Sugs de Leon, owner of Sugar Coated Chaos and Ninja Clan Leader over at the Facebook group S.C.C. Dojo has plans to conquer the world one Chibicorn at a time. And she’s doing so with a personal marketing approach that developed very organically.
Her marketing is small and personal, and hugely successful. (Success= meeting the goals set, even if the goals are on a smaller scale)
Sugs makes limited edition small figurines and jewelry. Her style is very cute, very Kawaii. Her items are detailed highly time consuming to produce, so the editions are limited to 10 or so a week. Every week she shows the building process for that week’s product. On Thursdays she has a release party where the items are available for sale. Week after week she meets her sales goals, and frequently sells out within minutes
Her big-picture goal is to have her art everywhere and be known both for her work and the kind of person she is. (She is kind and vivacious.)
So when you first started out, what different approaches did you take for marketing and trying to sell you art?
Well back in the day, I had the online shops, the fan pages and I posted what I made and wrote what it was how much and where to buy it. But something about that made me feel empty. One of the things I remembered working in retail I love interaction with my customers.
I tried, Etsy, I tried a free web page store front, I tried Storenvy. Not a success as I wanted and Etsy was killing me in fees. And then I winged away from it a couple of years ago
You mentioned connecting with your customers. At what point did you find that having an artist page wasn’t serving those needs?
My page was doing great. I did my weekly releases and had an 80-100% success but then the begining of the year I saw a major drop in my audience and interaction. Since I put myself into this as my full time job/career. I couldn’t afford to only make 20 dollars a week out of my main goal to maintain the bills and continue on new projects. So I made a group and invited those who were die hard followers of my daily shenanigans and work.
Did the new group provide you with the boost in weekly sales that you needed?
Yes! I was able to interact with my group. Get feedback, share my ideas, get them excited with work in progress pictures and let them get to know me as a person. I want them to know who the artist is behind the art.
I feel like a piece has more meaning if you get to know that person on that level.
Could you describe your release party concept?
Every Thursday evening I do what is called a Release Party. I tend to post in my group a VIP Status Game where everyone gets to pick a number. The winning number gets to see the final pictures in that night’s release before anyone else gets to and then be able to have the option to purchase one item.
I decided to do this not just for the interaction within my group but to give someone a chance to see it and feel like I am throwing their own personal party just for them.
My releases have been very successful, and this also provides someone the chance to get something that tends to disappear within minutes of launching.
I then upload the items I am selling an hour after the winner is announced.
At this point in time she has no plans on expanding into more parties, or larger quantities. But she has begun the process of having her Chibicorn design made into plushies within the next year.
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You can apply to join the Dojo family at https://www.facebook.com/groups/SCCDojo/
And you can follow Sugs on Facebook: www.facebook.com/sugarcoatedchaos
Twitter: sugarlishes
Instagram: sugarcoatedchaos_