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| The "Pawn Stars" shop in 2010. Photo by Mike Salvucci |
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| Chumlee. Pic by Kristina |
Tell a Story
Everyone loves a good story. For some primal reason, a story can engage and captivate your audience and gives credence to the product or service you're selling. In Pawn Stars, every item brought in to be sold or pawned has a history, which audiences always look forward to.
As an entrepreneur, storytelling can be an ally in dealing with customers. Based on a survey by the Internet Advertising Bureau, 90% of customers are more inclined to recommend a brand if it's socially engages them. If you tell the kind of story that captures the attention of your customers and engages them with your brand, then they're as good as sold.
Product First. Price Second
In Pawn Stars, haggling is a given. Both sides want to get the best deal and try to justify their asking price. In marketing, this is akin to identifying a unique selling point or proposition (USP) that supports the given price. Pawnshop owner, Rick Harrison sometimes argues, "Well, I still have to earn a profit from it," and it can work in his favor as it’s a fact, but from the customer’s point of view, it's all about you and money, when what they really want to hear is something about the product that they can weigh in and then stick a price tag to that.
It's the Customer's Good Deal
The dynamics of the deal means one or the other gains control over the deal-making. The winner is the one who makes the other pause and say, "All right. It's a deal." As the seller, you tend to want to be in control (since there's the word "profit" flashing in the back of your head). But even so, you must always think of what the customer wants. Ask yourself, “How can the customer enter your store, feeling that he will be getting the best deal of his life?” A good start is to ask the customer about their needs and work to give it. The customer who always gets a good deal is the one who will keep coming back for more.
Customers Are Your Spokespeople
To promote Pawn Stars, father and son team, Rick and Corey Harrison, went on tour as far as Asia in countries like Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines. They went out of their way to meet and greet fans and curious onlookers alike. By reaching out to the people, Pawn Stars was able to create word of mouth hype which quickly spread on the Internet. Suddenly, everybody was talking and blogging about how friendly and smart the Harrisons were, and then tune in to the History Channel to watch the show. “I’ve met them and they’re great,” they’d say, and the word spreads.
Show You Deserve Attention
Pawn Stars had this idea of telling tidbits of history around old items, but it’s still about a pawnshop business and the people who run it. In the show's introduction, Rick Harrison says something like, "You never know what's coming through that door," yet everyone expects him to know something about an item or he finds a way to find out. His customers rely on him to know his stuff. As a business person, you must also know your stuff. If you prove your worth, they will come.
Anecdote: When Rick Harrison was in the Philippines promoting the show's new season in 2013, he said the reason the show was so successful was because of Chumlee. The crowd cheered.
