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Exhibitions

Importance of exhibitions

Exhibitions are popular throughout the world and have a long history, originating with old trading markets such as the 'marts' in what are today
Belgium and the Netherlands, where British merchants sold their wool and woollens in the fourteenth century. The exhibition developed into the show attended by either the trade or the general public. London for many years became a major exhibition centre, to mention only the Great Exhibition of
1851, the Wembley Exhibition of 1924, and the Festival of Britain in 1951.
In recent years the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham has rivalled
London although many events are held at Olympia, Earls Court, the
Horticultural Halls and the Barbican Centre in the City.
Throughout the world there are major exhibition centres, often government supported (unlike Britain!), the chief ones in Europe being Frankfurt,
Basle and Milan. Many exhibitions are nowadays held in the Gulf states, an indication of the need to develop their emergent economies. Permanent trade exhibition centres exist in developing countries such as Malaysia and
Nigeria.

Types of exhibition

1. Public indoor
Usually held in specially built halls, the public show is based on a theme of public interest such as food, the home, do-it-yourself, gardening or holidays and travel.
2. Trade or business indoor
A more specialised type of exhibition, this will probably have a smaller attendance consisting of bona fide visitors who are invited, given tickets in their trade journal or admitted on presentation of their business card.
3. Private indoor
These are usually confined to one sponsor, but occasionally consist of a few sponsors with associated but not rival interests Venues are usually hotels, local halls, libraries, building centres or company premises if suitable.
4. Outdoor
Certain subjects lend themselves to outdoor exhibitions, for instance aviation, farm equipment (at agricultural shows) camping and large construction equipment. Exhibition stand may also be available at outdoor or tented events like flower shows and horse shows. In hotter countries exhibitions normally held indoors in the northern hemisphere will be held out-of-doors.
5. Travelling
Mobile exhibitions can be transported by caravan, specially built exhibition vehicles, converted double-decker buses, trains aircraft and ships. British Rail has its special Ambassador exhibition train which can be used by a single client and taken to a choice of railway stations throughout the country where visitors can be received. It can also be taken to European countries Mobile van shows are common in developing countries, travelling from town to town and village to village.
6. In-store
These are popular with foreign sponsors who organise weeks in different towns to display foods, wines, fabrics, pottery, glassware or tourist attractions. The displays are usually in appropriate stores, but a special entertainment evening may be organised for the public in a theatre or hall, when singers, dancers and/or films may constitute the programme.
7. Permanent exhibitions
Some large organisations may hold exhibitions within their premises or in special halls or parks. A particularly attractive one is Legoland, a children's park at Billund, Denmark, which demonstrates Lego toys.
The following are well worth visiting, combining as they do well mounted exhibits with video shows:
The Thames Barrier Exhibition, near Woolwich. The Mary Rose Exhibition,
Portsmouth Dockyard. The Eurotunnel Exhibition, Folkestone.
8. Conferences
In association with annual conferences there is often an exhibition supported by suppliers which delegates may visit between and after conference sessions. Some of them are quite small, perhaps arranged in an ante-room or in the foyer of the hotel, but others are as big as the conference itself. The larger exhibitions are usually held at venues like
Brighton or Harrogate where there are combined conference and exhibition facilities.

Characteristics of exhibitions

Exhibitions are unlike any other forms of advertising and can include selling direct off-the-stand to visitors. The special characteristics of exhibitions are summarised in 16-21.
The chief value of an exhibition is that it draws attention to it subject and so attracts people, often from great distances. Thus the exhibitor has the opportunity of meeting people he would never meet nor have time to contact. The message of the exhibition, and often that of individual exhibitors, spreads far beyond the even itself, and coverage is possible throughout the appropriate media at home and abroad.
An exhibition requires a lot of time for its preparation, and for manning the stand. It is essential that the stand is manned by knowledgeable people capable of answering visitors' questions.
Exhibitions provide opportunities to display prototypes of new products, and to receive visitors' comments and criticisms.
Confidence, credibility and goodwill can be established by meeting potential customers face-to-face. This applies to both distributors and consumers.
There are ideal opportunities actually to show the product which is more authentic than describing and illustrating it in advertisements, catalogues and sales literature. Similarly, sampling provides a good sales promotion opportunity.
The atmosphere of an exhibition is very congenial, even though a long visit may be hard on the feet. For many people it is an outing to be enjoyed and there is an atmosphere of entertainment like going to the circus or the theatre.

