I was reading this email I received today about a local martial arts instructor who was going to be offering classes for a fee when normally he did it for free of charge. While I guess most people don’t have an issue with that, he mentioned that all men are to pay a monthly fee eventually whereas women can train for free.
This then created a lot of debate as people began to say how that was unfair as well as comments how maybe the instructor just adores women so much that he can’t bear to charge them. From a commercial business perspective I think I know exactly what he was trying to do. Basically, since he wants to start generating an income and things like martial arts normally attract more men, making it free for women will hopefully expand his potential female student roster. Then as that builds up he would start charging them too. Course, that is all just my assumption.
You see this all the time in places such as health clubs or dating services. Sometimes the default price for women are more expensive automatically such as getting haircuts or photography studio shoots. The example with say a photoshoot though I would say it has to do more with the labor as stereotypically speaking a women normally asks for more such as having to style the long hair, lots of makeup, etc.
So for this martial arts instructor I would be inclined to say that he is going to lose male students as a result of this decision. That should make you think, when exactly is it appropriate to have a gender based pricing structure for your services and what is considered tolerable to most people?
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