Is Your Price Right?

Via Bill Byrnes, Dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Southern Utah University, I recently became aware of a company called The Pricing Institute. Their services seem to focus mostly on optimizing the pricing structure of arts organizations.

My initial thought was that price does not develop relationships. If I am going to have a consultant come in to help me improve my organization, pricing while important, isn’t going to solve my organizational problems over the long term. But what isn’t valuable to me as theatre manager has worth to blogger me because I know it may be of interest to my readers.

An observation made on the Pricing Institute website bears noting. Price may not develop relationships, but it can ruin them. “Excessive or irregular discounting practices can leave customers confused and even resentful,…”

Taking a look at the case studies, it is clear that they don’t just emphasize retail price points. One of the problems they saw with Huntington Theatre Company’s approach was that the “marketing messaging was focused on pricing vs. value.” For Philadelphia Live Arts, one step they took was creating a separate identity for the Live Arts performances versus Fringe performances.

Reading through the website, I can see the value of the the services they offer. I didn’t really doubt the importance of making wise decisions about pricing. Given that fund raising is becoming more difficult, effective generation of earned revenue becomes crucial. I readily admit that I could certainly use some guidance in making prudent pricing decisions. But as I said, I can see this sort of a examination as part of a larger consultant visit.

I suspect that most arts organizations would be of the same mind. They probably don’t hire a consultant until there are so many areas of concern that guidance in just one area isn’t enough.

Come to think of it, that might be why the Pricing Institute is structured the way that it is. It is a joint venture between three different consultant firms. The structure may allow them to give stand alone pricing guidance to those who just want that while also enabling three different consulting organizations to provide great pricing advice when addressing organizations with larger concerns by calling on the expertise of their partners. As I said, I don’t know if that is how they operate, but the ability to offer a sort of “value added” service could be advantageous to all.

About Joe Patti

I have been writing Butts in the Seats (BitS) on topics of arts and cultural administration since 2004 (yikes!). Given the ever evolving concerns facing the sector, I have yet to exhaust the available subject matter. In addition to BitS, I am a founding contributor to the ArtsHacker (artshacker.com) website where I focus on topics related to boards, law, governance, policy and practice.

I am also an evangelist for the effort to Build Public Will For Arts and Culture being helmed by Arts Midwest and the Metropolitan Group. (http://www.creatingconnection.org/about/)

My most recent role was as Executive Director of the Grand Opera House in Macon, GA.

Among the things I am most proud are having produced an opera in the Hawaiian language and a dance drama about Hawaii's snow goddess Poli'ahu while working as a Theater Manager in Hawaii. Though there are many more highlights than there is space here to list.

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