Using exhibitions

There are many trade papers which give forward dates of exhibitions, the most complete details appearing in Exhibition Bulletin. Other publications which announce some exhibition details are British Rate and Data,
Conferences and Exhibitions International and Sales and Marketing
Management.
The following points should be borne in mind before booking space in an exhibition,
(a) Organisers. Is the event organised by a responsible firm? Are they members of the Association of Exhibition Organisers? Have they run this or other shows before?
(b) Date. What is the date, is it convenient and does it clash with any other event?
(c) Venue. Is it a good venue, that is one likely to attract a good attendance? Is it a convenient one for transporting exhibits to and from?
Some foreign venues may impose transportation and customs problems. Does it have good transport links? Is there adequate car-parking? Are there nearby hotels?
(d) Cost of sites. What is the charge per square metre and are, perhaps, modestly priced shell schemes available?
(e) Facilities. Are all the necessary facilities available such as water, gas or electricity, if they are required?
(f) Publicity. How will visitors be attracted?
(g) Build-up and knock-down. Is there adequate time allowed before and after the show for erection and dismantling of stands?
(h) Public relations. What press office and press visit facilities will there be?
This is an aspect of exhibitions which is overlooked by many exhibitors. It pays to co-operate with the exhibition press officer months before the event. Valuable press, radio and television coverage can be gained from exhibitions, and this is a valuable bonus. Hundreds of journalists visit shows, looking for good stories and pictures. They do not carry suitcases and will shun clumsy press kits packed with irrelevant material.
(i) Associated events. Are there any associated events like a conference or film/video shows?
(j) Is it justified? Is the cost of designing and constructing a stand, renting space, printing sales literature, providing hospitality (especially at a trade show) and taking staff away from their regular work justified?
Has the company something new to show, does it need to meet distributors and/or customers, must it compete with rival exhibitors? What value may be anticipated for the money spent—in goodwill or sales, including perhaps the finding and appointing of new agents or distributors?
In his very useful book, Exhibitions and Conferences from A to Z, (Modina
Press, 1989) Sam Black makes the following comment:
'Exhibitions are visited by people expecting to see actual objects.
Photographs, diagrams and illustrations play an important part in conveying technical or general information but they should be subsidiary to the three- dimensional exhibits. People will read quite detailed explanatory copy on an exhibition stand if it explains an exhibit which has attracted their curiosity, but isolated panels of text will rarely be read.'

