Trade Show Philosophy
Ron Graham
a good cross-section of points of view and I promise to
summarize for the benefit of all. :-)
The trade show season is coming up in my shop.
I've been to a few of these over the course of
my career; and I've never really given them any
thought before. But now I'm in a small company
in a growing market (a small fish in a big pond?),
and I get the impression that each show means
something to the boss just now.
On the other hand, there are beaucoup trade shows
he could go to, and he's chosen three: the "BIG one"
in November, one in France next week and one in
Italy in October. I started asking around about
how we go about choosing which shows to participate
in, and the boss's "number one" told me that apart
from the BIG one, they generally choose on the basis
of how much the company can afford.
I've been brought up to think, however, that the
company whose primary goal is to cut costs can do
it immediately -- by going out of business. :-)
That's why I think there are subtle reasons for
trade show participation that some people have
never put down on paper and aren't even sure of
themselves. Is that possible?
I think show participation is an exercise in rhetoric:
"what's the best way for me to get my products and
services to a targeted market segment?" I use the
term "best" even though I'm not sure what it means
in this context. What do you think it means? What
good (if any) are trade shows? What (if anything)
do you use them for? Have you had success? Why
or why not?
I am really looking forward to your answers on
this one. :-)
Dr. Ron Graham, founder of Usenet newsgroup sci.engr
the Engineer's Companion, http://www.tcnj.edu/~rgraham/
"The difficult we do immediately; the impossible takes
a little longer." -- a slogan of the US Navy Seabees
Spehro Pefhany
> I think show participation is an exercise in rhetoric:
> "what's the best way for me to get my products and
> services to a targeted market segment?" I use the
> term "best" even though I'm not sure what it means
> in this context. What do you think it means? What
> good (if any) are trade shows? What (if anything)
> do you use them for? Have you had success? Why
> or why not?
A few random thoughts:
The trade show should reflect the market you are addressing and your
ability to serve it. Should be obvious, but.. .
For example, exhibiting in a national trade show is the most efficient way
to reach a national market. Regional shows seem to have less
effectiveness, less decision-makers on the floor and so on.
A national exhibition in a place where you have no presence may help you
find a local distributor or agent, but probably end users will be
reluctant to deal with you.
For Europe, I think Interkama in Dusseldorf is by far the biggest
exhibition, but there won't be another for almost a year. Almost enough
time to plan for it. Like the "big one" in the US, and I think there is a
similar one in Japan.
I've found regional exhibitions to be of the most use where you have a
strong presence. Often of marginal cost-effectiveness otherwise. The
national exhibtions are more expensive to go to, but have proportionally
more effectveness. Unfortunately, it often seems to take a long time in
some cases to get a good position on the floor because priority is given
on a seniority basis to previous exhibitors.
One fairly good way to see if an exhibition is worthwhile is looking at
the exhibitor's list to see if your competition is all there. Occasionally
it's worth it being the only one in a given class exhibiting in an
peripherally related trade show, lateral thinking and all that.
In deciding whether to exhibit *again*, just look at the results from the
last time and the trends.
Is that the sort of rambling you were looking for?
Best regards,
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Steve Vickers
Would agree with the comments made by Spehro.
Adding to that a few extra points.
It can happen that the cost of a Trade Show Stand and manpower/time
inversted is high compared to the number of new contacts made at the time.
However other benifits should not be ignored. The trade magazines, often the
following month have a summary of the products/services at the show. Get the
attention of one of these and maybe more people will read about your company
latter than actually visit the stand.
Also simply being seen at a show keeps your company name in the spot light.
Marketing is not just advertising once but that you are seen often.
Trade shows also are useful to see what the compertion is doing and also
hearing direct what the market, potential customers, are really looking for.
Regards
Steve
Burke
the company and its competitors. For large companies, it's almost a
necessary defensive move. Back in the mid-80's one of the machine tool
builders (Cross?) made a big deal of not going to IMTS and instead, inviting
customers and prospects to their plant for a big shindig. They claimed it
worked, but didn't repeat the approach.
During the same period we were in the robotics business and decided not to
participate in our industry's major trade show - we were seen as a declining
company and people were reluctant to buy based upon the perception - it was
an accurate perception. Prior to that decision, we were still seen as a
major player.
Smaller companies, with the small outlier booths, seem very happy when they
staff their booths with energetic, enthusiastic, qualified, prepared staff.
I've been surprised at how pleased my smaller company clients are with the
success of these things, great opportunity to talk and listen to a lot of
people in a short period and to see what competitors are doing. I probably
can't overemphasize that the perception of success seems correlated to the
selection of staff.
There was an article in Harvard Business Review, mid-80's I think, that
addressed the issue, but the thrust of the article if I remember correctly
was to set objectives and plan to achieve them if you wanted a successful
trade show, either as observer or participant or both.
FWIW trade show work is a pain in the proverbial pitute.
