Fengkou Finance Intern Reporter Zhao Chong
You can experience it all in a "big show" by buying jewelry, drinking coffee, doing yoga, and playing frisbee. Isn't it very novel? Recently, the "My Friends and Me" art market in Jiaozhou has attracted a large number of young people to check in. At present, Jiaozhou, the top 100 counties in the country, has set off a wave of "traffic" and has also added a bit of fireworks to the city under the normalization of epidemic prevention and control.
Why do young people like to "go to the market"?
Art Market is a cultural and artistic activity that displays in specific venues and mainly sells personal original handicrafts. In recent years, it has become a new social and consumption model that is popular among young people. Contemporary young people like to take photos and check in, and want to go to different places in different ways. They are both interesting and trendy, and can also find unique items to show their differences. The art market has naturally become a good place for young people to go in their spare time.
"The market is not only fun, but also buys things that are completely different from those in the mall, especially niche and personalized accessories. When I was shopping in the market, I also met many old classmates and friends." During the holiday, Xiao Jia browsed the promotion of the creative market of "My Friends and Me" in his circle of friends, and came to check in with his friends.
"My Friends and Me" market has all kinds of new things: handmade glass, art installations, comic speed skating , blue belt desserts, frisbee communities, indoor camping... Market activities like this have become a "trend gathering place" that young people who are now typing up their personality and fashion. In the market, young people can not only buy trendy items and novel items, but also taste niche coffee, handmade baked goods, and even practice yoga and enjoy music performances. Surprisingly, this art market was initiated and founded by a studio called Yi Green Factory, which has only three people.
from the art glass cross-border art market
Alu graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts furnishing art design in 2019. She and her junior Didi developed a strong interest in glass craftsmanship during their college years, so after graduation, they established a studio "Yi Green Factory" focusing on making "glass". Two girls, Alu and Didi, are mainly responsible for product design and research and development. Dayi is responsible for the later shooting and the operation of online and offline stores.
Glass craft is a traditional craft in my country and has a history of thousands of years. In recent decades, due to the lack of innovation, our country has always assumed the role of glass OEM. Through their efforts, they want to base themselves on the inheritance and innovation of glass art, and to give glass art diversity and innovation inner vitality with the mission of rejuvenating the traditional culture of the nation in the new era.
"Yi Green Factory is a beautiful life manufacturing factory. We hope to start from the ordinary things in life and combine the characteristics of glass materials from a unique perspective to give life some fresh experience." Designers A Lu and Didi designed the products closest to life with the idea of making artworks. They use pure hand-blowing, glass hot melt, colored glass inlay and other processes to maximize the integration of glass's unique beauty into small objects in daily life, such as water cups, wine glasses, vases, artistic ornaments, rings, earrings, etc. Alu and Didi told reporters that when passing on the design concept to everyone, they hope to inspire everyone to find the inconspicuous beauty in life, so that everyone can discover life more and love life more.
A Lu often brings her original designs to and from major cities to participate in market activities. Since the studio was established in 2020, it has participated in twenty or thirty art market events every year. Among them, sales in the market account for more than half of the annual sales. During the National Day holiday just passed, she took her latest works to the "Fanji" market in Shenzhen, bringing the most "Chinese" works to the trend gathering place.
aggregation is the best competition
One Green Factory has independently planned 3 market activities in just two years. Among them, "My Friends and Me" was their first event in Jiaozhou, and it also filled the gap in Jiaozhou art market.From determining the theme, planning the content of the event, calling on merchants to finding venues, recruiting exhibitors, and building them, Yi Green Factory is slowly transforming from the organizer of the exhibition's brand to the exhibition.
The process of establishing an art market in Jiaozhou was not smooth, and they also experienced many setbacks. "Unlike cities like Shanghai and Hangzhou where art markets have developed very maturely, Jiaozhou and even Qingdao are still blank in this field, and everyone's acceptance is relatively low." A Lu told reporters that the process of bringing "My Friends and Me" to discuss cooperation with merchants was very tortuous. Many merchants do not understand why they should gather stores of the same type together, and they are also worried that stores of the same economic format will lose their fixed customer base at the same time.
A Lu said that they want to build a platform to bring together coffee shops with their own tone and shops with independent design capabilities such as niche designer brands, and gather people scattered in various coffee shops on weekends. For merchants, they can not only extend the consumption venue, but also gain opportunities to communicate with other merchants. At the same time, it can also expand consumer groups, listen to market demands and needs, obtain the most authentic evaluation, and understand what young people like nowadays, so as to improve products, enrich product categories, contact more potential customers, promote and expand brand influence. For consumers, this is the spiritual community of youth. Interesting markets have magical magnetic fields that can bring together souls of the same frequency. Provide such a gathering point with a sense of spiritual identity, allowing consumers to realize their emotional value and have their needs for making friends.
"We hope to form a city IP belonging to Jiaozhou and create a market brand with regional characteristics and popularity." A Lu has a long-term vision and strategy for the subsequent development of the store. Creative markets are the carrier of urban cultural dissemination, with both commercial value and creative aesthetic value. I hope that more and more stores with independent creative level in Jiaozhou will participate in the art market.
Art Market Fair is a good business?
When it comes to consumption in county-level cities, people think they are often mid- and low-end business formats such as pedestrian streets and department stores, while mid- and high-end consumption often "only exists" in national cities with higher consumption levels.
With the active Internet economy, "Internet celebrities" and consumer formats are rapidly integrating, and many young people and the middle class have put forward higher and higher requirements and expectations for consumption. At this time, county-level cities cannot meet the diversified needs of young people, and more young people choose to consume in economically developed cities.
If you want to achieve sustainable development, quality improvement and upgrading of consumption are imperative. Exploring and releasing the consumption potential of the sinking market is an effective way and means to promote high-quality economic development. By effectively tapping and releasing the consumption potential of the sinking market, the art market will become the main venue for consumption and activities for young people in county-level cities.
Alu said that young people watch and try on items offline are often more "tempting" than watching pictures online. Many young people hope that their clothes or accessories are storytelling and unique, and use different clothing to show their personality. For original design brands in small cities, they are generally limited by customer flow and popularity, and sales are unstable all year round. They generally choose to register online stores, but online stores are not their main sales base. At present, they tend to regard the market as their main sales platform. Facts also confirm this. After investigation by reporters, the sales of stores during the market were more than twice that of usual.
