I have to admit this editorial has left me speechless (and that's not an easy feat!)

Let the buck stop a little higher.......

Oy!

Actually, David, the writer is correct. It's a phenomenon I've noticed before.

I can assure you it isn't working in our neck of the woods........Diablo Ballet, Festival Opera and California Symphony are three of the top ticket prices in the facility we perform in.....$40 to $60 average.........none of us has noticed a jump in attendence and all have been reviewed as comparable to similiar companys that appear in the "big city."

DH

I think of this as the "Starbucks" phenomena. Offer something at a higher cost and people will be attracted to it in throngs. It doesn't totally negate supply and demand economic theory, if you consider that perhaps Starbucks isn't selling coffee as much as prestige ( or at least it may have in the early days ) and that is why it cost moe than your average cup of coffee.

Now, will this apply to tickets for a ballet? I think in certain places it may actually work , but I would be hesistant to apply this theory across the board.
Perhaps, though, it does show that their may be more room in innovatingly pricing tickets than we percieve. I wonder if there are any companies out there who price tickets like an airline - the ultimate in etheral pricing structures !

As a marketing manager for a ballet company I would love to know everyone's/anyone's views on ticket pricing structure and Matthew's airlines thought.

I've made every kind of offer I can think of....through the VIP email list at the theatre we perform in. Our own patron database, student offers, ballet student offers....discounted tix for senior centers, preschools, etc.etc.etc................I'm blurry now, so I'm not thinking clearly, but I've done it all.......and without much return........

Suggestions????

DGH

A couple of examples come to mind:

- An intriguing method used for a few years in the unreserved seat London dance venue, The Place, is the “Easyjet” model, after the airline that introduced the system here. That is, tranches of seats at different prices, so that the earlier you book the cheaper it is. While there are always some seats at the cheapest price, the number varies depending on the pulling power of the production. I haven’t checked recently, but the initial reports were that people were booking earlier, which is unusual in UK modern/contemporary dance and ticket revenue was higher. Some other UK venues are now thinking about this model.

- Estonia is a low income/low cost country and, for instance, salaries for dancers in the 50-strong National Ballet range from $550 to $1350 per month. However, people take theatre very seriously and, currently, musicals are the big thing and short runs in very large venues (one seated 4,000 people) for “Grease” and “Mamma Mia” were sold out at prices up to $45. In contrast, the highest prices at Estonian National Ballet (75% state funded) is $17 and for opera $20. This indicates to me that it really should be possible to raise the top prices at the Opera House, especially if the tourist market was more heavily targeted, while pegging the lower prices to allow average wage earners to attend.

<small>[ 09 December 2004, 02:36 AM: Message edited by: Stuart Sweeney ]</small>

Hmm... Maybe this editorial is true for a wealthy community in a wealthy region, such as Walnut Creek. But my anecdotal experience, talking with people I know, is that price really DOES matter.

When you're looking at $30/tix to bring your family of 4 to the Nutcracker, that's $120. Do the same thing at $80/tix and you've just dropped $320. Maybe families don't notice the difference in Walnut Creek, but I can attest that they do in Boston. I have seen many eyes of potential audience members brighten up when they learn that they can bring their family to our Nutcracker for significantly less than $320.

The key is to have a range of prices, so that lower-income (or cheap, like me) patrons can still attend -- but if your top price is too low, there's an unspoken assumption that, well, you know what your product is worth.

Here's a link to an article about the "Easyjet" ticketing system, mentioned above:
http://www.thestage.co.uk/news/newsstory.php/5128

We have another topic on ticketing in "Managing Dance" and the two newspaper links above and some other examples are also there. I am minded to keep both topics live:

http://forum.criticaldance.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=15;t=000075#000015

<small>[ 10 December 2004, 03:49 AM: Message edited by: Stuart Sweeney ]</small>

Here's a new article about the "easyjet" system, applied to a second London theatre:

Cheap seats take off
By Lyn Gardner for The Guardian


Anyone who uses budget airlines knows that the earlier you book your ticket, the better the deal you get. What would happen if a similar pricing strategy was applied to theatre tickets?

Out of Joint plans to find out. After a successful national tour and run at the Arcola, the company's promenade production of Macbeth is transferring to Wilton's Music Hall (020-7702 2789) after Christmas, and director Max Stafford-Clark has come up with an innovative pricing scheme. For all 27 performances, the first 20 seats will be sold on a first-come-first-served basis at £10 each, the next 20 at £20 and so on, until only the final 20 seats are available priced at £30 each. It is entrepreneurial thinking from the man who, when he was artistic director at the Royal Court in the 1980s, claimed that lack of subsidy meant that he was no longer running a theatre but an incentive-marketing scheme based in Sloane Square.

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