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INTRODUCTION
| BACKGROUND Over the last couple of years an explosive growth has occurred in hobby ceramics studios due to some alert entrepreneurs recognizing an easy way to fulfill a persons creative, social, and entertainment needs in a manner competitive with all the other demands for peoples leisure time. As of early 1998, there are over 500 contemporary paint your own pottery studios, and this number is expected to double within the next couple of years, without reaching the saturation level for this business concept. |
| HOW THEY WORK With an open front coffee shop atmosphere inviting customers to come in, see finished sample ideas of what they can do and how quick & easy it is, pick up a piece of pottery, and creatively paint, while you collect the money for the bisque pottery piece, you charge for their sitting time, and may even charge for glazing and firing. This customer returns in a couple of days to pick up their work of art, & hopefully is so amazed at their own creation that they bring their friends in to create more. |
| WHY THEY SUCCEED A significant factor in the success of these contemporary bisque studios is the "front door" focus of the owners. Their whole efforts are concentrated on marketing ideas & methods of bringing customers in the door and then giving some warm personable friendly assistance and resulting customer satisfaction. Ceramics skills & artistry are not commonly predominant abilities. Conversely, traditional ceramic studios have to invest in casting molds, form the castings from the molds, dry & clean the clay castings, & bake the clay castings into bisque pottery. The traditional studio has to have an extensive ceramic knowledge background & wide inventory to accommodate many techniques. The contemporary studio by-passes all these capabilities, purchasing bisque ready to paint and restricting the finishing glaze products to a very narrow product range. The contemporary studio focuses on marketing efforts, applying people skills to interact with customers, and uses simple easy to do stencil and sponging techniques to produce meaningful results for their customers. The contemporary paint your own pottery studios are customer orientated, having recognized how changing lifestyles and the decreased leisure time availability have created a whole new market niche, for the oldest hobby in the world - ceramics. |
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