Choosing made easy
Exhibition versus roadshow - strengths and weakness in a comparison. Which event format is best suited to the strategic aims of a company?
Reaching target groups directly is all about going out to meet them - in their environment, their events, their exhibitions. A company can do this in one of many ways: it can organise a roadshow that travels to the point of interest or it can use trade fairs and exhibitions as a target group platform. Both methods have their strengths and weaknesses. If the strengths are recognised and applied, a clear preference for one of the two methods or an intelligent combination of each can be derived from the company's objectives.
The features common to both fairs and roadshows are what is best about both, that is, experience and dialogue communication. Both event formats can impart experiences to visitors and encourage them to interact and participate. An interview can take place in direct dialogue on all levels of personal communication. Addresses are generated from activities and competitions, providing the basis for a communications relationship after the event is over. Depending on the size and type of product in question, both the fair and the roadshow can be an opportunity to present new features and provide direct market research feedback regarding acceptance by the target group.
As a platform for entire business sectors, fairs provide a comparison of the market. Roadshows cannot offer that added value. Without comparison, opinion forming and decisions have to be left to a later date. By either method, only limited direct sales are possible. B2B is dominated by information fairs and events where no deals can be made. Only in some sectors do we come across the order fair as an important link in the trade chain. Visitors to consumer fairs are noted for their willingness to buy, which can be exploited for presentation and sales alike. Roadshows, on the other hand, have a communicative and market forming approach. There have been few examples in recent years of roadshows making a direct contribution to the sale of a product.
As roadshows and fairs enable target group selection, they both offer a clean method of strategic differentiation. In B2B, fair organisers have created a wide and attractive range of business platforms that attract different target groups and which exhibitors can use selectively for their own aims. Platforms for consumer target groups, however, are not as well differentiated as those for B2B among the fairs offered. Consumers are usually targeted with different focuses.
The more delineated a target group is, the more likely it is that a company will have to forge contacts in special places not embraced by the trade fair or event format. This flexibility and going and getting target groups from a point of interest is the strength of a roadshow. Marketing creativity is particularly called for here.
As events, fairs are very much in the media spotlight. Individual exhibitors are exposed to very strong communicative competition both in the exhibition halls and in media work. The plethora of stimuli and information makes it difficult to set oneself apart in order to promote a company or a product.
Exhibition stands have to stand out by having a suitable size and communicative, architectural style and content if they are to be noticed. This is not possible without the necessary preparatory communication and media work.
For roadshows, too, media work and the accompanying communication are an indispensable success factor, which can efficiantly develop. But without the communicative pressure of comparison with the competition.
With a fascinating exterior, the roadshow platform can create a perception that triggers visitors to seek contact. If a credible story is told about a product's benefits and the company's identity it will be taken up by the media reporting on the roadshow as an event. The basic idea for the design and concept of a roadshow is therefore what determines its success with customers and the media.
Conclusion: Whether particular groups are to be targeted, monopolisation of communication is required and a resulting media echo is desirable are the factors on which the decision for a fair or a roadshow as the tool for dialogue and live communication will be based. Just comparing costs is not very helpful: both roadshows and fairs can be modular and made suitable for multiple use. Neither is necessarily more expensive than the other, so no decision can be made a priori on the basis of cost. Joachim Falcke
m+a report Nr.7 / 2005 vom 27.10.2005
m+a report vom 27. Oktober 2005