Arts & Sculptures market of Mahabalipuram

I had observed the dominance of Arts and sculptors market in my very first visit to mahabalipuram and so for my individual market study, I chose to study sculptures market and relate some of the marketing concepts learned so far in the first term. Though everyone of us are dealing in marketplace almost every day for some or the other mundane activities, this particular visit was quite different in many ways. For the first time in my life, I was visiting the market not for any purchase activity but for observing the market activities, interaction among buyers, sellers, agents/middleman etc.I must say it proved to be very productive and I really had a great learning experience.

It was around 5 PM on Tuesday, 22nd may that I decided to head for mahabalipuram to start my market study. On my way to Mahabalipuram I was thinking  how to handle  the language problem as it was the single biggest challenge to my task. Hence  my first job was to find  arts & sculptures shop whose owner  understands and speaks English.

Luckily I found a person named Mr Puroshattam who is the owner of ‘Master sculptors and architects’. After I gave my introduction and purpose of visit,he seemed to be more than willing to cooperate with me and provide all relevant information .He is a govt. approved isthapati,a name given to all masters of arts and sculptors .Most of the sculptures sold in mahabalipuram are handmade  and  the primary tools employed for making are hammers and chisels.According to him there are more than 150 govt approved isthapatis in mahabalipuram and more than 300 sculptures shops in mahabalipuram. Most of the isthapathis have their own manufacturing unit which employs 10 to 15 labourers .According to him these labourers fall into a caste called ‘vishwakarmas’ who are regarded as the creators,architects and sculptors of india.Most of these labourers  are approved by handcraft board of Tamil Nadu.

I began by asking him about the process he follows for demand forecasting and how he takes decision as to how many to produce and when to produce. I came to know that most of the shops take production decision based on the order they receive. Very few shops actually produce the sculptures without any orders  in hand .He cited few reasons for it.Firstly ,most the masterpieces are based on individual’s choice of idols,shapes,size  and material .Secondly ,most of the masterpieces took almost 3-4 months to complete.Hence shopkeepers usually preferred to produce based on the orders they receive.Otherwise such costly inventories would start ‘pilling up‘ in the absence of orders and would result in unnecessary cost which they have to bear. He usually charges 20-25% of money as advance while taking the order and the balance after delivery. On an average, his sales per customer vary from Rs20000 to Rs30000.

I then moved to next showroom of sculptures named ‘Valluvar arts and crafts’. This place was amazing in terms of the collection of antiques and varieties of shapes, size and material used. It had wooden sculptures made up of teak wood, bronze sculptures, marble sculptures, green soft stone and granite sculptures. Price of each masterpiece depends on the material, size, shape, and complexity of design.

In most of the occasions customer come up with their own choice of idols, designs, material and sizes and most shopkeepers also have the catalogue for the same. According to Mr Puroshattam ,most foreigners make purchases for museums and for decorative purposes while many local people order idols for temples .According to him the peak seasons for sale is from October to January. Price range for the sculptures varies from Rs 200 to Rs 4 lacs.

After my visit to third showroom ‘southern arts and crafts’ I got to know many aspects of marketing from Mr Damotharan who started as a trader of these sculptures and then slowly ventured into manufacturing of these idols and sculptures.According to him most of the tourists are from countries like Singapore ,malasia and Thailand and are the ones who are the elite customers. Sales from such tourists often ranges from Rs60000 to Rs 2 lacs as compared to local market whose sales per customer varies from Rs2000 to Rs30000. According to him ,the major chunk of orders are brought by agents and middlemen who are constantly visiting various countries and cities for getting the orders  and thus have a fixed percentage of commission on every single order. After deducting all expenses and commissions his average profit ranges from 20 – 30 % of COGS.

After I came out of the third shop I realized that it is already 8 pm and most of the market has began to close. So I decided to call off the day and moved to a coffee stall for having a hot cup of coffee after such a tiring day. I began to recollect all the major take away of my trip.

Here are few :

1)      Most shops have sculptures made up of rock stone  in their inventory as it is the cheapest of all materials and hence the fastest moving.

2)      Most of the shops take advance order to avoid piling up of inventory.

3)      Consumers are mostly foreigners who aim for aesthetics    while most of the local population prefers god idols and statues for temple.

4)      Most of the sales are driven by agents and middleman which I found the only way shopkeepers are pushing their sales.

5)      I couldn’t really find any specialised advertising /promotion strategy to enhance their customer base.

6)      Customer satisfaction is taken care off in the form of customised production methods involving varieties of designs , all price ranges and free home delivery.

In my subsequent visits to market study, I intend to delve deeper into the sculptures market and at the same time interact with few customers to know their opinion about such antiques.So stay tuned for my next post and feel free to post any comments/feedback/suggestion .It would be highly appreciated.