Whether you're a studio theatre or a multi-venue arts centre, finding the right pricing strategy is a complex process. In the last few months we've seen the launch of innovative new ticket schemes by three very different organisations: the Michael Grandage Company (MGC), which launches its inaugural five-show season at the 900-seat Noel Coward Theatre in the West End in December; the 250-seat publicly-funded Donmar Warehouse; and the Menier Chocolate Factory, the 180-seat London Fringe venue known for its award-winning revivals of musicals.

With the National Theatre's acclaimed Travelex Ticket season celebrating its 10th birthday this year, it seems there's something in the air. But as audiences are dazzled (or not, as the case may be) by these headline-grabbing experiments in pricing strategy, it's worth taking a moment to consider the implications of such schemes for both audiences and theatres, as well as the challenges that accompany them.

In very general terms, an effective pricing strategy must do two things: attract an audience for the show or season in question (and ideally, in the longer term, for future programmes of work) and raise sufficient income through ticket sales to break even and then make a profit. The difficulty is that these two aims are often at odds, making formulating a strategy a matter of balancing the needs of the audience with the needs of the theatre or producer.

The situation is further complicated by the fact that theatre is made up of not one audience, but many. A pricing strategy that is attractive to one demographic may be unattractive to another, and even within demographic groups there may be huge variations in customer behaviour.

In the case of the Donmar's and MGC's new schemes the target is new audiences. Their strategies are superficially very similar: both take inspiration from the NT's Travelex season, offering a fixed allocation of £10 tickets at every performance in order to broaden access to audiences. Delve deeper, however, and it turns out these organisations are going about achieving this common aim in strikingly different ways.

The Donmar's scheme, like the NT's, is underwritten by a corporate sponsor. Through an increase in support from Barclays, its principal sponsor, the theatre is able to lower the price of two thirds of its front row seats to £10. Somewhat counterintuitively perhaps, there will actually be fewer £10 tickets available per performance under Barclays Front Row (as the new scheme is called) than there are under the existing strategy (down from 46 to 41). The Donmar, however, is downplaying this quirk, focusing instead on the fact that £10 is a real bargain for the intense experience of seeing a Donmar production from a front row seat.

The other crucial element of Barclays Front Row is the way the scheme operates in terms of timing, with a full week of £10 front row tickets going on sale two weeks in advance. The Donmar's artistic director, Josie Rourke, regards this as "probably the most innovative bit of [the scheme] from our point of view," because of the way it will open up ticket buying to a broader demographic, the primarily younger people who are less inclined to book themselves up months in advance.

"There has been for a long time at the Donmar this day seats policy where you can turn up in person on the day and there are 10 seats and 20 standing places available that are sold on the door... but I was really conscious about how impossible that had been for people to do who had jobs or kids or can't be in Covent Garden at 9 o'clock of a morning... [Barclays Front Row] allows people that measure of time when they can get it in their diary, where they can read something about the show, go online and respond to it."

If the Donmar feels it's important to cater to the desire of theatregoers to pin themselves down too far in advance, MGC has chosen a rather different tack. In June, six months before curtain up on the first performance of its first show, the company opened the booking for the entirety of its 15-month season at the Noel Coward. Advance box office takings are important for any company producing theatre – for one operating without subsidy or sponsorship yet offering 200 £10 tickets per performance and running free education performances, the advance is absolutely vital.

But although selling almost all of the 100,000-plus £10 tickets before the start of the season is undoubtedly a huge help, the company's artistic director Michael Grandage recognises an additional benefit: "Because that message [100,000 tickets for £10 across a season of plays in one theatre] in itself generates activity and a high level of discourse, particularly online and everywhere else, then actually all the people who are perfectly happy to pay the higher prices – and in fact expect to because that's where they come from and they're not seeking a £10 ticket; they're just seeking a ticket to get in – that also affects that booking group as well."

David Babani, artistic director of the Menier Chocolate Factory, is also experimenting with timing in regard to pricing. Starting with Merrily We Roll Along, which opens on 28 November, tickets for Menier productions will become progressively more expensive the later they are booked. This system, Babani explains, "adds some extra security... You can see how a show's going to do."

The risk with such a scheme is that theatregoers who prefer to book later – often younger people and students, who also tend to have less disposable income – may be put off. Does this worry the director? "We haven't started at base point and made things more expensive; we've taken what our regular ticket price would be and made it cheaper. So we're not penalising you in any way for booking late, we are incentivising you to book early. That's quite a big distinction and I think it's important to get that across."

As audiences continue to tighten their belts and funding cuts increase the pressure on production budgets, there's ever more to be gained from the sorts of innovative pricing schemes we've seen announced in the last few months. Whether these schemes themselves will be successful remains to be seen, but if they can work to the benefit of both theatres and audiences, then they're surely worth a try.

Jo Caird is a freelance theatre and arts journalist – follow her on Twitter @JoCaird

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