Strategic Growth for From Dust Pottery Co.

This report was developed as an in-depth exploration of strategic growth opportunities for a pottery company. It was drafted through a collaborative effort with input from others, so I ask that you focus attention on the sections titled “Executive Summary,” “Local Pottery Industry,” and “Vision for Growth of FDP” to read the content I exclusively wrote.

Executive Summary

Handmade pottery is principally considered an art form or hobby, and the industry itself is perceived as oversaturated and undiversified. This current understanding prevents valuable outliers like From Dust Pottery Co. from standing out. We have seen how brands like East Fork Pottery have successfully grown their brand by capitalizing on the consumers’ desire for something functional and ethically sourced, that feels handmade. While the substitutes and competition for utilitarian pottery are high there is still potential for small pottery businesses to distinguish themselves.

Because From Dust Pottery (FDP) is young, the company is in a vital position for growth, and Shannon Barker, the founder, should be actively developing a strategy for growth. While substitutes and competition for handmade pottery are high at an industry level, FDP has a unique opportunity on a local/regional level. By focusing on refining her product and service offerings Shannon can create a unique option for customers in South Carolina that will stand out against other local pottery businesses. Specifically, her dream to craft custom dish sets for wedding registries is a valuable proposition that she should focus on incorporating into her strategy.

FDP’s Current Strategy

From Dust Pottery is a Columbia, SC-based ceramics company run by Shannon Barker which makes “handmade earthenware from the ground to your table.” Shannon’s current focus is primarily on small batch production and commission orders. Additionally, Shannon often teaches private throwing lessons in her studio. Shannon primarily sells her pottery through Instagram, local markets, and her website. Although she does not have a fully functioning brick-and-mortar shop, she occasionally holds “open studio hours” in her home studio for customers to come by and purchase pottery. Shannon currently promotes FDP primarily through social media engagement and word-of-mouth. Recent marketing developments for FDP have been visual rebranding, website creation, and a pending business license.

Industry Environment

The pottery industry is growing slowly even with a reduction in the number of potters. This means that being in the business is becoming more desirable with more market share to be able to grab so it is a good place to expand and further capture value within the industry. Although sales of pottery can be somewhat volatile, it usually doesn’t dip much compared to other art forms or luxury items during an economic downturn. This resilience can be seen in the relatively small decrease in sales during the pandemic and expected rapid recovery. There are plenty of competitors to fill the role of pottery but as a product, pottery is unique and operates in a niche market. You can buy fancy dishes and other types of ornamental decorations but pottery is handmade out of something pulled from the earth.

The goal of the pottery industry in Columbia is differentiation. Shannon needs to find a way to stand out among her competitors and she’s already found that niche by creating her rustic style of artistic and beautiful yet functional pieces. There are currently no potters in the Columbia area that offer the ability to custom order pieces or register them for weddings. The competition is almost exclusively focused on the experiential side of pottery rather than the functional artwork that Shannon provides.

Local Pottery Industry

Local Potters

While there are innumerable potters in Columbia and South Carolina who craft pottery to sell at markets or on Etsy, most engage pottery as a hobby and very few have established their craft as a business. Most of these miscellaneous artists focus on selling at local pop-up markets in Columbia. While it may seem like this saturation would make the growth of From Dust Pottery difficult, there are very few local potters who have matched Shanons’s aesthetic and utilitarian value.

Kyle Smith, a potter in Columbia, sells at soda city, multiple small retail locations, and Etsy. On his website, he states that he crafts a “wide variety of production pieces and custom orders”. Popular Charleston potter and painter Susan Gregory sells her pottery online and has a large following on Instagram. Her website states that she makes “functional, wheel-thrown, handmade pottery, [and] custom tableware”. Both of these potters have similar value propositions as From Dust Pottery’s, but the aesthetic of their products and brand presence is significantly different than FDP’s.

East Fork Pottery

A relevant competitor for all handmade potters, emphatically those who focus on dinnerware, is East Fork Pottery which is based in Asheville, NC. East Fork has grown its pottery business significantly over the past 10 years and has mastered branding and company values. Their dinnerware is renowned and has a distinguished aesthetic, but they have abandoned the handmade touch in a tradeoff of higher production to meet demand. Though their product style is comparable to Shannon’s—rustic and modern—their service offering is vastly different. East Fork crafts and releases strictly batch products with no customization, and primarily focuses on dinnerware in unique colors in limited quantities.

Lessons and Classes

In the Columbia metro area, there are few studios where customers can create their own pottery. Many of these studios focus on lessons or classes rather than having control over the design and implementation of the final product. The local competitors have specialized their studios/businesses in various ways.

Studios in Columbia like the Mad Platter, Pitter Platter, and Half Moon Pottery primarily source pre-fired pottery pieces, then allow customers to glaze the pieces themselves. This allows for high customization of the glazing but not the body of the piece. These studios do not prioritize selling functional pottery items, instead, most items are decorative. Additionally, they target customers who are looking for or plan group events such as birthday parties for children. While they do offer similar outputs to Shannon’s private lessons—customers get to take home a piece of pottery they helped create—these studios provide a distinctly different experience than Shannon’s lessons.

