Team No. 3Amrita Biswas Ranjaboti Ghosh Monika Sharma Ushaman Sarkar

1. Would capturing the perception of consumers about art forms work?The art market has developed in India around the high net worth individuals who have different motives and derives varied benefits from purchasing art works. From the exhibits we see that although the overall size of HNI in India is less as compared to the APAC and the world but the growth of HNI is quite promising in India as compared to the rest of the world. HNI size growth in India is at a CAGR of 13% from 2005 to 2010 as compared to CAGR of 5% and 3.79% for APAC and the world from 2005 to 2010. Over the couple of years, leaving year 2009 which marked the erosion of wealth for every economy, we see Indias growth in HNI size is much higher Year on Year against the APAC and the World. This means that more and more people are becoming richer and they would look for lucrative investment options, unique market places to spend their disposable incomes, higher need to differentiate themselves and accentuate their status levels. Therefore, luxury items market has tremendous growth potentials in India. Since art works contribute to a large portion of the luxury goods pie it is critically important to make informed and focused efforts to grow the pie. The market would function sub optimally in every category unless the capabilities are realized in full strength. Since we see that buyers of art forms are very unique in themselves and they have own perceptions, it is of prime importance to research them. This will help both the Artists, the buyers and the marketers. Artists: From young and budding artists to experienced artists, everyone needs income to nourish, develop and grow in their respective fields. When they become aware of how their potential buyers thinks and derive benefits from their work, or what their buyers will buy would help them focus and build on their areas of interest.Buyers: As already mentioned, wealthy buyers buy out of passion or to demonstrate their status, some buy as an obsession, some appreciate art as well as consider it as a lucrative option, some buy for decorative purposes and so on. The personality of a buyer is one of the main driving factors for art form purchase. Therefore, buyers must have adequate information, accessibility and options to make their informed decisions. For buyers who look upon art forms as an investment options must see the market place to be rewarding enough for them to invest in it. Art market must be segmented according to the key driving factors that emerge from the personality and perception studies and each segment must have a clear brand image for buyers to derive the full benefit from it. Therefore, buyer research is very important to make the market place more efficient and rewarding.Marketers: For every marketer, it is very important to promote the product in order to grow the market, drive volumes, grow category and so on. If marketers understand their buyers then they would be able to do a better segmentation, targeting and positioning of their product or service. Since, the buyers here are of dynamic nature and are dependent on cyclical and structural patterns, marketers should do the research even better to keep their market place alive. Depending on the outcome of their research they would be able to promote, attract and drive sales for themselves. Also, our very target should be to have a consistently growing market where buyers should be motivated to make repeat purchases, investments. By capturing buyer perceptions, it would be easier to move them through the funnel and help to form a more robust dependable market.

2. What was the level of involvement of consumers in art forms?Major Factors causing change in involvement of people: When current consumer spending habits were compared with similar habits in 2002, it revealed that theexpenditure onentertainment had increased significantly. Indians nowconstituted a fifth ofthe worlds citizens below the age 20. A youth generation and the desire of this generation to look and feel good was becoming a major factor in making purchase decision.As the disposable incomes increased, more and more High Net worth Individuals were investing to satiate their tastes for finer things.A rise in sales of art categorized as affordable which was in range of INR 200,000 to INR 1,000,000.

Level of involvement of consumers based on segmentation is as follows:Lifestyle of ConsumersConsumer CharacteristicsType of ArtLevel of Involvement

LuxuriousHome Decorators ,Art Collector & Wealthy HNIsFine ArtHigh

ContemplativeIntellectual who search for deeper meaningAbstract ArtMedium

SocialHomeowners who liked aesthetics , Family orientedFigurative ArtMedium

Young Buyers, influenced by WestIntellectual who enjoyed non-traditional concept imagery artDigital ArtMedium

3. Were art forms something that consumers used to reflect their personality?The art forms that consumers purchased and appreciated reflected their personalities significantly. Fine art was tasteful and needed to be appreciated as standalone pieces of art work. Fine art was created to appeal to aesthetic people who understood and appreciated art. Buyers of fine art were usually socially active people who liked to travel in luxury cars and stay in mansions and luxury apartments. These people typically indulged in performing arts either as audience members or as performers. Fine art buyers could be art collectors. Abstract art appealed to people who were keen on understanding the deeper meaning of symbols and have their own interpretations of artwork. Abstract art was ambiguous and did not represent reality as observed with naked eye, though it might be based on an actual individual, emotion or object. People who patronized abstract art had their own way of thinking that differed in general from other's opinions and were reluctant to share their ideas with others. Buyers of abstract art were reflective persons who were often reclusive and solitary beings. These people indulged in gardening and read a lot of books. Figurative art was inspired by the natural and visible world and used tangible forms and objects to convey the artist's message. Since figurative art was detailed and unambiguous, people who appreciated figurative art liked to understand the clarity of art or liked the aesthetics of form, color and style. These people could be either rational buyers who understood exactly what the art work conveyed or cognitive buyers who enjoyed the detail of art, artists and techniques. Buyers of figurative art were primarily home owners and people with strong analytical skills. These people enjoyed art based on movies or other literally sources. The consumers had a habit of doing things themselves. Digital art was created on a computer in digital form or significantly modified by a computing process. Buyers of digital art were intellectual and enjoyed non-traditional, concept imaginary art. These people wanted art works to reflect their interest and wit and have a high content of imagination and digital techniques. These people were interested in contemporary society and socialized in pubs and discos. They were typically young buyers influenced by the West. They relied on social networking websites to search for unusual imagery and digital prints to decorate their homes. Therefore, from these various instances we can conclude that art forms are something that consumers use to reflect their personality. The type of art work adopted by different segments of consumers varied depending on their personality.3. Were consumers associated with art different from other consumers in terms of their lifestyle?Consumers associated with Art differed among themselves, while some buyers were obsessed with art, some preferred associating themselves with the finest creative minds, while others considered art as a lucrative investment option.In terms of lifestyle, a typical buyer of fine art was usually very active socially, and preferred a luxurious lifestyle. An average abstract art buyer was more of a contemplating person, who preferred living in a solitary and reclusive fashion enjoying the simpler things in life like walking in parks or gardening. A figurative art buyer indulged in high level of TV viewing and movie watching. They were socially active and updated of occurrences in their communities. They were also family people who enjoyed spending time with their in-laws and travelling.Digital art buyers were generally younger intellectuals compared to other art buyers. They were highly influenced by western cultures and enjoyed remaining updated in Social Networking sites. They preferred decorating their homes with unusual imagery and socializing at pubs and discos.