Season Pass

Recently I saw an advert for Thorpe Park and a season ticket offering of £48... that was unlimited entry to the park for an entire year! It really got me thinking as although I've never been to Thorpe Park, I have been to the sister theme park Alton Towers and I remember how pricey it can be for a day out there.

A day ticket also costs £48 although you can save by booking online before you arrive. Many people would question why a day ticket is the same price as an annual pass- it seems ludicrous right?

But when you think about it from a different perspective, it's actually an extremely clever marketing tactic that is used in lots of different places where one might not recognise the marketing tactic is in place.

Once a consumer has entered the park once, and paid the £48 fee- the park covers the overheads such as electricity and staffing, and the initial costs of the ride building/ design etc. and any residual value of such assets. The initial costs of that person entering the park are covered. Great- but do these overheads increase as more people enter the park? No.... the staffing/ electricity/ insurance etc. costs are going to be exactly the same whether there are 100 or 6000 people in the park, therefore Thorpe Park's main objective is getting as many people through their gates as possible!

Thorpe Park make such a huge mark-up on added extras such as the car park, food & drinks, games and merchandise that the price of entrance probably doesn't have a huge profit margin. Once customers are through the gates, they are more likely to spend money inside the park ESPECIALLY if they have paid for an annual pass and therefore have the feeling as though their initial cost of the day out was "free"- they may be inclined to spend more on additional add-ons!

Pricing is a marketing tool which is often overlooked, even by myself and although it depends on mark-ups and margins and overheads etc. it can also create a perception of a product and sometimes even a cheap price can detract from a product or service.

So- where else is this tactic used? Night clubs offer free entry or guest list entry before a certain time in the hope that customers will enter and purchase drinks all throughout the night, another example is captive pricing- where a company offers a product for a low price, but then once they are hooked, they rake up the prices of captive products.

I think it is a very wise move from Thorpe Park and one which should see their entries sore and their additional spending therefore increase!

Stephanie