Studio showcase economics

[tanya_the_dancer]

Exactly. There are tons of ways to do it. No frills works, too.

It just gets my goat when I encounter the, "I don't value what's being offered, so it should be free" attitude. Stuff is not free. There is no doubt about that. The question is what I am willing to pay for.

However, if a cost of something you were paying for for years suddenly more than doubles, as it's the case with the OP, would you not question why?

 

[anntennis]

I do not think that any pro am showcase can be compared to Martha Graham or any other professional ballet for that matter. One huge difference that professionals get paid for their performances, not other way around.
This is a hobby for which I am paying for. For 5 years dancing took me by “storm” beyond reason and got me to the point of obsession and I probably would pay no matter what up to this moment.
Now I question my showcases’ value and price and how much I am willing to pay for pro/am performance.
So comparison what other people and studios do and charge really helped.
As with everything else, a lot of factors come into play when price for a favorite activity goes up.
- Do I want my dance shows so much, that no matter what the price the studio or teacher asks (double, triple) I pay for it, or explore some other options where I can spend money on?
Even in dance there are other options, not performance options:
- There are lessons for well being and fun without performance goal. Lessons are at least 45 minutes , not 3 minutes of “ fame” and “high”
- Attend charity balls. Some cost $230 for 3 hour dancing. I attended a few and had a very good time. Fancy dress, Viennese waltz, some even with masks
- Pro/am “socials” – dance with your teacher for 3 hours, not 3 minute
- Cut out on dance and look around for some other hobbies as an addition to dance- golf, tennis( dropped it as started dancing almost completely), or intense training at the gym.

 

[Mr 4 styles]

Cut out on dance and look around for some other hobbies as an addition to dance- golf, tennis( dropped it as started dancing almost completely), or intense training at the gym.

or all of these

 

[danceronice]

However, if a cost of something you were paying for for years suddenly more than doubles, as it's the case with the OP, would you not question why?

I might ask, if it was a massive change. Unless there was suddenly more involved in the service. Or there was a corresponding increase in everything else, too (lesson fees, parties, etc.) in which case I'd assume the cost of doing business went up (which it has for basically everyone in every industry the last few years.)

 

[pygmalion]

However, if a cost of something you were paying for for years suddenly more than doubles, as it's the case with the OP, would you not question why?

Yes I would. And I pointed that out a few pages ago.

Hmm. I could be wrong, but, to me, it sounded like the issue wasn't limited resources as much as the sticker shock of the price almost doubling with no apparent explanation. If you were paying $130 before and now were suddenly being asked to pay $230, I think most reasonable people would question that, regardless.

 

[pygmalion]

I do not think that any pro am showcase can be compared to Martha Graham or any other professional ballet for that matter. One huge difference that professionals get paid for their performances, not other way around.
This is a hobby for which I am paying for. For 5 years dancing took me by “storm” beyond reason and got me to the point of obsession and I probably would pay no matter what up to this moment.
Now I question my showcases’ value and price and how much I am willing to pay for pro/am performance.
So comparison what other people and studios do and charge really helped.
As with everything else, a lot of factors come into play when price for a favorite activity goes up.
- Do I want my dance shows so much, that no matter what the price the studio or teacher asks (double, triple) I pay for it, or explore some other options where I can spend money on?
Even in dance there are other options, not performance options:
-There are lessons for well being and fun without performance goal. Lessons are at least 45 minutes , not 3 minutes of “ fame” and “high”
-Attend charity balls. Some cost $230 for 3 hour dancing. I attended a few and had a very good time. Fancy dress, Viennese waltz, some even with masks
-Pro/am “socials” – dance with your teacher for 3 hours, not 3 minute
-Cut out on dance and look around for some other hobbies as an addition to dance- golf, tennis( dropped it as started dancing almost completely), or intense training at the gym.

Yes. You are assessing what it's worth to you. Completely valid.

For you, it sounds like showcases are a very pricey three minutes of fame. Even though I don't see it that way, I can see why you would.

 

[latingal]

As much as the media seems to hype that things are getting better in the economy, real wages have not increased for most people. And the price of consumer goods and staples continues to rise. Which means, many of us have to take a good look at rising prices on anything, especially something that is usually deemed as a "disposable income activity".

It is prudent to assess an activities price and worth to the consumer. As many have mentioned in the dancing and the economy thread, a lot of us have chosen to cut back due to rising prices in dance.

 

[pygmalion]

As much as the media seems to hype that things are getting better in the economy, real wages have not increased for most people. And the price of consumer goods and staples continues to rise. Which means, many of us have to take a good look at rising prices on anything, especially something that is usually deemed as a "disposable income activity".

It is prudent to assess an activities price and worth to the consumer. As many have mentioned in the dancing and the economy thread, a lot of us have chosen to cut back due to rising prices in dance.

Very well said.

 

[fascination]

yep

As much as the media seems to hype that things are getting better in the economy, real wages have not increased for most people. And the price of consumer goods and staples continues to rise. Which means, many of us have to take a good look at rising prices on anything, especially something that is usually deemed as a "disposable income activity".

It is prudent to assess an activities price and worth to the consumer. As many have mentioned in the dancing and the economy thread, a lot of us have chosen to cut back due to rising prices in dance.