Wins Burke
Walter Driedger
On the understanding that I haven't a clue what I'm talking about, I
have one comment --
I understand the that the biggest waste of marketing money is to
advertise in a market you aren't prepared to serve. Depending on your
product, this might suggest advertising close to home.
Walter.
Jack Daniel
You've gotten a lot of good advice and a few bad personal opinions so
far. As you see, anyone that's been to more than 3 trade shows is an
"expert" .... and I'm no exception to the rule. ;-)
I help plan 3 - 5 trade shows a year and attend another 6 - 8. The key
to having good trade show results is no different than effectively
running your business, you need a plan. That means know WHY you are
going. What the objectives are and how you are going to acheive those
objectives. An objective to introduce your COMPANY is a different plan
than that used to promote a new product, for example.
An important aspect of the plan is deciding what you will use as a
measurement of success and is that measurement realistic to expect from
the show you are attending.
The good news is there are a lot of REAL professionals in this business
and they offer very good advice. I suggest you visit
www.successmtgs.com (not be be confused with www.successmtg.com !)
then select 'archives' and search for 'guidelines'. You'll find all
kinds of info there, such as the articles titled "E(x)hibit for
excellence", "Insiders guide to international meetings", etc.
Several marketing sites have exhibit planning guides too.
It sounds like your boss is getting ready to spend enough money to
justify hiring a consultant for a couple of days to get this off on the
right foot. If he thinks he already knows all the answers, you probably
can't stop him from wasting his money anyway.
The old exhibitors slogan; There is no such thing as a bad exhibition
unless -I- let it happen.
Good Luck
Jack Daniel
================================================
Ron Graham
> You've gotten a lot of good advice and a few bad personal opinions so
> far. As you see, anyone that's been to more than 3 trade shows is an
> "expert" .... and I'm no exception to the rule. ;-)
I really need to have some idea which of the personal opinions I've
heard so far are "bad." What I've recorded in this thread not only
makes sense to me, but it's consistent (AFAIK) with all you've
written below. So what's the problem?
> An objective to introduce your COMPANY is a different plan
> than that used to promote a new product, for example.
Point taken. That difference might not only need a different
plan, it might need a different venue as well.
> www.successmtgs.com (not be be confused with www.successmtg.com !)
Noted.
> It sounds like your boss is getting ready to spend enough money to
> justify hiring a consultant for a couple of days to get this off on the
> right foot. If he thinks he already knows all the answers, you probably
> can't stop him from wasting his money anyway.
My limitation on how the boss spends his money is that he's
participated before in the three shows I referred to in the
original post; I haven't. It's too easy for him to say I'll
have to defer to his judgment. LOL
Spehro Pefhany
>> You've gotten a lot of good advice and a few bad personal opinions so
>> far. As you see, anyone that's been to more than 3 trade shows is an
>> "expert" .... and I'm no exception to the rule. ;-)
> I really need to have some idea which of the personal opinions I've
> heard so far are "bad." What I've recorded in this thread not only
> makes sense to me, but it's consistent (AFAIK) with all you've
> written below. So what's the problem?
I'd like to know this too, even if you disagreed with some of my points!
Material Guy
..... ) with the dates of the various trade shows identified?
Without a measure of success -- and without a definition of success --
arguments are guaranteed to be emotional, and you will lose the argument
of your emotions and feelings vs those of the boss.
Success may be your boss's ego gratification from having been seen in
exotic locations with a few days vacation taken as well.
Ron Graham wrote:
>
> Jack Daniel wrote:
>
> > You've gotten a lot of good advice and a few bad personal opinions so
> > far. As you see, anyone that's been to more than 3 trade shows is an
> > "expert" .... and I'm no exception to the rule. ;-)
>
> I really need to have some idea which of the personal opinions I've
> heard so far are "bad." What I've recorded in this thread not only
> makes sense to me, but it's consistent (AFAIK) with all you've
> written below. So what's the problem?
>
> > An objective to introduce your COMPANY is a different plan
> > than that used to promote a new product, for example.
>
> Point taken. That difference might not only need a different
> plan, it might need a different venue as well.
>
> > www.successmtgs.com (not be be confused with www.successmtg.com !)
>
> Noted.
>
> > It sounds like your boss is getting ready to spend enough money to
> > justify hiring a consultant for a couple of days to get this off on the
> > right foot. If he thinks he already knows all the answers, you probably
> > can't stop him from wasting his money anyway.
>
> My limitation on how the boss spends his money is that he's
> participated before in the three shows I referred to in the
> original post; I haven't. It's too easy for him to say I'll
> have to defer to his judgment. LOL
>
> Dr. Ron Graham, founder of Usenet newsgroup sci.engr
> the Engineer's Companion, http://www.tcnj.edu/~rgraham/
> "The difficult we do immediately; the impossible takes
> a little longer." -- a slogan of the US Navy Seabees
--
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