Is Ticketmaster a Monopoly? It Depends!
Talking Tickets 30 September 2022 #155
Good morning!
Did you like the new layout and style of the newsletter? Let me know by replying to this email.
New Value: Monthly “Ticket Talk” calls focused around a specific topic with some networking, successes, failures, and shared war stories.
We will keep them tight.
Starting out: We will cover some:
Trends impacting sales.
Ways to get people back to your venues.
Marketing in a challenging time.
I want to do the first one Thursday, 6 October at 1 PM Eastern/10 AM Pacific (6 PM in London).
To the Tickets!
I. The Big Story: Is Ticketmaster a monopoly?
Being a monopoly isn’t a crime. Using monopoly power is.
The Big Idea: Focusing on Dynamic Pricing as a symbol of monopoly power is wrong. Dynamic Pricing is a tool that has positives and negatives like many other tools.
Some positives of Dynamic Pricing:
Capture more revenue
Prices can better reflect demand
It can help understand consumer behavior
Some negatives of Dynamic Pricing:
It can undermine brand equity
It can alienate customers
It can lead to price wars
None of the positives or negatives are unique to Ticketmaster or tickets. Focusing attention on Dynamic Pricing isn’t the same as defining a “monopoly”.
Monopoly definition: One seller or entity controls all of a market.
In that case, the clear answer is: no.
Ticketmaster has competition in the world of tickets and events.
A different lens to look at the situation is by looking at monopolistic power where a business attempts to control as much of an industry as possible and to not allow fair competition.
Or, to look at imperfect markets like oligopolies or monopsonies.
A fair argument: In tickets, there is no perfect market. You won’t find perfect competition in the market for tickets because of the limits of supply.
Does that answer the question: No.
How do we answer the question then: The United States government has not been an aggressive enforcer of antitrust laws for decades.
Meaning from a practical POV, it doesn’t matter.
There are government leaders focusing on the role of competition and monopoly power in American markets, especially Ticketmaster and the world of tickets.
An example for people that aren’t familiar with competition enforcement is to look at the parameters that the CMA gave to Viagogo and StubHub to allow their merger to proceed.
If enforcement begins to toughen, the thing to pay attention to will be things like:
Blacklisting venues, businesses, or people
Price manipulation
Anti-competitive practices
The important point: Keep in mind that Ticketmaster is part of the Live Nation family. It is the interplay of these companies and their impact on the market that is most likely to get regulatory scrutiny. If that actually happens.
Much as Facebook is one thing, but the whole group of companies that Meta owns is another thing.
The answer, for now, is “no” with the caveat that this could change if the government decides that it wants to open investigations into the world of tickets and the businesses that are involved in the ticket market.
In that case, the answer would change to “it depends”.
Go Deeper: Eric Fuller makes a case for a new angle on this topic.
II. Tools: Stay 22:
What they are? Stay22 is an accommodation solution that helps show people where to stay near an event, venue, or another landmark.
I’ve used the platform to book travel in the UK.
It works well.
Check them out:
The selection continues to grow.
The integration with your website can offer a higher level of service.
It is also easy.
You can make more money!
Go Deeper:
My conversation with their CRO, Frederic Auoad
III. Ideas and Concepts: “Quality Cues”
Definition: These a symbols, signals that act as a way for your market to understand that this is valuable.
Examples:
Tiffany’s blue box
Wine from the Champagne region of France: Champagne!
The weight of a Mont Blanc pen
The price of a Mercedes Benz
How do you use these in tickets?
Real scarcity: The fashion brand, Supreme, has 12 stores around the world to sell their items. With so many seats available, trying to create the impression of scarcity can backfire.
Price: Control the price. If everything is overpriced and lacks scarcity that can signal that there is something wrong with the product. Just as too low can cause problems as well.
Service: Think hotels like the Four Seasons. They are known for making your dreams come true. My 40th birthday at the Four Seasons Beverley Hills…they hunted down bottle of Pliny the Elder for me and gave me a cake that when my wife tried to get me another one for my actual birthday they wouldn’t sell her because they said it was “too expensive” for them to charge her for it.
Feel: What does the stock of your paper tickets feel like? The air when you enter the building? Your programs? Your merchandise?
Key to using “Quality Cues”:
Don’t be afraid to combine quality cues. More can be more.
Recognize that for certain things lack of awareness is a big selling point. That was what drove the Centurion Card back in the days.
Make your quality cues clear. Go to Joel Robuchon next time you are in London: the food is great, but the service staff, the weight of the menus, the timing of the meals, the quality of the glassware, and on it goes.
Homework:
How do you show quality in your work?
In your venue?
With your ticket offerings?
IV. The Bullets: A Ticket Doesn’t Have to Be a Commodity:
At some point, I’ll do an entire pricing issue.
How to Avoid “The Commodity Trap”:
Focus on value
Build a brand distinct from any one game or event
Add value in addition to admission
Diversify your offering
Define your target market. You might not want to be for everyone. Or, you might want to be for everyone.
Improve your service: think about the difference between Holiday Inn and Four Seasons.
Expand the market for your offering. Non-buyers are always a larger group than buyers.
Build loyalty
Bundle a ticket with other offerings
Amplify a unique aspect of your venue, offering, or experience think sitting on top of the Green Monster.
V. Links:
Maybe the single best piece on becoming a strategist I’ve ever read:
Roger Martin is the world’s best strategy teacher.
There are a number of great ideas here:
Data omnivore
Juggling more balls
Get to know your customers
This is probably the best starter for strategy I’ve ever come across.
The language you use is important:
I do a training with sales teams called “The Language of the Sale” where we talk about writing stronger sales emails.
In it, one of the lessons is defining the conversation.
This means that you define the words you are using if there is any ambiguity.
Dr. Grace Kite’s example of ROI is a very good example.
In my conversations, I talk about profit because you can have a great ROI and not make any money.
Ted Lasso comes to FIFA: It is downloading as you read this. Ted is my new coach avatar!
Goodbye, Phantom: The longest-running show in Broadway history will take its final bow. This is wild…I thought it would run forever.
Linktree: Find everything I’m up to.
Join the ‘Talking Tickets’ Slack Group. Almost 300 people from around the world.
Customers are buying refund protection at rates 2x higher than before the pandemic.
Offering your customers refund protection:
Gives customers certainty in their purchase.
Gives you a new revenue stream.
Improves your customer service.
Great podcast conversations: Take your business to new heights by learning from the best in the business.
Recent Conversations:
Aren Murray
Bill Guertin
Scott Goodacre
Share your ideas with me here.