Attrition Analysis Increases Funding

Challenge:

A nonprofit performing arts organization was concerned about increasing attrition in subscribers, so it hired Cicero to research the experience of patrons who have discontinued support as well as how to reconnect.

Cicero Approach:

Cicero utilized two surveys to develop our findings.  One was a short post-performance survey while the other was a longer survey sent to a large sample of active and lapsed patrons. We considered both single-ticket buyers as well as subscribers and also analyzed historical transaction data to both inform the survey development and compare against its output.

Results:

We identified that attrition was primarily due to two factors: (1) Subscribers aging out of the population, and (2) a decrease in preference for all types of subscription purchasing (i.e. not just this art organizations core format, but all forms of entertainment). This led Cicero and the arts organization to identify a new bundled purchasing platform that would entail binge consumption of their core entertainment, with the potential to attract a younger and more diverse audience base. Early results already show a dip in attrition due to the newly enacted strategic approaches.