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Road Show Marketing

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On the Road (Exhibitor Magazine)

Trade Shows on the RoadA sour economy has taken its toll on many facets of marketing including trade shows, a key promotional method used mostly in business-to-business marketing.  Overall trade shows have seen significant declines in buyer attendance as well as vendor participation. Yet for many companies trade shows are their primary promotional tool, particularly for companies whose products must be experienced in-person.

To deal with this decline, several companies have created their own mobile trade show or "road show."  As this story points out, for some companies these road shows have the added benefit of allowing the company to display far more product than they may be able to display at a trade show where booth space is often quite expensive.  Also, the mobile nature of these exhibits allows companies to set up shop right at a customer's location.

ABB promoted the road-show tour well ahead of its arrival in each destination along the route. Beginning three to four months before the mobile trailer was scheduled to show up at a given company, ABB’s sales reps communicated three to six times by e-mail and phone with key influencers at each company. When the tour arrived at one of its stops, two to four area sales reps were present to help prep and staff the exhibit.

Can this type promotional method be sustained or is it merely a fad?

Comments  

 
#2 Jay 2009-11-30 05:33
ABB's use of the mobile show shows initiative and innovation. The advantage is two-fold. One, the customer is only seeing ABB's products and two, as stated, the show is less expensive and guarantees a willing customer. The customer has an advantage in that T&L will not be required to attend the show and therefore, more personnel could see the show. The disadvantage is that only one customer is served. Many shows will be required. Overall, I think the idea is definitely worth the effort and will force competitors such as GE and others to react.
 
 
#1 Therran 2009-11-29 08:58
This type of promotion has to be more costly, as trade show value is often realized by reaching large amounts of target company's and their influencers in one place. While the cost of booth space at a tradeshow can be prohibitive, a traveling road show has to be even more difficult to finance. The benefit would have to far outweigh the cost, in the form of a high order rate from the shows.
 

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