Consumer Behavior Study: the Choice of Seating Areas in Theatre

Consumers’ preferences to theatres are fundamental to frame marketing and social policies. Theatre managers assess individuals’ preferences through attendance and ticket sales as well as through questionnaire surveys of theatregoers. The theatre auditorium is usually divided into seating areas that are heterogeneous in terms of price and quality. Previous studies of the demand for performing arts have not dealt with the correlation between the number of tickets sold within a particular seating area and the demand on the tickets left in this area. The central question of my research project is framed as follows: how does the number of tickets sold within a particular seating area affect buying decisions made by theatregoers? The object of the study is to estimate the demand for a particular seating area in the auditorium of the Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre and to examine individuals’ behavioral patterns. The main auditorium of the theatre with be maximum capacity of 843 seats is divided into ten seating areas in terms of price and quality of view. As far as the Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre provides access to detailed sales reports for the purposes of research the data includes the exact number of tickets sold for each performance by area of seating and price category. The dataset comprehends all performances between February 2011 and May 2014. Total 503296 tickets were sold to the opera and ballet performances in data throughout the period. Reconstructing choice sets of individuals allow us explore the correlation between the number of tickets sold and left within a particular seating area. The number of tickets sold within a particular seating area has a considerable impact on the demand on the tickets left in this seating area: the bigger the number of tickets sold, the higher probability to change buying decision and switch over seating areas. The findings are varied across types of performances and their quality.