{"id":774,"date":"2005-09-28T08:38:26","date_gmt":"2005-09-28T15:38:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp\/2005\/09\/damned_if_you_do_damned_if_you\/"},"modified":"2005-09-28T08:38:26","modified_gmt":"2005-09-28T15:38:26","slug":"damned_if_you_do_damned_if_you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/main\/damned_if_you_do_damned_if_you.php","title":{"rendered":"Damned if you do, damned if you don’t"},"content":{"rendered":"

The issue of ticket pricing is never far from the surface when we talk of the plight of professional nonprofit culture. One camp claims that prices are too high<\/a> (also see Drew McManus’ discussion here<\/a>)…driving away all but the most committed attendees. Another camp claims that prices are too low<\/a> (an old article, I know), and that a higher proportion of earned income is the only hope for a vibrant future.<\/p>\n

Peter Dobrin in the Philadelphia Inquirer<\/i> seems to see high prices as the root of all evil, suggesting:<\/p>\n


\nIf Philadelphia Orchestra tickets went for between $7.50 and $40 today, the orchestra would have to add concerts to meet demand.
\n<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

[I’m guessing that if Mr. Dobrin got the low-price strategy he asked for, seats would still go empty, and the symphony would soon go broke.]<\/p>\n

In the theater world, the Theatre Communications Group is encouraging a National Free Night of Theatre<\/a> on October 20, to entice new audiences into the seats.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in Pittsburgh, a free ticket offer<\/a> from the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre is leading many to think the organization is in desperate straits (of course, they have other reasons<\/a> to think so). Says one subscriber who was offered free additional tickets to bring a friend:<\/p>\n


\n”The first thing I thought was they are desperate for an audience. They must realize that a number of people are not going to come.”
\n<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

At the middle of the struggle is the dual role (at least) of pricing in the consumer’s mind. Higher price is a barrier to entry, to be sure, especially if the consumer doesn’t attach a high value to the experience (hmmmmmm). At the same time, price can serve as a key indicator of quality…an expensive car must<\/i> be better than an inexpensive car because it costs more. Throw into the mix that those who do<\/i> value the experience highly will pay almost any cost to attend, and can serve as an essential element of the organization’s financial sustainability.<\/p>\n

The answer is, as always, somewhere in between the extremes…charging high prices to those that can and will pay them, and radically discounting for those that won’t (aka, yield management<\/a>). Arts organizations have done this a little for a long time (scaling the house, etc.). But they’ve only just begun to explore how to really work the system (this guy<\/a> is thinking about it a lot).<\/p>\n

Until we do, we’ll all continue to rail about price as the key element of our success or failure. And if we’re not careful, we’ll forget that price is just a symptom of a larger problem that’s much more productive to talk about: the perceived value of what we have to offer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The issue of ticket pricing is never far from the surface when we talk of the plight of professional nonprofit culture. One camp claims that prices are too high (also see Drew McManus’ discussion here)…driving away all but the most committed attendees. Another camp claims that prices are too low (an old article, I know), […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-774","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}