Assess the market
The objective of this paper is to stimulate your thinking on how you might more fully exploit the less obvious business opportunities (compared with promotion and sales), that trade shows offer.
THE TRADE SHOW AS CAPITALIST RESEARCH TOOL
Collect ideas for improving your own booth
Identify potential reps, licensees, joint venture partners, suppliers
Keep up with the latest technology
Although you may certainly accomplish all of the above
research activities at a single trade show, you will probably
have a primary objective in mind. We cover each of these individually.
If you're planning on entering a new market, particularly a new
international market, there is no better way to get the "lay
of the land" than by walking a trade show in the industry.
Here in the United States, we seem to have a trade show for everything.
Understanding who the major players are, how business is (or isn't)
conducted in a specific country ... or at a specific trade fair
... could save you immeasurable amounts of wasted time and money.
As a hypothetical example, let's say you're a European manufacturer
of a specific type of building construction/maintenance material
that is frequently specified throughout most of Western Europe,
but is apparently not used much in the United States. You've done
some preliminary research, and have found that there are a few
small domestic suppliers, but no major competitor in the market.
You also believe that your water-based material poses no serious
environmental threat.
It's early January, and you know that the annual Plant Maintenance
Show takes place in Chicago during early spring. Perfect timing.
Not only do you make arrangements to attend the show, you have
the time to map out a strategy for entering the U.S. market, should
that prove feasible. This includes talking with the EPA or people
knowledgeable about the relevant environmental regulations, finding
out what distribution channels are typically used and determining
whether using independent sales representatives or selling direct
is most practical, assessing the trade show itself as an effective
marketing medium (to evaluate whether you should have a presence
there next year), who the competitors and suppliers of substitute
materials are and how they market, standard pricing practices
in the industry, which trade journals are the most targeted, and
maybe even identifying some possible manufacturers representative
agencies.
All this and the opportunity to attend a seminar or two, meet
people in your industry, and accumulate other important information
in the space of about 3 days -- you could hardly find a better
return on your market research investment.
Another idea: when time to attend or funds are limited, you might try persuading your trade association to sponsor this type of research and thus share the cost among several members.
Collect ideas for improving your own booth
Focusing solely on the trade shows in your own industry will generally
produce oh hum ideas or worse, stimulates you to copy your competitors'
approaches, pegging you as a "me too" vendor. If you're
a software producer, try attending a sporting goods show or a
lawn and garden show. Your best ideas likely will come from trade
shows entirely out of your industry, just because not many people
venture out of their own industry very often. In management practices,
however, this is called bench marking, i.e. finding the best of
the best and adapting the ideas or processes to your own situation.
What are some of these new ideas you might capture? A clever give-away,
a creative way to add motion, color, texture or sound to your
booth (all proven methods of drawing visitors into your space),and
the all-important what not to do (eating, sitting, reading
the newspaper)
This is not to say, however, that you should avoid walking your
own show or keeping tabs on your competition. Au contraire. Just
don't be lulled into thinking there's nothing new under the sun.
There may not be in your own back yard, but in the next town?
Who knows?
Identify potential reps, licensees, joint venture partners, suppliers
Here, both exhibitors AND attendees are prospective "bedfellows."
A good rule of thumb is that the aggressive ones are out there,
meeting people, giving talks, involved in committee work.
Scout your competition
A new practice has crept into some types of trade shows the past
several years, particularly among the computer hardware and software
shows. Major (often the top) players in their markets, such as
Microsoft and Apple, choose to stay away from shows they traditionally
supported in favor of hosting their own shows, with several selected,
non-competitive partners. So, keep in mind that although a major
competitor may be conspicuous by its absence, it's the smaller
player's absence or reduced presence that may signal trouble for
them, and opportunity for you.
Keep up with the latest technology
Trade shows are exciting events ... captive audience; the media
hungry to cover new product unveilings; hands-on demonstrations;
ability to compare competing offerings just a few steps (or miles,
if it's a mega show) away.
Conduct informal surveys
Suppose you have an idea for ... What better place to research
than eye-to-eye with hundreds, perhaps thousands of "experts"
attending, exhibiting and presenting seminars?
Start by asking show management about the industries represented
by the expected attendees. They will probably be able to provide
you with a breakdown of last year's attendees, by percent. Don't
expect them to provide you with a mailing list, though.
Next, prepare a list of companies within the industry segments
you are interested in surveying.
Look for a new job
If you're ready to expand your horizons, trade shows are a good
place to look, but not to sell. Look, because
you can tell a lot about a company by the way the company presents
its public face compared with others in its industry and the attitude
at atmosphere of its front-line people. Get as much information
as you can about the company without taking too much time of the
booth personnel. They're there to sell. Get the name and title
of the appropriate person to contact after the show. Your cover
letter should include the fact that you visited their booth and
found the company's message compelling.
Don't sell, because the decision-makers are not likely to be attending
to the booth. Even if they are in the booth, they, like the marketing
and sales folks, are there to sell, not to buy. Since you only
get once chance to make a good first impression, don't blow it
by disturbing their main interest, which is to meet and greet
their own prospects.
We hope this stimulates your thinking about the business information treasures that trade shows offer. They are a practical supplement to your electronic and traditional field research efforts.