The Fear of Fee Increases: Retrospective Insights on Fee Increases and Possible Demographic Influences on Price Sensitivity

Texas Parks and Wildlife (TPW) raised license fees in 2010, and we examined whether our customers exhibited any price sensitivity to that fee increase by conducting a retrospective analysis, mining our license sales transactions database.  We identified individual license purchasers and calculated loyalty rates of purchasers of each license type across successive years from 2006-2015.  We segmented customers by the license type they purchased in each prior year, but defined them as loyal customers if they purchased any license type in the successive year.  Loyalty rates for individuals across license types were surprisingly consistent, even in the year that fees increased.  We also conducted demographic analyses of license buyers, and these analyses indicated that purchasers of the less expensive one-day All-water licenses and Freshwater-only licenses were from demographic groups that might be expected to exhibit some price sensitivity, but that other license types that included Saltwater and Hunting endorsements belonged to more affluent demographic groups for which price sensitivity may be expected to exhibit little price sensitivity.