We recently announced a new pricing model for Business of Arts and Culture seminars in which we will ask organizations to name their own tuition. We decided to embark on an experiment with this model after soliciting input from organizations we serve and quite a bit of investigation into how this model is performing – in the cultural sector and in the greater business world. Just after we announced our pricing experiment, I came across a very interesting new example of the pay-what-you-can experiment: Jon Bon Jovi’s Soul Kitchen in Red Bank, NJ. Bon Jovi takes the model a step further than the cross-subsidization most models rely upon by asking those who can’t afford to pay for their meals in dollars to pay through volunteer service – either in the restaurant or in the community. The community is also giving back: a local Whole Foods has donated ingredients.
Read more about Bon Jovi’s Pay-What-You-Can Eatery in Marshall Heyman’s Wall Street Journal article, then browse some other examples of the model at work:
- Pay what you can: how low and how far can theatres go?
- How’s ACT’s All Pay-What-You-Can Policy Working?
- The ‘In Rainbows’ Experiment: Did It Work? and the associated In Rainbows, On Torrents
- ‘Pay what you can’ works for charity – what about business?
How does pay-what-you-can affect the perception of value? How might this model impact your organization?
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