Chapter 7 - (Philoid-IN)
Chapter 7 - (Philoid-IN)
Principles of Marketing
Ideally the crafts community should be in control of the
dynamics of production, market, supply and demand. The
key areas are as follows:
Market Survey
Checking availability of products and designs
Reviewing customer needs and demands
Checking availability of raw material
Researching to find untapped skills
Providing training and skill improvement facilities
Identifying buyers
Financial forecasting
Good Product
The consumer or buyer will not buy a craft product out of
compassion or charity. The product must be competitive
in terms of its cost, utility and aesthetics.
Home-based Industry
Many people think that the handicrafts sector requires
minimum expenditure, infrastructure and training to set
up. However, if the handicrafts sector is to face competition
from within the country and abroad, then training and
development of expert skills would be necessary. The finer
the workmanship and quality, the better the value of the
craft item, which would rise above a market flooded with
mediocre products.
Distinctiveness of Crafts
90 Craft Traditions of India: Past, Present and Future
Making Craftspeople
Independent
The first crafts bazaars in the 1960s
were an innovation in bringing
92 Craft Traditions of India: Past, Present and Future
Revitalising Traditions
What happens when a woman moves
away from her own country and migrates
to the West? How does she keep in touch
with her traditions? For these traditions
form an integral part of her community,
and give her a sense of identity.
The example given in the
following box is only one
of the many ways in which
people are attempting to
do this.
Disadvantages
The main drawbacks of a crafts bazaar
are
1. It is a transient marketplace—lasting
96 Craft Traditions of India: Past, Present and Future
convey the core message of ‘Crafts made and sold directly by craftspeople’.
Ultimately, it is the participant craftsperson and the crafts product that must be
the focus. Prior intimation to crafts groups, information about the venue, target
consumers and potential trends, must be sent in time
for them to develop appropriate stocks.
Too little stock is almost as much of a tragedy as too
much. Bazaars are such occasional affairs, and there
are so many hidden costs involved in participating, that
making the right things in the right amounts is crucial.
The bazaar calendar of events should be the starting
point for design, development and production planning
through the year.
Calculation of real costs must include provisions
for hidden expenses and unforeseen circumstances.
There are variable costs, with lower mark-ups
for mass market goods, and higher ones for the
unique, one-of-a-kind pieces are something that
craftspeople, when they are their own vendors, can
experiment with. Fixed prices, proper bills, and no
bargaining, are very important principles at the crafts
bazaar, if crafts and craftspeople are to be respected.
Organising a successful crafts bazaar is an expensive
business which entails expenditure on the rental of a
space large enough to hold a sizable number of crafts
groups, putting up stalls and stands for stocking and
displaying merchandise, publicity, administration, travel
and infrastructure.
What is the criterion for inviting a crafts group to a
bazaar? Their need for a market must obviously be the
first priority, but they must also have a marketable
product. It is always better to first work at developing the
product, before launching the product into an already
overcrowded marketplace.
There are several government schemes that can
help to subsidise costs. The attempt should be to
make exhibitions and bazaars self-sustainable, with
craftspeople contributing to costs on the basis of their
sales and scale.
100 Craft Traditions of India: Past, Present and Future
EXERCISE
1. You are asked to make a
presentation on the poverty
and educational status
of a local community of
metal workers in your area.
Describe the schemes that
the local government has
introduced to enhance the
livelihood, education and
health conditions of this
community who serve your
locality.
2. Write a newspaper report
(100 words) that is
comprehensive and interesting with factual information. A
newspaper article must have
a headline that is catchy
name of the reporter
the place and date—e.g., New Delhi, 20 December.
the lead paragraph in the third person stating date, time,
venue of the event
what happened and why
some eyewitness comments or short interviews.
3. Analyse the advantages and disadvantages of craftspeople
practising their trade on the pavement.
4. Find out who the craftspeople in your state are who have
received the national crafts award, and describe their
One NGO was approached to help a small group of village women in Hapur, one of the
poorest districts in UP. These were illiterate, shy women. They strung glass beads for the
export market for `10–15 per day. Through a Swedish development project the women
had received design and skill training from NIFT but lack of an end-market meant no
orders. Their training had ended in frustration and bitterness.
The women were invited to a crafts bazaar. Two months before the bazaar they developed
some new products targeted at the Indian retail market. Raw material was bought with a
small loan from another Delhi NGO. When the crafts bazaar was to open, the women were
so hesitant they did not want to go to the bazaar. They complained in hesitation—“Selling
in a market is against our culture”; “What would the community say?”; “Who will look
after our children?”; “How will we speak to customers?”
The organisers declared that if they didn’t go, their products wouldn’t either. They
reached the bazaar three hours late—giggling and nervous. By evening all their stock
had sold. They worked all night making more products. The next day those products too
sold out. After 15 days of the bazaar experience they had turned from passive, exploited
labour into confident entrepreneurs. Today they travel all over India to bazaars, investing
their own savings to make stock, developing new designs and adding new village members
to their group.
Crafts Bazaars 101
contribution.
5. Develop a scheme for a locality in your city or town that will
benefit the local crafts community focusing on education,
health, shelter, environmental and social issues.