Sponsorship

Sponsorship consists of giving monetary or other support to a beneficiary in order to make it financially viable, sometimes for altruistic reasons, but usually to gain some advertising, public relations or marketing advantage.
The beneficiary could be an organisation or individual. While some sponsors may simply wish to be philanthropic, this is seldom so today when the object is more often deliberately commercial.
At present, the bulk of sponsorship money is spent on sport, and while this support is given mainly to the major sports of motor-racing, horse-racing, football, cricket, tennis, golf, a number of other sports have become popular through sponsorship and television coverage, to mention only bowls, snooker, and darts. For example, Canon were the origional sponsors of the football League and at the end of their three - year sponsorship, costing f
3mln they were able to boast that there was hardly an office in Britain which didn't have a Canon machine. The strength of this sponsorship was that British football is played of many months of the year by 92 teams, this producing constant media coverage.
What can be sponsored? a) Books and other publications such as maps. b) Exhibitions which may be sponsored by trade associations and professional societies. c) Education, in the form of grants, bursaries and fellowships. d) Expeditions, explorations, mountaineering, round-the-world voyages and other adventures. e) Sport. f) The arts such as music, painting, literature and the theatre. g) Charities, especially by helping them to promote their activities.
The aim of a sponsorship is to gain results associated with the advertising, public relations or marketing strategy.
Advertising objectives: a) When media advertising a banned. The product may be banned by certain media, e.g. cigarettes cannot be advertised on British TV, although this may not apply in other countries. Cigarette manufactures have succeeded in gaining considerable TV programme coverage by sponsoring cricket, golf and motor-racing. b) In association with sponsorship, arena advertising in the form of boards and bunting can be displayed at racecourses, sports stadiums, motor-racing circuits and other venues so that they are inevitably picked up by the TV cameras covering the event, apart from being seen by spectators on the spot.
Public relations objective:
Public relations objectives do not seek to advertise in order to persuade and sell, but aim to develop knowledge and understanding of the organisation. An important public relations objective may be to create goodwill towards the company, locally, nationally or internationally. A large corporation, making big profits, may adopt a social conscience by donating funds or gifts to society. It might give financial aid to a library, college, theatre, hospital or medical research fund. When a foreign company enters export markets, where it may be unknown or greeted with prejudice or suspicion, sponsorship can help create a friendly attitude without which it would be impossible to sell.
Very popular is the presenting the awards to journalists for their skill and knowledge when writing about the sponsor's subject or industry. At to marketing objectives sponsorship helps to position a product, to support dealers, to establish a change in marketing policy, to launch a new product, to establish the product in international markets.

Types of stores

Retailers can be classified by the length and breadth of their product assortment. Among the most important types are specialty stores, department stores, supermarkets, convenience stores and superstores.
A specialty store carries a narrow product line with a deep assortment within that line. Examples include stores selling sporting goods, furniture, books, electronics, flowers or toys. Today, specialty stores are flourishing for several reasons. The increasing use of market segmentation, market targeting, and product specialization has resulted in a greater need for stores that focus on specific products and segments. And because of changing consumer life styles and the increasing number of 2-income households, many consumers have greater incomes but less time to spend shopping. They are attracted to specialty stores which provide high quality products, nearly locations, good store hours, excellent service and quick entry and exit. The shopping centre boom has also contributed to the recent growth of specialty stores, which occupy 60 to 70% of the total shopping centre space.
A department store carries a wide variety of product lines-typically clothing, home furnishing, and household goods. Each line is operated as a separate department. The first department stores appeared and grew rapidly through the first half of the century. But after World War II, they began to lose ground to a growing list of other types of retailers, including discount stores, specialty stores, and *off-price* retailers.
Department stores are today waging a *comeback war*. Most have opened suburban stores, and many have added "bargain basements" to meet the discount threat still others have remodelled their stores or set up
"boutiques" that compete with specialty stores. Many are trying mail order and telephone selling.
Supermarkets are large, low-cost, low-margin, high-volume, self-service stores that carry a wide variety of food, laundry, and household products.
Most US supermarkets are owned by supermarket chains like Safeway, Kroger,
A&P, Winn-Dixie & fewel. Chains account for almost 70% of all supermarket sales. Most supermarkets today are facing slow sales growth because of proliferation of stores, slower population growth, & the appearance of innovative competitors such as convenience stores, discount food stores & superstores. They have also been hit hard by the rapid growth of out-of- home eating. Thus, supermarkets are looking for new ways to build their sales. They practice "scrambled merchandising", carrying many non-food items-beauty aids, toys, house wares, prescriptions, appliances, videocassettes, sporting goods, garden supplies - hoping to find high - margin lines to improve profits. Many supermarkets are moving "upscale" with the market. Retailers are adding such amenities as full-service seafood departments, "from scratch" bakeries, gourmet prepared foods & in store restaurants complete with bars, jazz pianists, & wine stewards.
Finally, to attract more customers, large supermarket chains are starting to customize their stores for individual neighbourhoods. They are tailoring store size, product assortment, prices & promotions to the economic & ethnic needs of local markets.
Convenience stores are small store that carry a limited line of high- turnover convenience goods. Examples include 7-Eleven, Circle K, & Open
Pantry. These stores locate near residential areas & remain open long hours
& seven days a week. Convenience stores charge high prices to make up for higher operating costs & lower sales volume. But they satisfy an important consumer need. Consumers use convenience stores for "fill-in" purchases at off hours or when time is short, & they are willing to pay for the convenience.
Superstores are almost twice the size of regular supermarkets & carry a large assortment of routinely purchased food & non-food items. They offer such services as laundry, dry cleaning, shoe-repair, check cashing, bill paying & lunch counters. Because of their wide assortment, superstore prices are 5 to 6% higher than those of conventional supermarkets. Many leading chains are moving towards superstores.
Hypermarkets are in size up to about 6 football fields. The hypermarket combines supermarket, discount & warehouse retailing. It carries more than routinely purchased goods, also selling furniture, appliances, clothing, & many other things. The hypermarket offers discount prices & operates like a warehouse. Customers select items from bulk displays, & the store gives discounts to customers who carry their own heavy appliances & furniture out of the store.
Most stores today cluster together to increase their customer pulling power
& to give customers the convenience of on-stop shopping. A shopping centre is a group or retail businesses planned, developed, owned & managed as a unit. A regional shopping centre is like a mini downtown. At contains from
40 to 100 store & pulls customers from a wide area.

