Business-to-Business Marketing by Ross Brennan & Louise E Canning & Raymond McDowell

Author:Ross Brennan & Louise E Canning & Raymond McDowell
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9781473904859
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Published: 2014-04-22T16:00:00+00:00

Table 7.1 Key exhibition and convention centres around the world

Source: AUMA, 2013.

Table 7.2 The largest trade fairs worldwide (based on exhibitor numbers for 2012)

Source: AUMA, 2013.

Functions performed by trade shows

Tasks that can be performed by trade-show participation are typically divided between those which are sales related and others that are not linked to the selling process. Non-selling functions include building or maintaining company image, gathering competitor information, product testing/evaluation, and maintaining company morale (Bonoma, 1983). Non-sales tasks are cited by companies as reasons for participating in trade shows, but sales-related functions are nevertheless the principal motivation for investment in these promotional events (Blythe, 1997). The key sales-related functions that can be performed by trade-show participation include: the identification of prospects; gaining access to key decision-makers in current and potential customer companies; disseminating facts about vendor products, services and personnel; actually selling products/winning orders; and servicing current accounts’ problems via contacts made (Bonoma, 1983).

Money well spent?

As can be seen from Figure 7.4, trade shows are useful in the early stages of the purchase decision process and in identifying and qualifying prospective new customers. However, as customers progress to evaluating potential suppliers and reaching final purchase decisions, and the sales process moves to presenting the sales message, closing a sale and even servicing an established account, then the trade show is less valuable compared to personal selling.

As a communications tool, trade shows are important to companies operating in business markets not only in terms of the potential to contribute to a firm’s communication activities but also because of the money invested in these events. Leaving personal selling aside, trade shows are one of the most significant expenditure items for many firms, accounting for anything between 5 and 35 per cent of advertising spend and between 5 and 20 per cent of total marketing budgets (Bonoma, 1983). And that is without taking account of the time taken up by involving sales teams and senior management in the events. There has been growing scrutiny in recent years of the return on monies invested in trade shows, yet this promotional tool continues to play a major role in communications activities, and perhaps with good reason. Even if funds allocated to trade shows and exhibitions are considerable, it has long been argued that, compared to personal selling, these promotional events offer significant savings. For example, the cost of the entire sales-cycle can be reduced four-fold if the transaction is triggered by a supplier’s participation in a trade show (Browning and Adams, 1988; Hart, 1988).

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.