Why Most Hospitality Business must Treat Customers with Condescension

It is said that in every bipartisan relationship there is a Reacher and a Settler.

This* is the fundamental economic landscape which must be recognised by any executive that seeks to position a product, or brand.

The summary effect of this is, that if you run the first kind of business, then your best customers will always be relatively undiscerning (either dumb or poor), and your worst customers will always be relatively difficult to handle (either too smart to spend X on your goods, or too rich to lack alternatives if their distaste for your goods is completely irrational).

Most hospitality businesses exist in this space.

* When we look at consumer-facing companies, this manifests itself in the following phenomenon ... if the company chooses to please a broad audience, then it must always sell goods in large quantities which are far below highest crafting capabilities for smaller quantities. Correspondingly, if a company chooses to please only a narrow audience, then it can sell goods in smaller quantities, but at a level of craftsmanship which is closer to its maximum capability. 

In the first case, the company reaches for the masses and settles on mediocre qualities ... in the second case, the company reaches for quality and settles for mediocre quantities. Correspondingly, in the first case, a customer reaches for a mediocre quality and settles for good pricing, and in the second case, a customer reaches for quality and settles for a higher price.