Public Relations

PR is often confused with advertising, and sometimes wrongly termed
"publicity". PR is wrongly regarded as "free advertising". The two are very different forms of communication, but advertising is likely to be more effective if PR is well carried out.
Briefly, PR aims to create understanding through knowledge, it must be factual, credible and impartial. Advertising has to be persuasive in order to sell and it may be emotional, dramatic and certainly partial. Thus, a basic difference is that in order to succeed PR must be unbiased while advertising has to be biased. PR may be thought to consist only of press relations, or rather media relations since radio and television are also involved. Modem PR extends into all the functions of commercial and noncommercial, public and private organisations. It deals with matters far removed from marketing and advertising to mention only community, employee, share holder and political relations. A major area of public relations in recent years has been the handling of crisis situations such as strikes, disasters and take over bids. The creation of understanding is best explained by the "PR transfer process". A company, product or service may be subject to some negative states as hostility, prejudice, apathy, ignorance. PR is concerned with changing them into positive attitudes such as sympathy, acceptance, interest, knowledge. There may be hostility towards a company because its behaviour has been criticised, a product has performed badly, a company personality has received bad publicity , the company is of foreign origin or simply because it is very big. There may also be hostility towards the industry because it is believed to be hazardous or endangers the environment. Prejudice is a more difficult obstacle to overcome, and is usually long-standing and derived from family, education, ethnic or even geographical influences. Many people are still prejudiced about flying, holidays abroad, foreign foods, computers, etc.
Disinterest and apathy is very hard to overcome. People tend to be conservative, set in their ways and unwilling to try new things. They may be apathetic about things that could benefit them such as banking insurance, savings, diet, holidays or different kinds of clothes. In a complex world everyone is ignorant about many things. It is inevitable.
There was a time when most people were ignorant about detergents, air conditioning, video-cassettes, all of which large number of people take for granted today. These are all negative attitudes which PR has to change into positive ones. From what has been described it is seen that PR concerns the total communications of the total organisation. It is not confined to marketing nor it is a form of advertising. Nevertheless, advertising can benefit from PR activity. In fact advertising may well fail because of lack of PR. PR has its own communication techniques and it can contribute to the success of advertising just as it can contribute to good management- employee relations or good financial relations. The chief benefit lies in the creation of understanding.

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