Bob Brown Art Interview: Part One-Nazar Kamangar/bridge consulting blogs-Nazar Kamangar/bridge consulting blogs

In the past, we’ve highlighted several ways you can market your small business through social media. Now, we’d like to talk to some people who have put the theories behind successful social media into practice. This spring, we’re really into art, so we spoke to Janet Aubry, the marketing guru behind Bob Brown Art. Bob Brown is an up and coming abstract artist who was recently part of the Creators and Collectors School at the prestigious Ringling School of Art and Design. Janet was kind enough to answer some questions about what makes for successful social media campaigns in the art world and in general. In fact, she provided such a wealth of information, we’ve split this interview into two parts. Stay tuned for part two tomorrow!

Image From: bobbrowninc.com

I understand you have quite the extensive background in marketing. Tell me a little more about your history.

I have been in the business of marketing professional design services since 1968.  I have worked in two different architectural practices in Michigan and in Houston, Texas.  I am a founding member of The National Society for Marketing Professional Services in Washington, D.C., I wrote the definitive article “The Role of the Marketing Coordinator” published in Interior Design Magazine, I worked with the late Philadelphia marketing consultant Weld Coxe to write the American Institute of Architects Handbook Chapter on Marketing.  I was hired to start a marketing program for a 60 person architectural practice in Houston which became the 5th largest architectural firm in the U.S. according to Engineering News Record magazine where I became the first woman non-technical partner in an architectural practice in the United States.  I have taught a number of marketing coordinator seminars throughout the country and have guest lectured at Rice University, the University of Wisconsin and the University of Houston.

Image From: bobbrowninc.com

How did you get involved in Bob Brown Art? When did you start, and what is your role there?

Bob Brown is a childhood friend who I lost touch with shortly after we finished high school in 1966. We both attended Michigan State University and then he went to Vietnam and I eventually moved to Houston.  We met again in 2006 at a class reunion and over the course of time, with both of us living in Florida, renewed our friendship.  I was surprised to know that although he had a long successful career in motor sports, as a race car driver and founder of a sponsorship company in Charlotte, he also had painted for most of his life but never showed his work to anyone.  He told me he studied art in Charlotte and San Francisco and had attended the Boca Raton School of Art for 3 years. I asked to see his work and I thought it was fresh, new, fun, lively, unique and brilliant all rolled into one. I showed it to my husband, an architect with an extensive contemporary art collection. He said “I don’t know what Bob does now, but this is what he should be doing”.  Bob appreciated the endorsement from such a knowledgeable source and we agreed that if he wanted to pursue his art that I would throw in with him and try to apply my marketing expertise to a new field.  Even though art isn’t a service per se, it is close enough that I felt there would be a close enough crossover that many of the same principles would be useful.  So about 2 years ago we started Bob Brown Art.  He paints – I market.

Image From: bobbrowninc.com

Our thanks to Janet. Please stay tuned for the conclusion to the interview tomorrow.