Aloha marketing

Rituals in your shop can turn a simple product into an experience that draws more people over. On my trip to the USA in 2011, I saw a pearl stall on Pier 39 in San Francisco doing exactly that.

The story and examples are from my trip in 2011.

Rituals in your shop: Why are they shouting aloha?

Pier 39 is that lovely place with the sea lions. There are a hell of a lot of stalls selling different things. But one had a real crowd around it.

I wondered a little, until I heard them shout: Aloha!

After hearing it two or three times, I got bloody curious. So did everyone else. People gathered around the stall.

It was a company with a Hawaiian theme. I think they were from Hawaii, but I don’t actually know. That’s not the crucial thing either. What’s interesting is what they’d built around the product.

Choose an oyster and find your own pearl

They had tanks of live oysters you could choose from. I don’t know exactly how they cultivated them. In the video, I offer an explanation about grains of sand and pearls, but also stress that I don’t know the process.

You paid around fourteen or fifteen dollars and chose an oyster yourself. As the idea was explained to me, you were guaranteed at least one pearl. Sometimes there were two, and in rare cases three.

You kept whatever was in the oyster. It was a real pearl, not a plastic thing. And around that simple product, the company had created a whole ritual.

I didn’t follow every step closely, because I wasn’t in the market for pearls myself. But there was something about tapping the oyster and making a wish. Then it was opened for the customer.

The moment the pearl appeared, the employees stopped. There were perhaps four or five people in the stall, and everyone shouted aloha really loudly.

It almost sounded as though half of San Francisco could hear it. People around the stall thought: What the hell is going on? I need to go and see.

There was a little magic in seeing a real oyster opened and finding a pearl inside. That’s a different experience from simply pointing at a product in a display case.

The experience creates an opportunity to upsell

Once the customer has their pearl, it can be set in jewellery. An earring, a necklace or something else.

I imagine many feel they’ve had a special experience with the ritual, employees and shouting. Then they want the pearl set in something they can use and keep.

From what I later read online, selling the extras was precisely where the company made its money. I haven’t seen its accounts. But I find the connection between the experience and upselling interesting. Also read Iværksætter til jeg dør about my experiences of developing a business.

You could probably get the pearl itself in other ways, perhaps more cheaply. Here, it isn’t only the product. It’s the experience of choosing, wishing and seeing it appear.

I’ve seen similar approaches in Las Vegas

It reminded me of a sports shop in Las Vegas. I’d experienced having to get up and sing karaoke to gain access to certain sale items there.

On a later visit, they played a particular tune roughly every half hour. Then the shop assistants started dancing on the counter.

Those are little events in the shop. Something that makes people stop, look and perhaps go inside.

Imagine it on the high street or at a market. Or if you have a stall at Roskilde Festival. Every time a particular thing happens, all the employees shout something together or perform another recognisable routine.

It can arouse curiosity in people who would otherwise just walk past.

A greeting can surprise the customer too

I’ve experienced something related at Sticks’n’Sushi. When you came through the door, the chefs shouted a greeting.

I can’t remember what they said, and I don’t know what the words meant. I joke that it could be something about Buddha, or eating here or taking the food home. That’s my silly guess, not a translation.

But you almost got a little bloody shock. You got something beyond what you’d expected, and in my experience it was a positive surprise.

It doesn’t have quite the same effect as the pearl stall. But it shows how a simple shared action by employees can become part of the experience.

Give people a reason to stop at your stand

Perhaps you have a market stall. Perhaps a shop or an exhibition stand. I haven’t thought all the way through how to translate it to an online shop, but perhaps the thinking could be used there too.

Try thinking differently from those who simply stand still and wait for customers. What could happen at your place that people would want to see?

It could be a ritual around your product or a little event employees perform together. Something that both gives the customer an experience and makes others curious.

Think about it. Perhaps it could draw people to your stand, stall or shop. Take care.