London Olympics 2012 Case Analysis

Solution 1) The core issues which Paul Williamson has to Solve are as follows :- A. PRICING DECISION MAKING
The core problem which Paul Williamson is facing is how to decide the price of the ticket. The price should be fixed at that much cost that can be also purchased by the average Londoners or the public can afford. As correctly said it is “everybody’s games”.

B. MANAGING ATTENDANCE
The managing of attendance is a very big concern for Paul Williamson as most of times it has been seen that even the tickets are sold the seats are lying vacant. This situation happened during the BEIJING 2008 games that even the tickets were sold out but most of the people were not there at the time of games , these people were mainly VIP’S and many of the famous media persons.

Solution 2) The dilemma of Paul Williamson - It is given in the first instance that how the importance of ticketing plays a vital role in maximizing the revenue .As if the price is higher the higher will be the revenue.

Another instance being given is that the organizing committee knows that most of the countries would be watching the opening ceremony and also the swimming finals but Paul Williamson wants to not only maximize the attendance during the above two events but also during the events like handball and table tennis.

The third instance which has been discussed is mainly to sell the tickets to those persons who are considered to be the “Knowledgeable Fans”.

The final and major concern is to provide tickets not only to high class society and elites but should be costed at that much price that can be easily afforded by average Londoners who are living in the nearby areas of East London.

Solution 4) In London Olympics 2012 the characteristics of a good pricing strategy are as follows:- A. PRICE DISCRIMINATION
Price discrimination is the selling of similar goods and items at different prices to different consumers. As in the case London Olympics 2012 the tickets will be sold at different prices to different consumers ready to purchase the tickets. For instance say in Sydney 2000 the price of ticket was different for various “TIERS” e.g. for Tier 1,Tier 2, Tier 3 , Tier 4 , Tier 5 the prices will be 869, 619,318,66 in dollars($). So if the effective pricing strategy has to be implemented the LOCOG should fix the prices according the given class of consumers which consists of Average and Elite consumers. Paul Williamson must follow the policy of “Third degree price discrimination”.

B. PRICE SUBSIDIES ON THE TICKETS
In big four events like swimming, artistic gymnastics , athletics and the ceremonies where demand is more than supply in that case the ticket can be sold easily at any price. Due to this relation the profit gained on sale of ticket are used to subsidize sales of tickets of the rest of sports other than swimming, artistic gymnastics, athletics and the ceremonies as mentioned above.

Solution 5) SUGGESTIONS TO LOCOG AND PAUL WILLIAMSON A. The price of the ticket should be fixed at that much amount that should be easily afforded by the average Londoners other than Elite consumers who are ready to purchase the ticket at any price even the price is higher.