Modelling preference heterogeneity for theatre tickets: a discrete choice modelling approach on Royal Danish Theatre booking data

Abstract

This article analyses the behavioural choice for theatre tickets using a rich data set for 2010–2013 from the sale system of the Royal Danish National Theatre. A consumer who decides to attend a theatre production faces multiple sources of price variation that involves a choice by the consumer among different ticket alternatives. Three modelling approaches are proposed in order to model ticket purchases: conditional logit with socio-demographic characteristics, nested logit and latent class. These models allow us explicitly to take into account consumers’ preference heterogeneity with respect to the attributes associated with each ticket alternative (quality of the seat and day of the performance). In addition, the willingness to pay of choice attributes is estimated. Final results suggest that customers’ characteristics in terms of age and frequency of theatre attendance characterize different patterns of behaviour in the choice of theatre ticket

Revenue and attendance simultaneous optimization in performing arts organizations

“…Standard ticket buyers are less price sensitive as the price elasticity is less than unity: a 1 % increase in ticket price results in approximately 0.49 % decline in quantity demanded . As with previous results in literature show (Felton, 1994); (Baldin and Bille, 2017), subscribers are the least price sensitive: in our sample, the price coefficient is even not statistically significative. This result is not surprising as literature has shown in some cases even a positive price elasticity in the demand for performing arts, identifying the theatrical experience as a Veblen good (Laamanen, 2013).…”

“…Since the number of price zones changed during the period under examination, we aggregated productions with more than five price zones into five seat categories. The procedure adopted follows Baldin and Bille (2017), to which we refer for details. For logistic reasons, it has not been possible to collect data for the choice model estimation for the whole sample considered in the demand function.…”

Experimental evidence on demand for “on-demand” entertainment

“…The aim of these approaches is to identify different willingness to pay (WTP) for content among consumers for products with different characteristics. A number of studies have employed these methodologies through surveying attendees at European theatre events (Grisolía and Willis, 2011;Baldin and Bille, 2018), highlighting how consumer preferences can be defined by characteristics such as age, gender, income and cultural capital, as well as the characteristics of output such as genre, timing of showing/release, critical reviews and word-of-mouth. To our knowledge, only one study has previously applied a stated-preference approach in the context of online movie streaming services, where consumer WTP is shown to be positively influenced by the amount (volume) of content offered and the timing of its availability relative to original release, while being negatively affected by the presence of advertisements and the sharing of non-identifying personal information (Glasgow and Butler, 2017).…”

Individual versus companion visitors' willingness‐to‐pay for the theater tickets: The case of Perm opera

“…Many studies on the performing arts industry, as generalized in a review by Seaman (2006), define and analyze various demand determinants, including type of play, quality indicators, price and price of substitutes, availability of time, performance awards, socio‐economic variables of the individual and more. Relevant literature that considers spectators and show characteristics as the determinant for performing arts demand are focused either on single visitor behavior (Baldin & Bille, 2018) or on the difference between subscribers versus non‐subscribers (Corning & Levy, 2002). We posit that social motivation should also be taken into account, as it seems to be evident that attending the theater accompanied by someone is more popular than visiting alone.…”

“…The latter could be the key to marketing success for the nonprofit performing arts organization, as described by Hansmann (1981): to maximize attendance, the theater may target people with a lower WTP with special offers, while to generate the incremental revenue, it should consider the demand of those with higher WTP. Some WTP determinants were previously studied by Baldin and Bille (2018), but we believe that an important aspect was omitted: the social motivation of performing arts consumption. Our study attempts to bridge this gap in the WTP estimation for single and couple visitors of performing arts in the case of Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre (Russia).…”