When travelling, it's a custom in our family to pick up a souvenir or two of the places we visit and usually these take the form of prints, drawings or ceramics. Nothing too expensive mind but we do aim to go for the highest quality at the best price.
Stopping at the stall of a local artist on a recent trip we were surprised to see a notice stating, "Pay whatever you like".
An interesting and unusual concept. Engaging him in conversation, he explained that he wasn't alone in taking this approach. He pointed out that some musicians, restaurants and even hotels were offering similar "payment" arrangements.
This seemed a long way from the story I once heard about an event where the price of the cold, soft drink rose in line with the temperature in the stadium. It is also quite commonplace for the price of hotel rooms to rise in relation to the importance of events going on in their area. The inevitable law of supply and demand.
The artist's approach was also interesting in another respect. He readily shared payments he had already been paid for items on that day. Some of the sums seemed very small, others compensated by being relatively large. He seemed happy either way. Suffice to say that the money we offered must have satisfied as he threw in an extra couple of pictures.
This got me thinking though... How common is this approach in business? Is it basically another take on payment by results - the no win/no fee strategy of television claim advertisements? Or a variation on payment as percentage of profit?
Questions: Do you offer a product or service? Do you begin with a price in mind or let your customers pay whatever they like?
I'd love to hear from you.
Say whatever you like.
Heard recently that the Jon Bon Jovi Soul Kitchen does not post prices and simply asks for a donation. Check out website at http://www.jbjsoulkitchen.org
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