Connecting consumers with Broadway tickets for Main Street prices

Problem?

People want to go to broadway shows but retail prices are not affordable for them. While there are discounted tickets on the secondary market, many consumers are not aware of the discounted rates or find out about them after the tickets are sold out.

Step 1: Discovery

In order to provide more affordable tickets, I wanted a better understanding of the problem and the consumers pricing psychology. I decided to use the Van Westendrop Pricing Model to determine what consumers considered “affordable.”

I went ahead and called up some friends and family and asked the following:

1. How often did you see broadway shows pre-covid?
2. At what price would you consider a broadway ticket priced so low that you feel the seating would not be worth going to the show?
3. At what price would you consider a broadway ticket to be so expensive that you would not consider buying?
4. If you wanted to buy a broadway ticket today, where would you go to purchase it?
5. The last time you bought broadway tickets; how was your experience?
6. What tools were you using to find discounted sales (if any)?
7. What could have other tools done better to help you find discounted broadway tickets?

Step 2: Review Findings

After interviewing friends, family and strangers, here’s what I uncovered:

Pricing Insights

• The price point per ticket that was considered “affordable” was $120 with a variance of $50.

User Behavior Insights

• When asked where they would go to buy a broadway ticket, users responded by saying: Ticketmaster, Telecharge and TheaterMania.

Step 3: Interpreting findings, ideas, and next stepsSo far I’ve learned that:

• Consumers have a price they are willing to pay for tickets. I still have to research how often tickets for those prices show up on secondary markets.
• Discounted tickets are available on a secondary market, assuming there is a reasonable supply of them, connecting consumers with them would be the next logical step.

Now it’s time for some ideation. Here’s the direction I landed on for an initial concept: I would design a concept for a web based form that allows users to select the shows they are interested in, input their email, and receive email alerts when prices go under the assumed affordable price. I would need to dive into how the ticket pricing data from available marketplaces can be obtained as well.