Discussion Panel: Page 2

I really like Jeff’s idea about “concert cash.” In my experience, people respond to concrete and significant discounts. Concrete in that they are easy to understand ($30 is easier to understand than 30% off, which must be mentally calculated). Significant in that a discount must convey deep savings or use strong language. (Most people don’t […]

I am focused on looking for the small slivers of opportunity that price adjustment (up and down) can make. Pricing opportunities, coupled by appropriate promotional support, can be a winning combination. Chris hits the nail on the head regarding the timing of promotions – especially those that cause subscribers to question their relationship with the […]

Jeff Barker understates his success with the “$30 off on any single ticket purchase over $70” offer. He has explained to me that the Kansas City Symphony’s ticket prices don’t easily approach $70 in any combination. They are either far less (requiring the buyer to commit to more events) or far higher (diminishing the impact […]

First of all, a disclaimer. I am not a “marketing professional”! I’m a Chief Executive (with experience on both sides of the Atlantic) who has a keen interest in marketing, development and public engagement. Chris’s article had many interesting points, but for now I’ll respond to just one of them, which is Family Pricing. We […]

Chris raises several interesting ideas. Family pricing is certainly a strategy we have considered in the past. I think it is more important now not only because of the economy, but also because of a related reduction in music programming in schools. We will miss out on the opportunity to build future audiences if today’s […]

Marketing Expense Management Chris makes many great points about revenue generation. As marketing professionals, we’re also facing pressure on our expense budgets. Here are a few suggestions for getting the best possible cost of sale. It’s a tough time for orchestras, but it’s also a tough time for marketing vendors. Make the most of your […]

At the Kansas City Symphony, we’ve been able to expand both our younger Family audience, and our high school and college audience, by creating special price points and by better promoting student pricing already in place. The subscriber base of our four concert Family Series has grown threefold in the past three years, due in […]

Now is the time to plan and identify marketing tactics for these times. I have considered a few strategies and appropriated several from other colleagues. Send Renewals the Week of January 19, 2008 If you must raise ticket prices, it would be best to hold the increase until after the subscription renewal deadline. Then you […]

Christopher Stager of CRStager marketing approached me with an idea back in January — he had some interesting thoughts about how orchestras can change their marketing strategies to work in the current recessionary economy. I asked him to write an article about marketing during a recession, which we published in January. He was also interested […]

I have some thoughts about some things I experienced last year that helped motivate me to be part of this panel. Entrepreneurship to me is so important and it seems that it is becoming an important part of the college concern these days. I was at a university doing a master class, splitting a session […]