Pricing basics
This Pricing basics Info Guide explains why you need to know your product, target customers, competitors and costs when setting your prices.
When setting prices, you need to balance the needs of your customer with your financial target requirements. To set the right prices, you need to know your product.
Prices vary depending on the types of product offered. Your customers are seeking a memorable Visitor Attraction experience that is worth leaving home for.
You need to constantly reinvent your product offering, eg, by making tweaks to appeal to your preferred target market to encourage repeat visits and to survive. If you deliver a high-quality tailored product, you may be able to charge a higher price.
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To successfully provide customers with the experience they want, you need to know:
- who your target customers are.
- what price they are willing to pay.
- what experience they expect in return for the price charged.
You can then set more competitive prices.
Customer experience
To provide a satisfactory customer experience, consider the following:
What will make your Visitor Attraction more appealing for your target customers?
What barriers might prevent potential customers from visiting your Visitor Attraction?
- Offer multiple Visitor Attraction entry or multiple admission deals - businesses benefit from finding ways to collaborate with other businesses in their locality to build the overall number of visitors to the area. Work with other businesses to create packages and special offers, and collaborate on joint marketing. For example, work with other Attractions to create ticket deals - offer discounts for visits to two or more attractions.
- Provide engaging interactive presentations, and refresh them regularly.
- Make your Attraction accessible and interesting to all (adults and children, domestic and foreign visitors).
- Provide free car parking.
- Include adequate seating and picnic areas.
- Provide visitor information points.
For example, if your Visitor Attraction is located in an isolated rural location with poor infrastructure, people may be discouraged from visiting it. To overcome this barrier, provide a shuttle service.
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Remember!
Competition influences the maximum price for which a product or service may be sold.
Establish within your target customers a perception about your Visitor Attraction that will differentiate it from that of your competitors. In order to stand out from your competitors, you need to market your point of difference, eg, unique historical location or guide knowledge.
Competitive advantage
Any advantage that you have over your competitors will help to make your Visitor Attraction more appealing than those of your competitors. Your competitive advantage may be a unique superior service that only you can offer, eg a theatre company staging an historical drama in your historical building. You can also gain competitive advantage if extra value is included in the price you charge.
Identify the benefits you offer
Identify the unique benefits of your Visitor Attraction, together with the level of service or standards you provide, and communicate this information to your target customers.
Work together
Visit other Visitor Attractions, and find out how visitors respond to the kind of customer experience that you are trying to create. Build networks with other Attractions that you currently view as competitors.
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Estimate all the costs involved in operating your Visitor Attraction, including running costs, in order to ensure that your pricing achieves your financial target.
Business activity levels fluctuate between high and low seasons - many Attractions open only during the summer season. This means that an attraction has a limited period within the year to maximise its income and cover all its costs, many of which are incurred even during periods of closure.
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