{"id":53,"date":"2010-11-29T00:15:26","date_gmt":"2010-11-28T23:15:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jumper\/?p=53"},"modified":"2010-11-29T00:26:11","modified_gmt":"2010-11-28T23:26:11","slug":"beware-dynamic-pricing-dressed-as-accessibility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jumper\/2010\/11\/beware-dynamic-pricing-dressed-as-accessibility\/","title":{"rendered":"Beware dynamic pricing dressed as “accessibility”."},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>\"\"<\/a>Dynamic pricing is a\u00c2\u00a0form of price discrimination, commonly used by airlines and hotels, in which a firm changes its prices in response to shifts in demand.\u00c2\u00a0In recent years, it has been promoted in the nonprofit sector as a method to help arts groups fill seats, maximize revenues, and<\/span> (drum roll, please) make programs more accessible.\u00c2\u00a0Evidently, it is already being used by many arts groups across the US.<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0While I hate to be the one to rain on the dynamic pricing parade, I have concerns about this trend.<\/p>\n

Let’s call a spade a spade.\u00c2\u00a0Dynamic pricing is a method for maximizing profits.\u00c2\u00a0The fact that an airline is willing to sell me a cheap ticket\u00c2\u00a0in January to some cold and cloudy city doesn’t constitute altruism on its part.\u00c2\u00a0Likewise, selling a cheap ticket for a seat in the nosebleeds, or to a show that isn’t moving, is not charity on the part of a nonprofit\u00c2\u00a0arts group when that seat would have gone empty at a higher price.\u00c2\u00a0I find it particularly odd that these lower priced tickets are said to be aimed at improving accessibility\u00c2\u00a0when organizations\u00c2\u00a0reserve the right to increase prices (higher than as previously advertised, even)\u00c2\u00a0if a show takes off at the box office.<\/p>\n

Suddenly increasing ticket prices in response to high demand, and selling “premium” seats priced as high as people are willing to pay, strike me as questionable practices in a nonprofit organization.\u00c2\u00a0A soup kitchen could probably earn greater revenues (which it could plow back into making more soup) if it allowed those who could pay more to buy heartier soup or raised the price of soup on really cold days.\u00c2\u00a0However, doing so would not be considered ethical because it would entail discriminating against those least able to pay and taking advantage of people when they need soup kitchens most.<\/p>\n

One of the differences between a commercial firm and a nonprofit should be that the former will seek to maximize profits and the other will not do so, even if it could.\u00c2\u00a0A nonprofit is expected to leave money on the table.\u00c2\u00a0Of course, as Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0has begun to demonstrate, one need not leave it there forever; if well-timed and well-executed, it may be possible to lower ticket prices across the board and then solicit a voluntary donation of that “consumer surplus”.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

But above all, I worry about the long-term effects of dynamic pricing in the arts.\u00c2\u00a0Such models work best in industries in which consumers are unlikely to change their habits.\u00c2\u00a0Despite the ridiculously high price, I’m still flying home for the holidays. Arts patrons, on the other hand, have an increasing number of options when it comes to allocating their leisure time and dollars.\u00c2\u00a0Can the arts really afford to risk engendering the feelings of mistrust and frustration that airlines seem to breed by engaging in similar pricing shenanigans?<\/p>\n

\n

Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0image licensed from Shutterstock.com<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dynamic pricing is a\u00c2\u00a0form of price discrimination, commonly used by airlines and hotels, in which a firm changes its prices in response to shifts in demand.\u00c2\u00a0In recent years, it has been promoted in the nonprofit sector as a method to help arts groups fill seats, maximize revenues, and (drum roll, please) make programs more accessible.\u00c2\u00a0Evidently, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":65,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","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":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-53","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pricing","8":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jumper\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/wolf_thumbnail_square.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p15Pqw-R","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jumper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jumper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jumper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jumper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jumper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jumper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jumper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jumper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jumper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jumper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}