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I would say the whole issue of demand is psychological and there is little correlation to need. Town have done nothing to create a feelgood factor.An exciting signing early on would have stimulated things,this close season is one of the flattest I have known.
I of course renewed my season ticket but without much enthusiasm or anticipation and did give some consideration to not bothering that is after having a season ticket for 20 years plus.

I'm sick of hearing this excrement about making a good early signing to boost Sal. Do you think the club are deliberately trying to avoid signing good players. If only it was that simple.

Perhaps Herts your starting position may be to read the Hidden Persuaders.

I thought about getting a season ticket but held back because it is a large sum from the pension. As it stands if we have a poor start and I stop going I will have saved a lot of money. If I was  given a bit of bate I might have bitten and bought one. I think there are a lot of part time supporters like me.

Quoted from friskneymariner

Perhaps Herts your starting position may be to read the Hidden Persuaders.

Is that a book about spy's?

Quoted from forza ivano

To be fair Forza I do agree with you that in the last couple of seasons we have gone backwards in terms of building something people want to be part of a few seasons ago we where giving away free sticker books, kids for £1, cheap programs and doing stuff to drive people through the shop. Some of that was via offers and incentives some it with dancing comedians and LJL under some blokes Christmas tree. All of that helps build your brand without a doubt.

So all of the above helps for sure but does it sell season tickets? Maybe maybe not. I buy mine for 3 reasons 1 I am a Town supporter and will be regardless of results it would take something really bad for me to stop going. 2 so I can get hot away tickets (usually) as getting to BP on none match days is impossible. 3 just in case we get a cup run and get a big club at BP. The discount is not that the first thing I think about & I am fortunate enough to be able to afford it, actually up until last season I lost money on mine as I could not get to night games due to work commitments and in tin pot there where too many.    

When the club sells tickets it's selling what you see on the pitch and though I get & agree with most points about the marketing stuff, apathy and complacency I am not convinced that hard marketing will sway that many people when the team is not winning most weeks and vying for honors, that is the key driver that puts bums on seats at BP. Usually a good cup run hosting some big teams helps, when was the last time that happened?

In recent years there has been a hard core of around 3,500 - 4,000 fans and a large proportion of them are season ticket holders, then the rest maybe 1,000+ are floaters who turn up when we do well or play a big side/local derby these are the people that we need to engage and I feel that no matter how hard we push season tickets the only real way we can get people through the gate is to start winning games on a consistent basis and then certainly back it up with all the feel good factor stuff.      

I think what Realist posts above is how many people feel about going to BP and committing cash to a season ticket. The best marketing incentive to sell tickets is for the team to have a cracking start to the season and we beat Derby in the EFL Cup, do that and we will start to see demand from the floating 1,000..

    

Hoping for a good start to the season is not a sure fire way to success in business is it? It's a bit like Rammy's filling the shop with wellies in the hope that we get a really wet spell.

You and a few posters on here are diehard ST buyers so you don't need persuading. But that doesn't mean to say a hell of a lot of there people don't need a nudge. And it's not just STs I'm talking about. It's about packing the Park with all sorts of ticket holders. But STs is a good start.

And it's not just about sales this year. They could 'break-even' on ticket sales but fill the place. 8000 regulars is better than 5000 even if the income was the same. Got to think ahead to the long term (and how they're going to fill Peaks Parkway if it ever gets off the ground).

Quoted from barralad

Sometimes, the appointment of a manager (managers?) triggers a series of events that somehow energises a whole town. For Grimsby Town it was the appointment way back in 1971 of Lawrie Mac. Just about the lowest crowd of that season was the opening game against Scunny...over 7k.  Such was the buzz around the Town that had season tickets been as big an issue then as now our sales performance may have been as significant. Last season was Lincoln's similar all coming together moment. We got two years of Lawrie. Lincoln will do well to get more than that from the brothers.  To compare our pre season last year with Lincoln's this year based on the feelgood factor carried forward is in my view grossly unfair.

I'm not saying we should have achieved Lincoln's ST sales. I'm saying it's no good sitting back and moaning that they got all the breaks. And I bet they didn't just expect the tickets to fly off the shelf by resting on their laurels.

The Lawrie Mac example is a poor way to run things. You can't plan on the basis that once in (how long has it been now, 46 years!) 2 generations the appointment of a manager can have that effect. Talk about Micawberism!

Quoted from KingstonMariner

Hoping for a good start to the season is not a sure fire way to success in business is it? It's a bit like Rammy's filling the shop with wellies in the hope that we get a really wet spell.

You and a few posters on here are diehard ST buyers so you don't need persuading. But that doesn't mean to say a hell of a lot of there people don't need a nudge. And it's not just STs I'm talking about. It's about packing the Park with all sorts of ticket holders. But STs is a good start.

And it's not just about sales this year. They could 'break-even' on ticket sales but fill the place. 8000 regulars is better than 5000 even if the income was the same. Got to think ahead to the long term (and how they're going to fill Peaks Parkway if it ever gets off the ground).

Your right KM but surely the best "nudge" is for the team to start winning games? many say we should be lowering the price but people don't start watching stuff that's not attractive just because it's cheaper.

I like you think that we should be thinking about how we get people into PP and for once actually be brave enough to do it. I am not sure what we can learn from the Gimps based upon this season as they are riding a massive wave but there must be a number of other clubs we could learn from who maybe have not had recent success but do stuff to get people in.

Quoted from HertsGTFC

Is that a book about spy's?

Frightening you claim you are involved in marketing and are not aware of probably the most seminal work in the field like me it is approaching sixty and still relevant.