Get me a Paintbrush and Drink too!

A Paintbrush in One Hand, and a Drink in the Other

A trend that appears to be sweeping uptown like a storm. I must emphasize uptown because the prices are uptown at best. What I am referring to are paint and sip classes where you go to a class and learn to paint a specific drawing or a specific style of painting in one sitting and while having that experience something alcoholic in your hand.

The trend has been growing for nearly a decade, as more and more people seek diversions in experiences rather than in buying things.

And this is exactly why I am writing about it, people seek experiences over things and this presents a unique opportunity for small businesses to come up with creative ways to attract a mostly millennial crowd who crave experiences. We have noticed a craze of experience related business. Go pro is one prime example, the fact of the matter is they are selling equipment but marketing it equipment you can use to document your experiences. World Ventures markets cheap vacation but all they're really doing is exploiting economies of scale and scope. Of course, it will be cheaper if you guarantee your seller 100 customers as opposed to just 2.

But let's go back to paint and sip for a minute. 

Susan Jean, the proprietor of Painting With a Twist’s Bentonville location. “You drink a little, talk a lot and bring something home, it's just like fishing"

But with a new generation of adults on the horizon, the future of our economy will need to cater to what these consumers want while taking into consideration how much they are willing to pay. 

Young adults stop going to parties as often when they settle down, but they still crave activities that are fun for adults, children also need activities as well and so do some older folk. What I am saying here is that the Experience Economy may be something that we should be investing in while it is still in its infancy. 

Now an important point is The paint-and-sip trend has been driven in part by a generally heightened interest in wine, the experience Economy may open up avenues for traditional businesses to market their products in a subtle way. if you get to taste a new product at every class or themed nights with different liquors and hors-d'oeuvres.

but there are challenges to my idealistic thought process of the "experience customer". many people will only want the experience once a businesses have to deal with that.

"Hey I did Paint and Sip on my birthday, I had fun but I wouldn't necessarily do it again" or a simple one post of Instagram with their creation and that's it A potential long-term challenge was getting customers to return, as “the novelty subsides.”

The challenge with the Experience Economy will be keeping up to date but that isn't hard to do if you have direct access to your customers and their feedback. 

Let's start a conversation about if The Experience  Economy can it work?  and you more interested in paying for stuff or experiences?

 

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