Large Business Exhibitions

There are many companies that invest their marketing budgets in attendance at large business exhibitions. Some will sell their products directly to consumers at these shows. Others prefer to show their wares to potential customers without direct sales. Many times this has to do with the type of businesses attending. If a company sells to distributors, they often attend shows for large buyers. Those companies that sell retail are generally trying to break into a new market. Allowing people to buy direct during shows is a way to see if an area is ready for their products.

Exhibition halls are large and tend to be noisy while the hall is open. Vendors use callers and promo girls to attract people to their booths and displays. Potential customers walking among the booths chat with each other and often call to friends and associates they see at a distance. An open exhibition is a place of movement, noise and chaos.

Over the years, many companies have used a variety of marketing techniques to get a larger market share. The current trend is to use experiential marketing to tie the customer to a product emotionally. Matching a patriotic or popular song with a product is one of the easiest ways to evoke emotions. This makes the exhibition hall even noisier than usual. For a few years, showing video clips was a good way to tie a product to an emotional experience. That particular technique has been restricted in some halls over the last few years.

Few halls have definitive restrictions on how vendors market their product. The most important rule enforced by exhibition staff is keeping within a booth's parameters and allowing traffic to move freely. For a short time, some vendors used video at the edge of their booth space to attract potential customers. This worked well for many, but their neighbours often complained because traffic would stop. Videos are now mostly restricted to inner areas of booths for this reason.