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Subscription or subscription discount

What does this mean?

A particular sales promotion technique that is frequently used in the performing arts.

This is a scheme that provides significant reductions in ticket prices in return for the advance bulk purchase of tickets for a multiple number of events or performances.

How did we get this definition?

Subscription is a sales promotion device writ large. First brought to the UK by American Danny Newman, it was set out in his seminal 1977 book Subscribe Now!, while its ‘dynamic subscription promotion’ process was championed by Keith Diggle.

The whole process works by offering a price reduction on an overall package of tickets, so that each ticket can be purchased at a reduced price.

Typically the promotional communications relating to such subscriptions have tended to focus on the percentage saving being made, or the number of tickets that can be acquired notionally for free.

Related and similar definitions

The calculation of the overall subscription discount being offered (as a percentage) can be found using the procedure.

First find the overall subscription saving [SS] being offered. This will be:

SS = (FP1 + FP2 + FP3 + FP4 + FP5 + FP6 + FP7 + FP8 + FP9 ) - (SP1 + SP2 + SP3 + SP4 + SP5 + SP6 + SP7 + FP8 + SP9)

where FP1, FP2, FP3 and so on are the full price of the individual tickets included in the package

and SP1, SP2, SP3 and so on are the subscription prices at which the individual tickets included in the package are offered.

The resulting subscription saving [SS] can then be interpreted as a certain number of full-price tickets.

Then the percentage subscription discount is found through the calculation:

SS ÷ (FP1 + FP2 + FP3 + FP4 + FP5 + FP6 + FP7 + FP8 + FP9) × 100

i.e. The total subscription saving divided by the total full price value of the tickets in the package, then multiplied by 100.

When to use

When constructing and promoting a subscription ticketing scheme.