Omnichannel marketing in art galleries for the next generation collector
Creators: name: Schreiber, Sandra
Publisher: name: ZHAW Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften
Year: 2022
Subjects: 306: Kultur
658.8: Marketingmanagement

description: The art market has long held to traditional structures with rather exclusive access to art and non-transparent pricing. Hence, the move towards online sales and the associated democratization in the market have progressed slowly. Led by the Covid-19 pandemic, the art market experienced a leap forward in terms of digitization. In addition, a new younger generation of art collectors, the Next Generation Collector (NGC) became the biggest spenders on art in 2020. These new dynamics leave galleries with the open question of how they should design their omnichannel customer journey with an ideal use of online and offline consumer touchpoints in order to address the NGC.
This thesis aims at providing art galleries with recommendations to answer this question. It draws attention to the situational relevance of online and offline channels and examines which online services should be implemented to support the NGCs in their art buying decision-making. For this purpose, academic literature and art market reports on the omnichannel marketing practices were examined. In addition, 15 interviews among NGCs were held to capture their needs. The NGCs’ indicated preferences were crossreferenced with two interviews on the art seller side, in order to provide actionable recommendations for the galleries.
The thesis identified five distinct phases along the NGC’s customer journey: awareness, information, inquiry, purchase and post-purchase. Both online and offline channels are important along it. In line with previous research this thesis finds that offline touchpoints remain the preferred way of experiencing art, either to inspect an artwork or witness the memorable surrounding elements at an event. This research specifies that aside from the gallery, the interaction with the artist is commonplace among the NGCs. It was identified that especially Instagram facilitates this newer phenomenon. It allows NGCs to circumvent the gallery which traditionally acts as an intermediary. Instagram as a channel is important throughout the customer journey from the initial awareness of an artwork to staying in touch with an artist after a purchase. Hence, it becomes increasingly important for galleries to be present on the artist’s online touchpoints and enable the customer a direct transition from the artist’s to the gallery’s touchpoint. Overall, a seamless transition between all channels is essential. During the awareness and information phase, online channels allow easy access to a variety of art and information about it. Especially in the inquiry and purchase phase, the NGCs prefer written exchange, rather than in person conversations. In the post-purchase phase digital channels help to remain in touch with the NGCs. Overall, they prefer a personal interaction with the gallery before the purchase (but after their own research) and are therefore reluctant to purchase art online anonymously. NGCs may lack trust in online channels, but also want a premium experience when buying art. This service shall and cannot be supplemented by Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality or a Chatbot. Instead, a photograph of the artwork and human interaction remain paramount.