Exhibition Through the Marketing Lens

Participation in specialized exhibitions is a very costly, but also effective if properly prepared, event.

Its effectiveness is determined by the complex impact on all key aspects of the company's marketing activities.

Traveling to participate in industry exhibitions is a common practice for organizations operating in the B2B segment, as well as for large companies focused on the end consumer. At least once a year, and sometimes more often, such enterprises attend central specialized exhibitions with their own exposition. In some cases, traveling to several exhibitions is advisable, and if a company is entering new geographical markets, then participation in foreign or international exhibition events is used as one of the basic channels for implementing marketing tasks.

As a result, the company incurs quite significant costs, which must be compensated by the effect obtained from participation. This is possible if the plan for participation in exhibitions, especially in cases with the placement of expositions, aims to solve a set of marketing tasks in the following areas.

Exhibition as a Tool for Product Work

1. Tracking market development trends and searching for growth points.

No matter how wonderful the stand organized by the company on the allocated area is, and no matter how large the flow of visitors through it is, it is necessary to spend a sufficient amount of time to walk around the entire exhibition complex and communicate with a wide range of stakeholders participating in the event. At large exhibitions, especially those with good international representation, even a newcomer can get a fairly complete picture of what the industry is about and where it is heading in the short and medium term.

2. Assessing customer perception of the company's product portfolio.

The feedback received in the course of current activities will never replace the live and often informal backstage communication at an exhibition. It is necessary to collect the widest possible range of opinions about the company and its products, including from the most demanding side – competitors. Correct and complete recording of opinions will allow adjusting the company's product policy upon returning home.

3. Identifying market needs for new products.

This task is solved both by inspecting competitors' expositions and by communicating with consumers. In this case, potential clients, for example, from markets adjacent to the company's traditional ones, are especially important. You can develop tactics for collecting information on new needs in advance or improvise during live communication. It is also extremely important for solving this task to participate in the exhibition's expert events – forums, round tables, etc.

4. Assessing competitors' product portfolios.

Handout materials at exhibitions are usually the most up-to-date in terms of presenting the product range to customers, which simplifies competitive intelligence tasks – the information is new and concentrated in one place. In addition, for key competitors' products, it is necessary to communicate with customers, as well as other market players – you can learn a lot of new things about the actual state of affairs.

5. Presentation of new own products and technological solutions.

If a company is launching a new product on the market, especially one that is innovative for it, then an exhibition is perhaps the best place and time to present it to everyone – customers, intermediaries, even government representatives if the company is focused on interaction with the state within its commercial activities.

Exhibition as a Tool for Price Work

1. Assessing the company's pricing policy through the eyes of market players.

As we know, price is often not the key factor in the purchase decision. But the client does not pay as much attention to anything else in conversations as to prices. Therefore, it is quite simple to conduct a hidden survey according to a pre-defined mechanism and understand expectations regarding the company's pricing policy in the near future and assess the importance of other aspects of interaction, for example, the form and procedure of payment for supplies. The information collected at the exhibition should form the basis of corrective actions in pricing policy following the event.

2. Analysis of market price levels by segments.

The wide representation of products at large exhibitions allows for an express assessment of its cost in various market niches and correlate the results obtained with one's own pricing policy. For such a task, as a rule, it is required to walk around the exhibition in the format of legend-based communication with competitors by a specially prepared person, or a direct private format of confidential information exchange.

3. Studying competitors' promotional activity.

At exhibitions, companies often come out with interesting offers, including targeted ones. Collecting and subsequent analysis of this information allows understanding the range of competitors' "margin" on product prices.

Promotion and Advertising at the Exhibition

1. Identifying the comprehensive perception of the company as a brand.

Assessing the company's brand in the eyes of the consumer is a rather complex and expensive procedure. It is usually conducted in the form of a survey and requires careful preparation from a methodological point of view, although the basic principles of brand assessment have remained unchanged for many years. In this aspect, an exhibition can solve two problems. Firstly, conducting preliminary information collection for developing a brand research program. Secondly, an express assessment of brand perception through a survey of the target audience – exhibition participants.

2. Positioning the company for market players within the exposition.

Perhaps the key task of the exhibition, where it all begins. Preparing an exposition with the correct emphasis, producing and installing an original stand, visualizing the company's products, and dozens of other local tasks must be solved so that the company confirms its status and improves its reputation in the eyes of a representative audience.

3. Conducting marketing activities.

This task is of particular importance for companies operating in the B2C segment, but this limitation is not strict and depends on the specifics of a particular market. At an exhibition, you can test hypotheses about the impact of certain activities on the audience or prepare special exhibition events that will have a marketing effect.

4. Distributing advertising materials.

One of the basic tasks, which is gradually losing its importance over the years with the development of electronic information transfer technologies. Nevertheless, most exhibition participants, at a minimum, prepare printed product catalogs and business cards. For key partners, a good intermediate option from the classic to version 4.0 is branded flash cards with handout materials. For B2C markets, advertising materials are extremely diverse, especially in the souvenir products and promo samples block.

5. Speeches and participation in discussions.

For high-status exhibitions, a rich business program is considered good form. A company that claims the audience's attention cannot ignore work on platforms, especially discussion ones. It is necessary to prepare for this format of work and be sure to bring status and professional speakers to the exhibition who can present information about the company correctly.

6. Meetings with federal / international and industry media.

For regional companies, reaching the federal level of interaction with the media is a non-trivial task. Large exhibitions provide an opportunity to gain a new circle of communication among opinion leaders in the industry, as well as media representatives. Even large federal companies need to constantly build competencies in the field of PR, reaching the international level of contacts.

7. Establishing GR contacts.

International and Russian exhibitions are attended by representatives of executive authorities at various levels. Particularly status events are attended by top officials, as well as heads of industry bodies, who are inaccessible to most companies in the course of current work. At the same time, in the corridors, you can meet a numerous army of less status but more motivated officials for contact. If GR is important for the company, then exhibitions represent a good place and time for building such connections.

In conclusion, it is impossible not to say about the main thing. The key goal of participation in an exhibition is to establish and develop relationships with business partners. Even with competitors, the format of exhibition communication allows reaching a different level of mutual understanding. In aggregate, all this guarantees the effective solution of marketing tasks and the achievement of commercial results.