Rules of participating in an exhibition

Once the stall is booked and the agency is given a brief about the stall, its turn of internal preparation. In sectors like jewellery it is important to choose the right collection to exhibit and in the industrial or B2B exhibitions, if you have a lot of products, it is works to make one product a flagship product and emphasize on it while the other products too can be displayed  on the side. Although, it is highly advisable to have a limited set of products in the stall so theres no clutter of products in the limited space of the stall. Agencies like Fresh Lime  which come with creative capabilities also advise the customers about choosing the ideal way to display a product and the amount of products to display.It is also important to pick the standing staff for the exhibition and train them a little for the exhibition. Basic points like eye to eye contact, talk less, listen more, proper attire, etc. can go a long way towards enhancing your prospects in the exhibition. 

Exhibition selection principles

After zeroing in on the exhibition, comes the real part: Booking a stall & stall design. While booking a stall in an exhibition, there are a few important things one needs to keep in mind:

·         Study the floor plan. The floor plan of the exhibition usually gives a fair idea as to how the exhibition will progress on the ground. Certain exhibitions have a deliberately made flow in the exhibitions so all the stalls get similar coverage. However, that is  not universal practice. So, it is important to opt for the stalls near the centre or the entrance of the exhibitions as to attract first or most attention. In case of unavailability or financial restrictions, floor plan can give the guidance towards choosing the stall in optimum possible position.

• Consult the creative agency. Agency like fresh lime can help you choosing the best stall, but also relieve you off of stress of participating in an exhibition. Fresh lime comes in with not only sophisticated execution facilities which take care of eveything from designing a stall to building it on the ground, but also highly capable creative power to enhance your presence through better representation of your brand amidst the barrage of brands in the exhibitions

A to Z of participating in an Exhibition - 2

As discussed in part 1 of the series, once the objectives and expectations are clearly defined, the exhibition activity becomes highly effective.

After defining parameters, the next stage is to look for compatible exhibitions. In any product / industrial segment, there are multiple exhibitions happening over the year. The key is to find the right one.

The exhibition needs to be in sync with the brand stature and identity. It is highly possible that there can be many exhibitions, yet it will be imprudent to participate since they dont match the stature of the brand. It can be tested on various areas, such as venue of the exhibition, location of the exhibition, sponsors of the event, etc.

 If it is a niche brand, or placed on high position in the spectrum of brands offering similar product, it will be highly inadvisable to participating in an exhibition where there are no brands sharing the similar stature.

 The exhibition needs to be catering to the right target audience. For example, there are more than ten exhibitions of pharma industry yet all ten have different audience, as some exhibitions get more vendors, others get more people looking for business partners. Depending upon which segments we have been targetting, it is crucial to know the kind of audience the exhibition attracts.

Participating in an exhibition part 1

 

A to Z of participating in an Exhibition - 1

First step towards partcipating an exhibiton is home work. Clarity on the objective and direction are key requirements. Since exhibitions are platform that can be used for multiple objectives, one needs to be clear about the individual objectives first. For example, exhibition can serve as platform to find new customers or to get in touch with old ones. Much of these things are dependent upon present position of brand or business, direction planned, and immediate result expectations.

Objectives can be one or more of below:

Brand awareness.

Sales.

Consumer interface.

Research.

Support for distribution chain.

Once overall objective is worked out, then the position of brand on product life cycle curve comes in (newly launched, growth phase, established product, etc). Depending upon broader objectives & brand position, more specific question needs to be answered such as:

Who are our target audience?

Who are we trying to attract, new customers or existing customers?

Sales conversions or enquiries?

Once the objectives are clear, the entire exercise of participating in an exhibition becomes highly rewarding, as not only the objectives but expectations too are precisely defined.

Why Exhibitions

Why exhibitions

In today's world, when there are a million marketing activities to choose from, the question often arises: Why exhibitions?

The answers can be in so many words, but the core idea is simple: All other marketing activities remain 'intrusive marketing', i.e. marketing communication forced on the audience, through television or newspapers, whereas exhibitions remain the only 'permission marketing' i.e. those who visit come on their own, they choose to receive your communication about why he or she should buy your product.

Though they may seem like a huge investment, exhibitions remain the most cost effective way to reach the prospective consumer. In the times of escalating media cost and yet unproven effectiveness of digital media, exhibitions provide the rare and most significant opportunity: Face to face interaction with the target audience.

And because of the face to face interaction, leads generated at exhibitions take half as much efforts as leads generated by other conventional or even digital media. Most prominent exhibition boast of as much as 30% conversion ration on the leads generated at the event, which itself is significant. To top that, since the starting point of the transaction with consumer has been a face to face interaction, it takes much less effort to retain the consumer over longer period.

In high value products categories such as industrial products, jewellery or real estate, exhibitions create high quality leads that is often out of reach by conventional media. Exhibitions are also the best platforms to launch new products and catalogues at much lesser cost and provide much better awareness at much lesser cost. Also, there is extensive media converage of famous exhibitions which can become vehicle for much wider awareness and reach for the new product or catalogue launch. 

Selection criteria for Exhibitions

     

There are several types of exhibitions around the year & around the country,thus it is very important to select which one to partcipate in & which ones to give a miss.  

Today we bring to you selection criteria for Business to Business & Business to Customer exhibition selection critieria.

B2B

  Criteria for selection

     -Organiser

     -Edition of the show

     -Duration of the exhibition

-Basic requirement & security -> security to valuable

-Association supporting it.

- criteria of visitors

  March,April ->B2B exhibition  & less due of financial   year ending.

-Booking

B2C

è No. of people visiting exhibition

è  Organizer creditability

è  Area, venue

è Media plan of organiser

è Organiser CRM

Sales

Convention Centre

A convention center (American English, conference centre outside the USA) is a large building that is designed to hold a convention, where individuals and groups gather to promote and share common interests. Convention centers typically offer sufficient floor area to accommodate several thousand attendees. Very large venues, suitable for major trade shows, are sometimes known as exhibition centres. Convention centers typically have at least one auditorium and may also contain concert halls, lecture halls, meeting rooms, and conference rooms. Some large resort area hotels include a convention center.

   

    

Basic Of convention Center

è Conference room.

è Alloted Organizer Office.

è Board room.

è Dumping Ground –corrugated boxes.

·          Hongkong Exhibition centre has a facility where the vehicle carrying the stall can go up to  3 floor in the exhibition centre, there by reducing the time & amount of labour & time required to set up the stall.

·        Amenities for waste disposal. There are several corrugated boxes of 10x10 sizes weighing almost 75 kgs which are waste once the stall is unpacked, Stall creators have to find & make alternatives of disposing this waste as there is no such waste disposal facility available.

Here are some of the famous convention centres in India.

·        Pragati Maidan New Delhi

·        CII Convention centre, Chandigarh

·        BIEC Banglore

·        HITECH,Hyderabad

·        Chennai Trade Center, Chennai,

.        Mahatama Mandir, Gandhinagar,Gujarat.