Shubert Ticketing Blog
To join our distribution list, please email us.
  • Home
  • Shubert Ticketing Blog
  • Contributor Bios

What Price is the Right Price?

1/4/2019

3 Comments

 
Posted by Brian Mahoney, Vice President of Ticket Sale
Most people who want to see a Broadway show only want the best seats (and will pay for them), right?  That is except for those who want the lowest price seats.  And no one wants the middle price seats?  These maxims were well established on Broadway for many years.  With the internet offering access to tickets from anywhere with many if not all the prices listed so you can pick the price you want, and seating charts that allow customers to pick their seats from the chart, ticket buying behavior has changed from the old days.  At the same time shows run longer and more people are attending shows than ever before.  Not every show is priced like Hamilton or Bruce Springsteen.  Broadway is affordable.  
 
The Telecharge mobile site offers us some insights into the pricing preferences of customers, at least of the subset of customers who do their research on the mobile site (many subsequently buy on the desktop).  For most of this year we have had a feature on the Telecharge mobile site that allows customers to search by price in addition to the tried and true method of looking for the best seats available.  More than a third of the searches in a recent four week period were by people who chose to search by price.  That is a significant percentage.

What were the prices they picked to search? 
$50-$99.50  58% 3% converted
$100-$149.50 17.5% 3.44% converted (1/3 of the sales of the $50-$99.50)
Under $50 15.63% 4.46% converted (one half the sales of $50-$99.50)
What were the individual prices that generated the most searches?  In order of highest to lowest, the six highest were:
$79,
$49,
$99,
$69,
$59,
$89.50.  
 
The drop off from #6 to #7, which was $119, is significant.

Keep in mind individual shows and their corresponding demand will skew results (not all shows have a $49 or $79 price).  What is interesting is the number of two digit prices with a high number of searches and conversions.  It tells us something about what people want to pay. Now, we all want things in life we can’t have.  I want a Bentley but I am probably never going to own one.  Wouldn’t everyone want to sit down front in the center orchestra for $79? If they could the show would not be able to run very long.

One third of searches were by people who were sensitive and that is a very significant percentage of the audience, at least of the mobile audience. Those who are less price sensitive probably just searched by date and location.
​
Does your show have seats you struggle to sell?  Sometimes the reason could be they are priced incorrectly.  
Picture
3 Comments
Ray
1/11/2019 10:05:53 am

Maybe that is a different explanation: people check on their mobile but book at home or work later?

Reply
Brian Mahoney
1/11/2019 05:18:55 pm

They probably do. They could also buy at the box office or TKTS. The interest in two digit prices over the better locations was what I wanted to show.

Reply
.
1/12/2019 12:02:18 am

.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    October 2019
    July 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    January 2017
    October 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    November 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    June 2013
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    June 2012
    April 2012
    October 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    August 2010

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.