The Columbia Art Center, Southern Pottery Studio, State of the Art Pottery, and Half Moon Pottery offer group classes for customers to learn how to throw pottery on a wheel. They provide knowledgeable instructors to guide students through the throwing process and then fire the pieces that students craft. Once fired, students then can come back and learn the glazing process by glazing their own pieces before they are fired again. Finally, they can pick up their handmade pieces. This offering is like Shannon’s, although she cannot teach students to glaze because she glazes at the Columbia Art Center which requires a membership to glaze.

Retail Space

Aside from selling in local markets, there are many options in Columbia for artists to retail their work. In Columbia, galleries like Christopher Park Gallery, If Art Gallery, and State of The Art Gallery allow local artists to sell their art in their galleries. Unlike From Dust Pottery’s pieces, many of the items in these locations are art pieces created by an artist to sit in the galleries. While these types of locations could be promotional spots for Shannon’s work, it is not likely their customer base would drive the in-house sales of her highly functional pieces (like dinnerware).

Alternatively, coffee shops and other local retailers could be a better option for Shannon to sell her pottery. Indah Coffee and Piecewise Coffee are two Columbia coffee shops that sell local art in-store. Additionally, Noma Warehouse is a new retail location in Columbia that provides space for local artists, artisans, and small businesses to retail their items. Utilizing these retail opportunities could drive and expand the sales of Shannon’s small-batch pottery. A minor hesitation could be that Shannon might not consistently meet these retailers’ volume requirements during the busy school year.

Vision for Growth of FDP

From Dust Pottery is interested in growing particularly through developing fluid operations, targeting production and promotion, and strategically pricing products. Shannon wants to upscale production while allowing room for creative variability and custom orders. Her long-term goal is to focus on crafting custom dishes for wedding registries while maintaining a consistent inventory of batch-produced products for the website and/or retail partners.

Options for Strategic Growth

Growth Option A

Through a strategic schedule of production and hiring employees/interns, From Dust Pottery can continue to grow the business through a mix of batch production, custom orders, and wedding registry orders. Having a consistent set of items available will create customer traction and steady revenue. With dependence on this revenue, anchored by interns/employees, Shannon can invest in custom orders and wedding registries for the bulk of her income.

By collaborating with existing local businesses that already have an established market base, From Dust Pottery can increase sales and publicity. This might be initiated in two ways:

Selling batch works directly at local coffee shops and boutiques. This would require some sort of supplier-retailer contract. However, given the nature of small business it is a very attainable goal.
Collaborating with restaurants and coffee shops to craft custom dishes for their stores. This could be a large source of revenue and would be a constant source of promotion.

From Dust Pottery should establish specific and consistent prices for batch products to be retailed. By determining desired margins for batch work and having a consistent price evaluation system for custom ordered products, FDP will be able to decrease risk. Another important aspect needed for success for FDP will be establishing an online presence through the launch of the website and maintaining an active social media page for promotion. Lastly, FDP has to consider shipping costs and logistics as it pertains to online orders in the future in order to promote the positive growth of the business.

Growth Option B

The second growth option would be to omit small batch pottery and focus exclusively on commissions(weddings and restaurants) and lessons. With this option, Shannon will be able to put most of her time and efforts towards commissions while doing lessons as time permitted. Both of these options are activities that Shannon has successfully completed before.

The first step in our growth option is to connect FDP with bridal shops, caterers, and wedding registries by leaving business cards there. Along with this getting connected with Michelin-like restaurants would be very beneficial and crucial to growing FDP. The reason we wanted commissions to be our primary focus was that it offers a larger, more consistent income than small-batch does. Commissions in themselves are a form of advertising for FDP. Weddings and restaurants offer a large exposure of products to a variety of potential customers.

The second part of this option would be for Shannon to do lessons while she is not completing commissions. Shannon already does lessons at the Columbia Art Center in return for free clay and a location for her to fire her pottery. Along with this and the fact that commissions may be spread out, lessons are a low to no cost alternative source of income when her time is available. Lessons would be aimed more at the local Columbia area.

Not focusing on small-batch orders and exclusively focusing on commissions and lessons will allow Shannon to have a larger source of consistent income. Negatives to this choice include Shannon not being able to create as many custom pieces as she could while doing small batch pieces, which is a value of hers. From an economic standpoint, this plan provides the most opportunity for growth. It does compromise some of Shannon’s core values though.

Growth Option C

The final growth option would be to omit custom orders as a whole and for Shannon to focus all of her time and resources on selling batch products locally. Potential retailers specific to the Columbia metropolitan area include Indah coffee, Drip, and the Gourmet shop. These retailers are locally owned and share a similar target market with From Dust Pottery. The target market is young to middle-aged adults interested in all-natural and locally crafted products.

Additionally, Shannon could opt to sell her products at open-air farmers and craftsman markets in the form of “pop-up” shops. These could include Soda City in Columbia and the TD Saturday Market in Greenville, South Carolina. The application process for both markets is fairly straightforward and would cost under $1000 a year. Shannon could also host periodical pop-up shops and showcases at local venues that can also be rented for a low cost.

