Rough Guide

Rough Guide

1) Chosen Object from a market stall or second hand Shop or found object from the area you are exploring for the rough guide.
2) Chosen object from a department store or boutique
3) Chosen object from an art gallery or museum

Presentation is a key aspect when considering sales. An objects location will have a dramatic affect on its context and the publics view. I have selected three objects all presenting a sunflower theme, the main difference between the three is how and where they are displayed.

The first object selected is a piece of jewellery found for sale within Covent Garden Market. It is a pair of cufflinks that feature a sewn sunflower head. They retail at around £15.00 a pair, cash only.

The second object is a Multicoloured Flower Cushion, by Bluebell Grey, it retails at the price of £120.00. The Secret garden cushion, featuring a sunflower, has pompoms which are hand-painted in the UK, and described by the seller as “to be intended to be treasured and loved.”

The object I have chosen from an Art Gallery is a painting by Vincent van Gogh, 1888 called Sunflowers as seen below. It is displayed in London’s National Gallery. It is worth around £25 million.

Market stalls are normally small temporary constructions with changing stock, the idea is to make quick sales as storage isn’t necessarily available and the produce normally changes depending on seasonal and fashion adjustments our society makes. Advertisements are normally eye grabbing to attract people walking past, the main source of customer: impulse buyers. The stalls have low overheads, normally self run and employing only a few staff. A customer can therefore get cheaper readily available items. The atmostsphere is busy, lively and loud.

Department stores in comparison to a market stall are at the complete opposite scale. They base their environments on the layout similar of a gallery. A lot of money will have been invested into architectural developments for the original building and the interiors will have been professionally designed to promote the products: often on a large scale, organised, neat, tidy, clean and white. White floors, ceilings and walls give the rooms a spacious feel that echoes that of a gallery. Day to day overheads will be a lot higher, money spent on electricity for lighting displays, elevators, checkouts etc. and the staff wage will be higher (lowering the staff -customer ratios) and background staff involved in human resources, sales and security will be employed. All of this upheaval is to create a higher class style of shopping for those considered to be wealthier who can afford to enjoy such an experience. By making the shop more of a day out at an expensive overhead, the products will have a higher in price to cover the costs. It is these higher floor prices that will then restrict the lower paid society, making the whole experience exclusive.

The National Art galleries in London are in grand, expensive, architecturally designed, and internally modified buildings, often historical and listed as a mark for location reference. Security is high and a large number of staff is used to watch and assist the guests. The rooms are very large especially the height of the ceilings and door frames. The work in relation to the cost of the experience is given a over generous amount of space. The lighting is adjusted in relation to the works and each piece has a description clearly and professionally mounted adjacent. The atmostsphere is silent. When you’re in the room you are very much aware that the art work is the centre of focus. Galleries are normally free and accessible to everyone because the art is not for sale over the counter the purpose of the site is to simply appreciate and admire the work and artists which is believed to be within everyone capacity. However on entry into the building there is a set of rules which you must follow.

If you moved the objects between locations they would defiantly change in value. It is believed that Van Gogh only sold one of his paintings during his life time probably on a site similar to that of a market stall at a price suitable for the venue; however now placed in the gallery its worth has reached an unseemly high amount. In relation to this physical movement between market stall to gallery, it is worth mentioning that quiet often there is a debate between art enthusiasts that discuss the imperial value of modern art. Often the works can be as simplistic as a mundane object available by mass production. Yet within the gallery environment these originally plain objects can reach prices of again a substantial amount simply because of the belief that the artists are making an expression or opinion and the environment from which this can be admired.

A products movement between market stall to department store is less extreme then that of a gallery however there is still much debate and discussion about the selected items that make the cut. A buyer is specifically employed to have this debate. With higher prices the customers of the department store consciously ask if the added costs are justifiable. Generally the usual cliental do not mine paying more is the product is more exclusive, better made: materially, environmentally and ethically, if it is considered fashionable or well crafted with time and skills. The chosen cushion example ticks all of the specific criteria; I feel that for a product to make the move into a department it must also have raised standards.

Quite often copies of department store objects appear on market stalls, they are normally of a lower quality but they get sold because they mimic the enthusiasm and styles of the fashionable yet they are affordable. With this common ownership the departments then have to move forward and eject a new range to keep their standards of providing the more exclusive and more fashionable objects.

In conclusion the three objects and their environments main different is because of the presentation and the associated costs to provide the different levels of service. Theses costs then remain in the cycle as an additional overhead reflected in the products price. The public view the objects material value by the literal cost. But then question their investments and silently demand additional manufacturing quality and exclusivity for the greater costs. I think that all three levels of presentation work well to promote sales for each other by chasing the competitive need to be the most fashionable. Galleries set the standard of art by displaying one off selected works considered superior. Department stores then work with designers to echo this quality but cater for the mass produced. Market stores eventually provide a close interpretation of the fashioned item but at an affordable price. Which then re-sets the cycle because when everyone owns a fashion statement it can not longer be considered a one-off so gallery works change (to an extent) or more realistically the department stores have to search or design new ways to be exclusive or take inspiration from different displays at the galleries. A cycle that looks, in modern society, to be unbreakable.