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Trade Show 101
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No longer
just an excuse for a party, trade shows can be a powerful marketing
tool if done correctly.
By C. B. Adams
For years, trade shows were the ugly stepsister of marketing. Out
of a sense of obligation, many companies attended the same old industry
shows year in and year out. If a show was scheduled for a sexy location,
sales reps vied for a place in the booth. A less-than-sexy location
meant pawning the assignment off to the lowest person on the company
totem pole. At the show, company representatives expected to be
wined and dined, or to be the ones doing the wining and dining.
And, those manning the boothes handed out the ubiquitous pen set,
calendar, T-shirt or key chain while dropping business cards by
the hundreds in a fish bowl-only to dump them into the booth container
as they packed up and dashed to catch their flights home.
Company presidents, CFOs and sales managers may have turned a blind
eye to the results garnered at trade shows, but today's leaner and
more competitive organizations should develop a strategy for success
the same way they do for other branches of marketing, according
to Ted Twenter, general manager of Skyline Trade Show Marketing,
one of the world's largest such firms.
"The most savvy companies are bringing trade-show marketing full
circle. They start by setting objectives with definable results
and follow through with a program that allows them to manage leads
and measure their results. If you are asked to justify your attendance
to a show, wouldn't you want solid numbers and facts to back up
not only why you went, but perhaps your job as well?" he says.
According to Twenter, approximately 125 million people attended
4,600 trade shows in 2000, the most recent year statistics are available.
In 1999, approximately $67 billion were allotted to trade- show
marketing. Trade shows are the third largest segment in business-to-business
marketing. They can also be cost effective considering that approximately
$233 are invested to contact a qualified visitor on the trade show
floor, compared to $302 in estimated cost to make a field sales
call.
"There is an expected growth per year of about seven percent for
trade shows in terms of dollars spent and the number of people attending
trade shows. It is a growing industry, and its stature is growing
as an effective marketing avenue, too," he says.
In addition, 91 percent of trade-show visitors receive their most
useful buying information from trade shows and 41 percent of show
visitors are first-timers. And, thanks to voicemail, faxes, email
and video conferencing, 90 percent of company buyers have not been
face-to-face with their vendors in the past 12 months, according
to Twenter. These facts all add up to a potentially beneficial trade
show experience.
With so much in its favor, why is trade-show marketing, like Rodney
Dangerfield, getting no respect. The answer can be traced to another
statistic: nearly 80 percent of leads accumulated during trade shows
are not followed, according to the Center for Exhibition Industry
Research.
"Those who know what they are doing and have the background and
experience in trade-show marketing, know that it is a totally different
selling environment. But one thing is the same with other types
of marketing, a company needs to determine who their target audience
is at the show and what the goals are. Then follow up on all leads,"
says Clarence Moehl, national account executive of Mash Display
Group.
During the past several years, Mash has developed a six-page proprietary
questionnaire for its clients. The questionnaire is a proactive
way to help clients define their needs, identify what they hope
to accomplish at a trade show and begin to create a budget.
"There is a discipline, criterion and a format that we follow that
yields an efficiency of design and the ability to stay within a
budget. Our analysis of the questionnaire means the difference between
us designing a $300 table-top exhibit and a $300,000 to $750,000
two-story, knock-down booth," Moehl says.
Skyline suggests to its clients that they follow an eight-step process
of trade show best practices to help create a successful trade-show
marketing program:
1. Set objectives and measurable results.
2. Be mindful of show selection and make sure to attend only the
shows that best meet your target audience or market.
3. Budget properly. Be careful to include obvious costs, such as
trade-show space, but also hidden costs, such as pre-show advertising,
press kits or press conferences, plants, electrical, cleaning, rental
equipment and even security.
4. Objective-driven design. Meet the objective of the mission of
your exhibit. Keep in mind that someone on the show floor will give
your exhibit three to five seconds to convey who your company is,
what it does and why they should stop. The exhibit should also be
flexible enough to adapt to more than one size of booth space.
5. Promote before, during and after the trade show.
6. Carefully select exhibit staff and prepare them well.
7. Designate someone to be the dedicated lead manager.
8. Measure the results of the trade show based on your objectives.
"Just like the forms of marketing, trade-show marketing is ever-changing,"
Twenter says. "In the past, people thought of trade-show marketing
as voodoo marketing. Not so today. They see trade-show marketing
as a venue with a lot of potential. People are increasingly beginning
to measure their return on investment in order to realize that potential."
C. B. Adams is a St. Louis-based writer, communications consultant
and adjunct faculty member at University of Missouri-St. Louis.
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