An option for the more distant future would be to expand geographically by selling FDP at retailers outside of South Carolina in small cities such as Asheville and Savannah. The retailers chosen would remain local and with similar market bases, however, shipping and distribution costs would have to be taken into account for any out-of-state sales.

By omitting custom orders to focus on batch selling, Shannon could limit the amount of risk that comes with anticipating custom orders and be able to pinpoint a more specific market. Selling batch products in local retailers would bring in a steady and consistent stream of revenue that would allow From Dust Pottery to expand geographically in the future. The distant goal of this option would be to eventually open a storefront exclusive to FDP.

Final Recommendation

The final recommendation would be for FDP to use both batch and custom orders and to focus on the orders for wedding registries and restaurant orders. The money maker moving forward should be the wedding registries and custom orders, especially those valued at over $100 because the profit margins for Shannon are higher due to the most expensive thing she puts into the products and business is her time. The raw materials and overhead are fairly inexpensive. This mixture will be ideal for her to succeed in this industry because of what her desire for FDP is moving forward and how to be prosperous as a business.

Implementation

Now

There should be a focus on getting the name out there through the further development of their social media presence and getting the website up and running. FDP needs to work on developing a clear image and line of products available. The target markets right now would be areas that Shannon has already been successful in before. Her goal should be to establish concrete ideas about what exactly she wants to do in the future.

People love Shannon when they come in to visit her studio or when she has a stall set up at local markets. She has repeat customers not only for her high quality products but because she is able to successfully sell herself as a brand. She already is able to expand based on word-of-mouth promotion and should continue to rely on that since that is an invaluable resource and basically impossible to copy.

Everyone wants locally made products these days. Especially if they can see things being made in front of them and see the process. You can’t get that sort of satisfaction from buying out of a big box store or even a gallery so continuing to push this competitive advantage would be a smart move.

Shannon should continue to foster these competitive advantages at this time.

Short Term

This is the initial expansion phase for FDP. Social media and their website should be up and running. FDP already has a prototype website set up through squarespace so that just needs to be finished they also have a social media presence with Instagram but they should look to expand to sites like Facebook, Esty, or Twitter. Strategically, FDP is wanting to connect with new vendors, locations, and customers. It can do that by contacting local stores, coffee shops, and restaurants to work towards having a base for custom orders. Get in touch with some of the trendy coffee shops around downtown Columbia to try to partner and market the batch work mugs. Make sure that the coffee shops make it known where their mugs came from by posting a sign or notice in the shop. Indah Coffee, Drip, and Cool Beans would be some good places near downtown and USC to get started. The Shoppes on Main or The Eclectic House would be good options for local boutiques and gift stores that FDP could branch out into a more traditional specialty retailer.

The batch process should be stabilized and standardized so that customers know about certain products that are always available and FDP is able to advertise specific items that she’s made. FDP needs to ensure that the quality of each batch-produced piece is equal.

Shannon should attempt to branch out and attend other special events for local goods in addition to the Soda City Market. The Columbia Farmer’s market would be a good choice to look into.

FDP’s current gallery can be expanded with both unique and batch pieces beyond just a couple of shelves that currently exist. Make the expansion well known online through the social media outlets, website, and Shannon’s word of mouth network.

In order to accomplish this expansion of vendors and inventory, Shannon needs to train her current interns to be able to do more of the work than they currently have the skill set to do. In addition to that, FDP needs to find more interns to be able to ramp up production and keep up with online interaction and correspondence with new vendors. This is a crucial step for short-term success.

Long Term

Once space becomes limited at Shannon’s studio, find a storefront location, hopefully somewhere trendy like a location within five points or the vista if the rent justifies the location. Along with potentially having her own storefront outside of her personal studio space, Shannon should look into getting her work into some of the galleries in the Columbia area like some of those mentioned in the local pottery industry section above.

To get started with wedding registries, FDP needs to solidify its in-house process and set up concrete pricing for packages. Additionally, Shannon needs to establish a process of organizing wedding registries on the website. Through this, customers could purchase items for registries online and Shannon would be able to keep things organized more easily. Along with having in-house wedding registries set up, Shannon could partner with others like Carolina Pottery because they already have a wedding registry business set up but don’t have any kind of pottery available to register for.

Lastly, as FDP expands, it should investigate hiring full-time employees rather than relying on interns especially if they expand out to new locations.

Sources

East Fork Pottery, https://eastfork.com/pages/about

Southern Pottery, http://southern-pottery.com/index.html

Kyle Smith Pottery, https://kylesmithpottery.com/about/

Susan Gregory Art, http://www.susangregoryart.com/ceramics

The Mad Platter, https://www.mymadplatter.com/#/

Pitter Platter, https://www.thepitterplatter.com/

HalfMoon Pottery, https://www.thepitterplatter.com/

Columbia Art Center, https://www.columbiasc.net/parks-recreation/art-center

If Art Gallery, http://ifartgallery.blogspot.com/

Christopher Park Gallery, https://chickenmanart.com/

State of The Art Gallery, https://stateoftheartsc.com/