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Our town's arts festival is coming up and I for one am very excited. This is like the biggest thing to happen to this town every year. We just get flooded with amazing artists who are quickly followed by a tidal surge of urgent buyers looking for the next big piece of artwork. everyone wants to come here and discover some kind of picasso or rembrandt. For me it is all about getting my name out.

Last semester I went to a job fair. at this job fair there were reps from a bunch of different companies and organizations. There were even reps from the government trying to recruit people to the FBI and other federal agencies. When I went I didn''t really know what I was looking for but I know the types of things I am interested in when I am picking classes. With that in mind I grazed the gymnasium looking for something at least slightly promising. I found a few things but what I really noticed about the whole experience was the marketing tactics they used to hook students. Things like promotional gifts and logo merchandise were all over the place. These little tradeshow giveaway items were what really drove kids to frequent certain booths. Even those that knew exactly what they would be doing when they graduated were still hanging around looking for more free stuff. For the companies, I thought, this seemed like a bit of a loss. When I thought more about it it made perfect sense from both an advertising and customer satisfaction standpoint.

This year at my booth I am going to be trying a similar policy with promotional products. I have gotten a great booth once again where I ill be selling my pottery and sculpture. I also spent a bit of time this semester making t-shirts that have my own personal business logo on them. This same logo is one the bottom of my commercial pottery and my business cards. At the festival I will be selling the t-shirts and giving them away to anyone who buys a piece of my work. I think this will increase my sales because they will get something tangible out of buying even my most abstract works. I also think it will help to keep people coming back to my booth throughout the week because the logo is hanging from the front of my boot as well.