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  • Calculating number of customers

    Hi Everyone. There is a private catholic school near me that built a new building and the old school is for lease. I am thinking of leasing it for October and doing a haunt. This would be my first time. I have background in investing and venture capital, so I am a very data driven person. I wanted to know if anyone had done any sort of analysis to anticipate how many customers they would get. There are about 1.2 million people in the three counties that surround the location. If 1 out of 250 people come to check it out, that's 4800 customers. Does this sound high or low? Does anyone have any advice or ratios that I could compare of the numbers of customers you get versus the surrounding population? How do the pros on here go about planning for this?

  • #2
    Oof! Starting to plan for your first year inn May of the same year?

    Did you make it to Transworld?

    Anyway, it isn't solely population based.

    Here's some key factors that gets people to your attraction:

    Marketing strategy: Which you can do, but to say you want 4,800 people, you'll need to reach 48,000 people directly. (Going off the average 10% of marketing pays off).

    Reputation: you need to build this. There's no successful "hit and run" haunts. You can market it very well and get a lot of people in the door your first year, but will they come back?

    Public Perception: Does the public want you there? Does the public see you as an asset to the community or a detriment to the public?

    Obviously there are more, but you are in for a challenge my friend! Get your zoning approval now, get your fire marshal on board, get the ok for the building department.

    How much is the rent?

    What is your marketing budget?

    From your budget, what will your expected customer acquisition cost be?

    Haunts don't go up overnight! I wish you the best, and would love to chat further, but to open a haunt in October 2014, you should start a good year in advance.....hopefully you're further along than your first post suggests.

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    • #3
      Screamforadream has it right. It's a little far-fetched to open a brand new haunt with only a few months to plan EVERYTHING. It would take a hell of a team to pull it off without it being a total trainwreck.

      However, that 4800 number depends on the area. Is it a fairly haunt-heavy area? If so then that number might even be a little low if you advertise correctly. On the other hand, if you're the only haunt in the area, the number could be high.

      If you're a data-driven person, I would contact haunts around you and see if they'll give you their numbers and go off of that; that would be your best comparison.
      Bryce Ring
      Co-owner/ Designer
      Twisted Realms Haunted House

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      • #4
        Hold on a MIN.

        We built a 60,000 square foot haunt in 7 weeks. We had zero props at that time and We had to have emergency city council , fire marshal meetings .
        We had billbboard, radio, buses, 150 actors, 7 bands, Kane hodder and over 40 food vendors and gave away a new car , all in 7 weeks.

        We had over 17,000 patrons attend. at 20.00 a pop the first year...

        If you have the passion anything can be done.

        Stew

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        • #5
          Originally posted by Darksidestew View Post
          If you have the passion anything can be done.
          ...and plenty of start-up money, I'm sure.
          Fright In Falcon Haunted Maze
          http://frightinfalcon.com

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          • #6
            where are you located, that would help. I can tell you what we do around Detroit but every area is different.
            Phatman

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            • #7
              "Nuts, bolts, paint, wood, Wiring.

              You can work yourself (and others ) into the ground creating the haunt structure. You can spend tons of money buying the things you might have to buy (rather than build yourself) When it's all done it won't run itself. (Does your State require criminal backround checks for you and your hired help? Beter begin doing that now before computer break-down season hits when the carnivals come to town! -they need them too!)
              Have you been to many haunts? What did you like and not like? What is going to be in your haunt? There are So Many things that you can do/have, but how many of them will "they" (your customers ) remember or be impressed by?
              If you can't scare them at least a little, stand by to entertain them, make them "Wonder?" Laugh! You have to give them some kind of a good time, Sailor!
              The higher your ticket price, the MORE critical they will be.
              You have to find some... "Showmanship!" Acting, interacting with customers who just may be bored if you don't .
              My Haunt is very different and that can give something appeal.
              But then there is much concerning this business that I am ignorant about, I have only had my house open almost every night now going on Twenty-Seven years (Plus most Saturday & Sunday afternoons) I pray that someday I might figure this stuff out? Good Luck, Too!
              I am Jim Warfield--The Ravens Grin Inn
              Mount Carroll, Illinois
              www.hauntedravensgrin.com
              hauntedravensgrin.com

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              • #8
                Originally posted by nillyfresh View Post
                Hi Everyone. There is a private catholic school near me that built a new building and the old school is for lease. I am thinking of leasing it for October and doing a haunt. This would be my first time. I have background in investing and venture capital, so I am a very data driven person. I wanted to know if anyone had done any sort of analysis to anticipate how many customers they would get. There are about 1.2 million people in the three counties that surround the location. If 1 out of 250 people come to check it out, that's 4800 customers. Does this sound high or low? Does anyone have any advice or ratios that I could compare of the numbers of customers you get versus the surrounding population? How do the pros on here go about planning for this?
                I didn't start any real planning my first year until July when I secured a location. I setup everything myself. It ~can~ be done. (Not saying it was even close to ideal!)

                Personally, I think trying to estimate based on possible population won't mean anything. It can't be based on how many people live within range. It has to be based on how many people who live in range who are going to know you exist and understand what you are. Marketing / exposure costs money and or time. And it's not always effective. I'd try to come up with possible marketing strategies and then guestimate how many at the end of that might know about you. THEN you can throw some percentages at that ( what ever good that does. )

                I too played the estimate calculation game. I had charts and tables and demographics. I looked at total population... filtered it to demographics (white people tend to attend more than black people, college students are more likely to have a date night, filtered out below poverty, etc)... set percentages based on distance away... looked at competing events (like high school football, college football,etc).

                End the end, we had almost EXACTLY the same number of ticket sales as we had Facebook likes. That number happened to be about 1/3 of my original optimistic estimate.

                I'm not discounting playing the estimate game. I think it's important to get your game plan pointing in a direction. (Any direction) But try to measure participation as quickly as possible before the event. In my case, Facebook was a great stat because we got the likes before people attended. My thought was, if you can't get them to take an easy action like "Facebook liking" then how can you get them to drive to your event and plop down money?

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