Friday, November 20, 2015
Ticket Buying by Touch
Shubert Ticketing Blog: On a regular basis, we at Shubert do research into our customers. This research can be simple surveys on their experience buying tickets, finding ticket buyers at the box office and getting their input on a new website feature, or one-on-one user interviews about Broadway and ticket-buying in general.
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7 comments:
This is an interesting article, and I'm surprised Shubert hasn't already done this sort of research before now. I'd like to see what the average ticket prices purchased are for each of these groups. I imagine it is highest to lowest from #1 to #3. The people that are planning to go to Broadway for several months are likely to pay more money to secure the tickets they want. I'd also like to see the demographics of this group. From what I can tell, it seems like a large number of this group is made up of tourists. This group also requires the most work by Shubert to get them to buy tickets because the timeline is so drawn out. I'd also like to see the demographics for the second group of people. This sounds like a group of people who live closer to or in New York and have chosen a select group of shows they want to see at specific times. The last group looks like it is made up of native New Yorkers (who live in the direct vicinity of NYC) and young people who are willing to be flexible with their schedules to see theater at the very last minute. Really, these three groups look like they represent the three largest groups of ticket-buyers- the tourists, the locals, and young people who rush, play the lottery, or buy at the tkts booth on the day of for cheap seats.
Like Jess, I would like further information about the detailed demographics of these groups. That being said, I disagree that the "I want to see this show" group is made up mostly of locals. I think that, especially within the theater community (professional, amateur and audiences), people outside of NYC plan to go to the city to see a specific show, and not always the other way around. I definitely think that the approach to this survey is a really good one, because ultimately knowledge about audiences' motivation to buy a ticket will help inform marketing and sales strategies more significantly than knowing where people come from, or how far ahead of time they buy tickets. This can help theaters target specific groups at specific times and in carefully planned out ways. I will look out for their upcoming articles about customer research habits, because I'm pretty curious about the different resources that people use to look up shows based on their motivation for buying the ticket.
I think that it's really important that the Shubert has done this type of research into their audience's buying habits. The economic side of theater is something that we need to be considered with as managers and designers, as budget is everything. Shows close everyday simply because they can't sell enough tickets, which is something that could perhaps be helped by breaking down the target demographics and appealing to them. Advertising to a group of spontaneous "one touch" locals and a family who have planned their annual New York trip for months should be considered two very different things. Like Camille, I think that learning audience motivation is essential to shaping sales strategies. Hopefully they can use this new information to their advantage and interact more directly with their consumers. Personally I think that they should put more focus on acquiring more "three-touch" customers, as they're willing to pay the highest prices. Increasing revenue is always a good thing, and this method might allow them to do this.
I like the idea of doing surveys. Survey is great and if done effectively and properly can get out so many useful information that could definitely help the business in terms of developing and creating strategies. Poor survey, on the other hand, can sometimes lead to wrong path too, or maybe not as helpful as it should be. I think if they want to know where the audiences came from could be useful if they are looking for advertising internationally or if they would like to take the show out for world tour they will have some ideas on where in the world they should land the performances. I know Beauty and the Beast and Shrek use the same route for world tour. I also think it’s good for a theatre to do survey on trends, ticket price and satisfaction so they know what they should develop and to keep up with the world. I still does not quite sure about how much they can get out of this survey and ditto to all, I would love to see more details of this too.
I think this type of survey is really valid and interesting because it gets to why people are buying tickets for theatre and for what purpose. On that same vein, companies, with this information, can analyze their own purchasing data and begin to target their marketing toward specific types of audiences that to increase audience sizes and pull. They could target toward those that tend to come to their shows anyway or try to pick up where they have a deficit of ticket buyers. I wonder if a similar three-structure hierarchy exists in regional theatre, when it does not have the household name Broadway. I would anticipate that The West End has the same sort of tourist draw; do regional theatres have any sort of tourist draw in their communities? I think it would be interesting to generate number on this structure for regional theatres in big cities around the country too see how they function differently from commercial theatre.
I think this type of survey is really interesting, because as a theater goer you never really think much about it from the other perspective. I know that I find myself typically to be in the 2 touch place, where I hear about a show that I want to see, then find the right date and ticket price. I would be interested to see what the Shubert is going to use this information for. If this will help their marketing and advertising in different ways, to target each group of people. The research they did however cannot really go much beyond Broadway. I doubt their is really any similar pattern when it comes to regional theaters or even just off Broadway shows.
I actually find this article very interesting. It so weird to see how many different types of theatre-goers there are and what they prioritize for buying tickets. I personally have been all three types of ticket buyers at some point in my life. Whether it was Broadway Tickets for a friend’s birthday, wanting to see a specific show, or just spending a day in the City and going to TKTS, I’ve seen a lot of shows a lot of different ways. And the truth is that priorities and expectations change. When I go to TKTS, I have little to no expectations about availability. I pick four or five shows I want to see and get the cheapest ticket. But if I’m planning in advance, then I like knowing the quality of the seat I’m getting and am usually willing to pay a bit more. It’s really important that this kind of research is conducted because the theatre industry in NYC is so based on ticket sales. This kind of research may allow theatre companies to better market their shows, and maybe even lead to a more accessible theatre industry.
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