Management for Professionals Klaus Solberg Søilen Exhibit Marketing and Trade Show Intelligence Successful Boothmanship and Booth Design Management for Professionals Forfurther volumes: http://www.springer.com/series/10101 ThiSisaFMBlankPage Klaus Solberg Søilen Exhibit Marketing and Trade Show Intelligence Successful Boothmanship and Booth Design KlausSolbergSøilen SchoolofBusinessandEngineering HalmstadUniversity Halmstad Sweden ISSN2192-8096 ISSN 2192-810X(electronic) ISBN978-3-642-36792-2 ISBN 978-3-642-36793-9(eBook) DOI10.1007/978-3-642-36793-9 SpringerHeidelbergNewYorkDordrechtLondon LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2013939355 #Springer-VerlagBerlinHeidelberg2013 Thisworkissubjecttocopyright.AllrightsarereservedbythePublisher,whetherthewholeorpartof the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation,broadcasting,reproductiononmicrofilmsorinanyotherphysicalway,andtransmissionor informationstorageandretrieval,electronicadaptation,computersoftware,orbysimilarordissimilar methodologynowknownorhereafterdeveloped.Exemptedfromthislegalreservationarebriefexcerpts inconnectionwithreviewsorscholarlyanalysisormaterialsuppliedspecificallyforthepurposeofbeing enteredandexecutedonacomputersystem,forexclusiveusebythepurchaserofthework.Duplication ofthispublicationorpartsthereofispermittedonlyundertheprovisionsoftheCopyrightLawofthe Publisher’s location, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer.PermissionsforusemaybeobtainedthroughRightsLinkattheCopyrightClearanceCenter. ViolationsareliabletoprosecutionundertherespectiveCopyrightLaw. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publicationdoesnotimply,evenintheabsenceofaspecificstatement,thatsuchnamesareexempt fromtherelevantprotectivelawsandregulationsandthereforefreeforgeneraluse. While the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication,neithertheauthorsnortheeditorsnorthepublishercanacceptanylegalresponsibilityfor anyerrorsoromissionsthatmaybemade.Thepublishermakesnowarranty,expressorimplied,with respecttothematerialcontainedherein. Printedonacid-freepaper SpringerispartofSpringerScienceþBusinessMedia(www.springer.com) Dedicated to: Leipzig Old city of trade shows and University of Leipzig Alma Mater ThiSisaFMBlankPage Preface This book is about trade shows, which is a function studied under the heading of exhibitionmarketing.Somereadersmaywonderaboutthetitle“tradeshowintelli- gence”. That is an aspect of exhibition marketing which focuses on information gatheringand analysis. It is a consequence, we might say, of the Information Age andtherealizationthattradeshows,tobetrulyeffectiveandprofitabletoday,need totakefulladvantageoftheinformationopportunitywhichatradeshowis. Tradeshowshavebecomeincreasinglysophisticatedandcomplexjustoverthe past 20 years. That itself has resulted in part from advances in the study of marketing, which has given company managers many more choices. People who attendtheseoccasionstodayhavemuchhigherexpectationsfortheexhibitionand the behaviour and performance of exhibitors than they had only a few years ago. That in turn has created a demand for more education in this field. Students and budding professionals need a thorough understanding of the different roles and functionsofatradeshow;thedaysofjustshowingupanddoingone’sbestareover. Theaimofthisbookistwofold:tosurveytheresearchliteratureinthefield,and toshowhowsuccessfulboothmanshipandboothdesignisachievedattradeshows. The book is not written from any individual national perspective, but sets out to addressatrulyinternationalaudience.Thishasmeantdrawingonculturalelements andcitingexamplesfromtradeshowsallroundtheworld. To date, trade shows have been neglected in the literature of marketing. Philip Kotler,forinstance,devotesonlyafewparagraphstothetopicinhisPrinciplesof Marketing. At the same time, these events continue to prove themselves to be a highly significant function within the marketing profession, indeed one of its leadingactivities.Thatisreflectedinthefiguresforspendingontradeshows. Statisticsfor2010showthattherearenowmorethan30,000exhibitionswitha size of over 500 m2 annually, attended by 2.8 million companies and 260 million visitors.1 1SeeUFI,2011ExhibitionIndustryStatistics,p.14.TheUFIorganization,basedinParis,isthe largestinterestorganizationfortradeshows;theacronymoriginallystoodforUniondesFoires vii viii Preface Theprojectofwritingthisbookhasstemmedfromtheexperienceoftakingpart in a number of different international