This Markiting is for You, RIP to Thomas Kinkade

They say he was the “painter of light.” RIP to a man that many would consider THE true artist, Thomas Kinkade. He pioneered massive commercialization of his artwork, including the licensing of his works for reproduction and running a successful online shop. While many young artists are afraid or don’t know how to make money, and contemporary artists often remain in the shadows of murky irregular art business deals, he pioneered mail order sales and running an online shop.

This makes me think about Thomas Kinkade and his business dealings. If one reads Kinkade’s Wikipedia entry, you’ll see his business had problems in the last few years. His manufacturing company had hoped to solve some high costs by outsourcing in 2010. Did this happen? What do their public or investigated financials look like?

Well, if they didn’t get this resolved, looks like others are making money NOW on his style in Dafen Painting Village in Shenzhen, China. Best bet would be to go to Dafen and buy out a few artists, or setup the Thomas Kinkade village.

You can’t fight the copying. You can slow it. A much better strategy is to exploit it, feed it, and use it to your advantage. Remember, copying might allow for some process-based innovation! That is not true technological innovation. That is the real hard work.