Is Open Distribution the Best Decision for Your Ticket Sales?
169: Happy New Year!
Happy New Year!
That’s the last time I can rightfully say that.
We are back.
Hope you had a nice holiday.
Check out the podcast feed, I dropped some good episodes during the month of December.
To the Tickets!
I. Is Open Distribution really the ultimate solution?
Does having your inventory everywhere make sense?
The Big Idea: There’s a business school term, “Sales Orientation” that tells you that all customers are good customers and that having more to sell is always the right answer.
In my experience, open distribution has positives and negatives.
Positives:
More potential eyeballs
Gain some top-of-funnel awareness
Unique channels of sale
Negatives:
Your brand can be undermined
More distribution and product creation don’t always lead to more sales
You can lose control of your customer data
For software platforms, resellers, and other partners, may want open distribution because it gives them more inventory to potentially sell.
For venues, teams, and content producers, the calculation should be different.
Your considerations in making a distribution decision should include:
Who am I targeting?
What is my value proposition?
What are my goals and SMART objectives?
How does my distribution decision impact my strategy?
As a markter, the distribution decision is 25% of your tactical tools.
If you make the wrong distribution decision, you can:
Undermine your brand
Hurt your price integrity
Lose control of your message
Take the next step: Start by answering the four questions above:
Your product or parts of your product mix aren’t for everyone. If you are using open distribution as a tool for brand building that’s a mug’s game. It won’t work.
Your value proposition has to be about relative differentiation. How are you unique or different compared to the alternatives?
Goals and SMART objectives should guide your tactical decision-making.
II. Is Group Sales the Reason the Brewers’ Attendance Dropped in 2022?
Teams around the country saw group sales drop in 2022.
The Key: Business buying habits changed group sales. But that’s not the only thing:
Buyers and groups disappeared.
Work habits changed.
Alternatives became more attractive.
Something to think about: Deep in the article, the writer talks about groups bouncing back as things return to normal.
The problem is that “normal” wasn’t always great for folks to begin with. In the article, MLB’s declining attendance is pointed to. In other sports, events, and areas of the entertainment business, we continue to see inconsistent attendance.
The question I pose to you today is: “What would have to be true for ‘normal’ to return?” or “What would have to be true for things to return to normal?”
Think about that during your next marketing or sales meeting and see if the conditions for “normal” may not really exist going forward.
That is one of my favorite things to hear…that means I’ve nailed something essential.
The Big Idea: “Wish I Knew” interviews Eric Baker about founding StubHub, starting Viagogo, and merging the two companies.
Things to Listen For:
“Getting thrown out of offices”: this is like the idea of “you just don’t get it.” The status quo is a powerful force. Getting past it is a challenge.
Plan for the end at the start: I’ve made this mistake. You have to plan for the good and the bad at the start because breakups can get messy.
Pattern matching: That’s really what I do a lot of with folks. I look for patterns or parallels. This is an essential skill.
IV. “What Do I Need to Learn?” (I know I included this last week, but it is important enough to include again. It is a new year after all.)
Peter Drucker was right. He was right more than most folks.
The Big Idea: As we start 2023, what do you need to learn to give yourself the skills to have an impact in your organization or to move to the next role?
In my experience, during 2020 & 2021: I took programs in marketing strategy, brand strategy, and corporate strategy so that as we recovered from COVID, I could be more involved in strategy throughout the entire organization.
V. Links:
Steve Albini’s letter to Nirvana is a pretty interesting way to negotiate:
This is the letter explaining Albini’s way of working with Nirvana on their third and last studio album.
The part about being paid like a plumber is a banger.
No “one size fits all” pricing approach works:
This article will give you some good pricing insight.
One spot where I disagree is strategic discounts.
My advice is to avoid them at all costs and don’t plan on doing them because they are too easy to become addicted to.
The big thing I do agree on, spending as much time as you can getting pricing right, to begin with.
Fan Tokens: I’m not sold yet, but this article made me think:
Most of the tokens and things I see currently are pretty crap.
But I don’t think they have to be. I think a smart marketer can spend some time developing some really interesting value adds. But it will be something entirely different not just “it’s a ticket, but as an NFT” or “it’s a fan club but in NFT form”.
Check out the visuals. The first one about attention should get your attention.
Tim Chambers looks back at 2022 and looks forward at 2023:
I had to chuckle a bit at the mention of “new strategies”. I know that I talk with Tim about strategy whenever we get together.
And, I know that folks complain that I put too much emphasis on strategy.
But just sticking your head in the sand isn’t a good business practice.
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The folks from Booking Protect will be at INTIX in Seattle in January. You’ll be able to meet the Booking Protect team in person.
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Gives customers certainty in their purchase.
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