trade shows with dozens of companies for overadecadenow,initiallywithsmallerITcompaniesandwithSwedishfurniture manufacturers. The aim has been to write a university textbook for students who plan to specializeinthefieldofeventmarketingandmoreparticularlyexhibitionmarket- ing, while at the same time producing a book that might be of interest to practi- tioners.Assuch,itisverymuchado’s-and-don’tsbook,butnotlikethebulkofthe existing literature: for instance, it does not contain as many checklists as other books on this topic tend to include. Checklists are unavoidable in the practical activityofexhibitionmarketing,buttheyarenotanecessaryelementofmarketing theory.Also,thisbookdoesnotgodowntothesamelevelofdetailasmanyother books;forinstance,itwillnottellyouwhatvoltagetouseindifferentcountries,or how to fill in the registration form for a particular show. Rather, it offers you different ways of organizing your exhibit or booth, and it outlines the particular sales behaviour and managerial challenges required to make trade shows both efficient and successful. To help the reader in the task of learning exhibition marketing, all keywords important for a thorough understanding of the theory are giveninitalics.Thusyoucancheckyourknowledgebyseeingwhatyouareableto remember and explain. This is also done in order to help employees in company trainingsessions,andteachersinfindinggoodexamquestions. Manypeopleimaginethatsellingatexhibitionsisjustlikesellingathome;that theskillsandrequirementsaremoreorlessthesame.Oneoftheaimsofthisbookis toshowthatpeoplewhothinklikethataremistaken. The book adopts the exhibitor’s perspective. The emphasis is on exhibition behaviour.Exhibitorsoftenoverlookthefactthatexhibitionsgivethemtheoppor- tunity not only to distribute information, but also to gather information from customers, from their competitors, and from stakeholders. Exhibition behaviour draws on the study of market psychology, the psychology of marketing, and behavioural economics. All of these subjects are explored here as we set out to presentthetradeshowineachofitsaspects. Oneprobleminwritingabookontradeshowsisthatlittleresearchisavailable, eventhoughthereareplentyofbooksoneventmarketinginparticular,andthings haveimprovedoverthepastdecade.Alargemajorityofexistingstudieshavebeen carriedoutbytradeassociationsandinterestgroups;fewerbyacademics.Mostof thebooksavailablearewrittenbyconsultants,whooftencarrytheirownpersonal viewsoverintotheconclusionsinthehopeoffosteringbusinessopportunities.That isonlytobeexpected;itisunderstandableenough. Internationales.ItisnowtheGlobalAssociationoftheExhibitionIndustry,buttheoldacronymis stillused.ThesecondlargestinterestorganizationistheSocietyofIndependentShowOrganizers (SISO)intheUSA,withabout2,700events,accordingtoitshomepage.InLatinAmericathereis AFIDA,andinSouthernAfricaEXSA. Preface ix I first became acquainted with trade shows when I worked as an auditor with KPMG at the Norway Trade Fair in Oslo in 1996. Since then I have had the opportunityofattendinganumberofthelargestexhibitionsaroundtheworldasa consultant,workingformorethantwodozencompanies,mostlyinEuropeandthe USA. This took me to events such as the International Furniture Fair of Milan (Salone Internazionale del Mobile), the world’s largest interior-decoration trade fair, and the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) at Las Vegas, one of the world’s largesttechnology-relatedtradeshows.Muchofthecontentforthisbookbeganas notesImadeinordertohelpthosecompaniesunderstandhowtogetthemostoutof the trade shows we attended, either as exhibitors or as visitors. At the same time, Ihaveverymuchremainedanacademicwithakeeninterestinmarketingandlater also in intelligence studies. I hope the book will appeal to both practitioners and academicsalike. I would like to express my thanks to the staff members of all the various companiesIhavetravelledwithovertheyears.Theyaretoomanytobementioned individuallyhere,butsomeoftheirnameswillcropupinthebook.Specialthanks areduetoProf.PerOdenrickoftheUniversityofLund,GeorgGa¨rdhofTra¨riket, LarsE.Thon,ChiefSystemArchitectatAelurosInc.,TheKnowledgeFoundation, PerJensterChairmanofNIMI,PaulWoodwardManagingDirectorofUFI,Annette Fink of AUMA, Gordon Nary and Jim Wurm at E2MA, Richard Liden of KarskronaMunicipality,UNIVA inLund,Charles M.OrgishofStanford Univer- sityandtoPrashanthMahagaonkarandBarbaraBethkeatSpringer. CompletedinBlumenauandPortoBelo,Brazil Halmstad,Sweden KlausSolbergSøilen January2013