...and another thing that is rarely noted is that it isn't simply a matter of how things are now compared to how they used to be...it is also a matter of the cumulative effect of how long one has been spending a considerable amount of cash...I am not spending more, I am not making less...but the fact that I have been spending a considerable amount for 8 years has been adding up to a formidable number...so even though the pinch isn't tighter, the amount that isn't there for other things continues to grow...so, for me, it is never about whether a charge is fair or not, or worth it or not in some sort of abstract way, but rather, about how much I have already spent and what the other important financial demands in my life and future may happen to be....I think most folks should evaluate their dance budget yearly through that lens

 

[pygmalion]

Like.

*beating dead horse, too lazy to look for emoticon*

Exactly. It's not whether the price is fair or even whether I can afford the price, sometimes. It's whether I'm willing to pay the opportunity cost. If I spend the money for this, I can't spend it for that.

 

[pygmalion]

Hmm.

@t the d. It just occurred to me why you may have quoted me and replied. Perhaps you thought my comments about "I don't value it, so it should be free," were about you. They weren't. You didn't say that. You said (loose, loose paraphrase) that extra services should be offered a la carte.

From the perspective of someone who's done event planning, I'll tell you why they're usually not offered a la carte, IMHO and fair bit of E.

1) Unless you can get a service provider to come to your event strictly on a contingency basis, it can be a bookkeeping nightmare. It's hard enough keeping track of registrations. I don't want to have to keep track of who's having their hair and make-up done and who's only getting make-up. And I don't want to have to track/police it on the day of the event.

2) If the provider is NOT on a contingency basis, they are getting paid for their time, regardless of how many or how few people use the service. That cost has to be covered somehow.

3) Most of the time, when I have designed combo packages for conferences, etc, I've helped organize, there is a significant discount built into the package for a variety of reasons. The venue might bundle services -- for example, offer a "free" coffee bar because our org spent $x or more. A vendor might throw in a discount because they're getting x amount of business thrown their way, etc. A vendor might offer free/discounted services in exchange for advertising. Or a vendor may offer a discount if you buy so many gross of a pre-printed promotional item, but no discount if you buy fewer. There's all kinds of negotiation that goes into setting that final price. There are also assumptions built in, like, "Even though 50 students are participating, we expect only 20 to get make-up and a different 20 to get their hair done," for example.

So, just because an updo costs me $100, doesn't mean that, if I DON'T get the updo from the showcase organizer, a straight $100 is going to come off the cost. It's unlikely to work out that way, IME, because the updo most likely didn't add a straight $100 to the bottom line.

Event planning and pricing is not nearly as straightforward as it may seem from the outside.

 

[tanya_the_dancer]

@pyg: I understand that you can't unbundle some things. But that means those things shouldn't be added willy-nilly. If an event organizer adds a non-optional extra something that less than half of participants care about and most of them maybe won't even take advantage of, it does appear as if they just try to pocket some extra $$. Because the expectation is that the added cost is being split between the provider of said extra and the event organizer (even if the split is overwhelmingly in favor of the provider, the organizer still gets something).

 

[pygmalion]

Of course they're trying to pocket extra cash, unless it's a non-profit organization and IME, even then. lol. The biggest non-profit conference I was ever involved in had just shy of a $1M budget and we cleared several hundred thousand dollars, which went into the pot for the next time around. It was not our goal to break even. For for-profit businesses, the goal is to make money. That's what businesses do, in an ideal capitalist world.

The other goal is to provide value for your customers and, even more importantly, to provide the perception of value to your customers. To do that, you have to take a look at all the services that are available and somehow guess which things most people will perceive to be of value. While you do that, you have to provide products/services at fair market value. It's not easy.

 

[tanya_the_dancer]

Of course they're trying to pocket extra cash, unless it's a non-profit organization and IME, even then. lol. The biggest non-profit conference I was ever involved in had just shy of a $1M budget and we cleared several hundred thousand dollars, which went into the pot for the next time around. It was not our goal to break even. For for-profit businesses, the goal is to make money. That's what businesses do, in an ideal capitalist world.

The other goal is to provide value for your customers and, even more importantly, to provide the perception of value to your customers. To do that, you have to take a look at all the services that are available and somehow guess which things most people will perceive to be of value. While you do that, you have to provide products/services at fair market value. It's not easy.

Well, if a business added something to a package deal that customers don't perceive as valuable, that's clearly a problem for that particular business. It does make them either look as if they just try to make some extra money, or that they're out of touch with their clients needs.

 

[pygmalion]

As hard as you try, as a service provider, you can't please everyone. If the majority of the students signing up for $2000 showcases are happy enough with the package deal to sign on, then we're good. Is everyone going to use every service provided? No. I'd be willing to bet the package was put together with that as an assumption. (e.g. Male students usually don't get updos lol) Is everybody going to be happy that they can't/don't want to take advantage of every service provided? Probably not.

At the end of the day, one question is whether your organization can provide a service that meets or exceeds the expectations of most of your clients while making enough profit to make it worthwhile to the organization. The other open question is about choices that we all get to make. Is it worth it to me, if I'm the individual client? As fasc said, six or seven pages ago, nobody's holding a gun to your head. If it's a good value to you, buy. If not, don't. No harm; no foul.