I make art based on my outlook of life… and maybe that is what needs to be my niche. Still trying to figure this stuff out, but I will keep trying! 🙂
The art market has changed so much over the last few years. But hopefully, that will just make me better in the end.
Thank you so much for your response!
Great article Barney! As a recovering CPA and budding fine art photographer, I appreciate your practical and to-the-point advice. As a CPA, my marketing strategy was simple – an ad in the Yellow Pages and government and accounting regulations kept my plate full. Now, learning about SEO, target markets, and pricing art/photography keeps my head swirling, particularly when online interfaces are continually shifting gears. I have a lot to learn and look forward to reading your books.
You made a good point when you shared that it is important for artists to hunt buyers who will show interest in buying their artworks. Besides, it is important to consider some factors when putting a price on the piece of art that they are producing. I would like to think if someone has produced artwork and does not know how to put a price, he should consider looking for a reliable art appraisal service.
I like that you talked about how you cannot separate art from its artists. I guess getting the painting investigated by scientific art professionals would still have to consider who the artist is when checking it. Hopefully, I can hire one that we can trust to get the painting checked since I found one in the attic of my grandparents' home.
You made a good point when you shared that the pricing of art has become part of the conversation whenever artists discuss the business of art. It is best to work with an appraisal service that can help with the pricing. I would like to think if someone wants to sell his art, he should cosdneir working with a reliable art appraisal service.
Thank you so much for this wonderful information. You have given me exactly what I needed to know for pricing my artwork.
Thank you, Leslie! I’m so glad to hear that this information was helpful for you in navigating the sometimes tricky process of pricing your artwork. It’s wonderful to know that you found exactly what you needed here. Best of luck as you set prices that reflect the true value of your work and connect with buyers who appreciate it. If you have any other questions or need further guidance, feel free to reach out. Keep creating and sharing your unique voice through your art!
Enjoyed these suggestions and your excellent thoughts over morning tea. You have confirmed my thoughts regarding pricing,….sometimes it is harder to price the painting than paint the painting!! I am forwarding this article on to my artist friends, thank you Barney.