{"id":674,"date":"2013-04-16T17:31:24","date_gmt":"2013-04-17T00:31:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/?p=674"},"modified":"2013-04-16T17:31:24","modified_gmt":"2013-04-17T00:31:24","slug":"the-bottom-of-the-hourglass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2013\/04\/the-bottom-of-the-hourglass\/","title":{"rendered":"The bottom of the hourglass"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"modern<\/a>At Reuters, Peter Rudegeair writes<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

What\u2019s a retailer to do with a widening\u00a0gap<\/a>\u00a0between rich and poor customers?\u00a0Starbucks<\/a>\u00a0is the latest chain to target America\u2019s \u201chourglass economy<\/a>.\u201d By cutting 10% off its grocery-store coffee bags while keeping in place the price hikes it put in place in its caf\u00e9s\u00a0last year<\/a>, Starbucks is simultaneously pushing both its discount and premium products.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a sensible strategy: low-wage occupations have\u00a0dominated<\/a>\u00a0new jobs in the last few years, even as high-earners\u00a0captured 121% of the income gains<\/a>\u00a0of the economic recovery. In 2011, the WSJ noted\u00a0Procter & Gamble\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0\u201chigh and low\u201d approach to consumers by promoting its expensive Olay and Gillette products, while introducing a bargain dish soap for the first time in 38 years. The shrinking of the middle class \u201crequired us to think differently about our product portfolio and how to please the high-end and lower-end markets,\u201d a P&G executive told the WSJ. \u201cThat\u2019s frankly where a lot of the growth is happening.\u201d Frito-Lay, Anheuser-Busch InBev, and ConAgra have also developed or expanded their offerings at both ends of their product lineups, according to\u00a0LEK Consulting<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Last week I posted<\/a> about selling at differential quality levels, noting that nonprofits might be reluctant to sell to the bottom half of the hourglass, with staff using their influence to direct the organization to produce the highest quality that the market will bear, even where there is a market for a lower-cost-medium-quality production. This is certainly evident in the sector that is my day job – higher education – although some lawmakers<\/a> have asked why we cannot offer a degree that won’t put students and families deep into debt. And I would suggest it is true for nonprofit health care as well.<\/p>\n

So let me put it out there for discussion: how well do you think the nonprofit arts sector does at selling to the bottom half of the hourglass? Here I don’t mean very wealthy institutions that can afford to do outreach and free days and such, subsidized by its donors and full-fare paying patrons. But rather nonprofit entrepreneurs who have tried to capture a niche of low-budget affordable performances or exhibitions, with the intention of staying that way, rather than growing into something more elite. Have the arts done better than other nonprofit sectors in this respect?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At Reuters, Peter Rudegeair writes: What\u2019s a retailer to do with a widening\u00a0gap\u00a0between rich and poor customers?\u00a0Starbucks\u00a0is the latest chain to target America\u2019s \u201chourglass economy.\u201d By cutting 10% off its grocery-store coffee bags while keeping in place the price hikes it put in place in its caf\u00e9s\u00a0last year, Starbucks is simultaneously pushing both its discount […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-674","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-issues","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3dIW5-aS","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}