A lesson from the Pawn Stars on how to reposition your brand

Businesses spend millions re-branding - employing expensive agencies to help define their brand values and convert them into messages and symbols that their customers will relate to. Some business, like Pizza Hut, even spend the cash on pretending to re-brand - starting a media stir by claiming they were about to change their name to Pasta Hut in order to promote their range of food.

Sometimes, branding even involves the creation of new categories of products that we didn't know we needed. Who honestly imagined they'd want an iPod in 2000? Thinking back, who wanted to walk past a travel agent, choosing to fly on a budget airline and book their own accommodation separately? And who would have thought that there would be a single, pervasive place that we we would all turn to if we wanted to find something quickly, relegating newspaper classifieds, yellow pages, directory enquiries and even local maps to sidelines?

If creating a brand requires a mortgage, creating a whole new category requires the equivalent of a national debt. It doesn't just require cash - you need market momentum, manoeuvring, luck and timing.

But sometimes people can re-invent established industries as new categories through subtly reframing what what the do in a different way.

I was reminded of this earlier today when I walked past a Pawn Shop in London.

Think of Pawn Shops and what comes to mind? Desperation, theft, sorrow, despair?

When did you last use one? In fact, when did you last see one?

They aren't exactly the mainstay of the high street in the 21st Century.

But, Cash for Gold traders are different.

They are everywhere - in shopping malls, bus stations, high streets, online, on shopping channels.

Essentially, they are a Pawn Shop with a few tweaks:

1. They're more accessible - high footfall areas
2. They focus on a niche - just gold
3. They make the process of doing business more simple and 'fun' - just weight your old necklace and we'll give you hard cash
4. They have taken advantage of market conditions - a recession and the notion of thrift

Have you ever walked past a 'Cash for Gold' stall and thought "Pawn Shop"?

If you are trying to rebrand your business, your products or yourself, how could you take these 'tweaks' and re-define your category?

You might just make all of those customers who usually walk straight past you stop and do business.