Shows show what can be done – Print21 magazine

If the only trade shows you ever visit are the ones that sell printing equipment, then you might be missing out on an opportunity to find new markets and more print products to sell. Joan Grace outlines the benefits of making time for exhibitions.

Visiting consumer trade shows can provide a valuable opportunity for print and packaging businesses to get a ‘heads up’ on how print buyers are utilising or under-utilising print.

After leaving Ipex one afternoon in May, I popped into Hall 5 and discovered a Baby Show, one of many such events replicated around the world. Billed as an “essential part of having a baby”, the event featured a wide range of baby gear including strollers, nursery furniture, safety equipment and baby food.

In Halls 6-20 of the NEC next door, our industry was showcasing to itself how to produce the best products using the latest technology for our customers. Here in Hall 5, our customers were showcasing their world using products produced from our industry.

Consumer and trade shows like the Baby Show provide a face-to-face marketing opportunity for businesses to attract new customers to products or new products to existing customers. Thousands of consumers attend trade shows each year to find out more about travel packages, careers, investment opportunities and new technology, to mention a few. The majority, if not all, exhibitors at these events are showcasing their products and services using printed material.

The Baby Show exhibitors were all displaying a wide range of leaflets, catalogues, business cards, magazines and other printed items to help sell their products. Most of the printed material directed customers to websites to make additional purchases, which are then sent out with further promotional material. Large posters were on display to draw consumers in and attractive packaging displayed further information about the product, while providing safe transportation for the goods as consumers made their purchases.

Alive and kicking
Looking at this wide variety of printed material, it was heartening to see that print is still very much alive and kicking. But we need to play our part to help make sure this remains the case and that our customers and potential customers are aware of the important role print plays in marketing their products.

This is one objective of the Part of Life marketing campaign underway in New Zealand. With 175 Print Champions, or supporters of the campaign, signed up, we are uniting as an industry to emphasise the important role print plays in everyday life. This is a medium- to long-term campaign, promoting positive messages about print’s key role in communicating, relaxing and learning.

Making a point of visiting consumer trade shows in your area should be a routine part of your business strategy. It is an opportunity to see how print buyers are using print as part of the marketing mix. Take your sales staff as part of their professional development, maybe not to the Baby Show, and get them to stand in front of each display and think about how print is being used. It is interesting to observe what consumers look at and pick up, offering an insight into what works and what doesn’t.

Take the opportunity to look around and see how the print products on display fit into the services you already offer and what extra value you can provide to the exhibitors.

A major focus of Ipex was on digital printing and the new uses of variable data to personalise print. Trade shows provide an ideal opportunity for exhibitors to collect information from existing and potential customers and add this to a marketing database for future promotions. With this personal information, direct mail or other print communications can be designed and written for specific target groups, for example targeting parents with children of different ages and stages.

As we continue to work towards promoting print as an effective means of communication, it is important to remember the important role print plays and how its portability, reliability and tangibility gives it the upper-edge at trade shows and in many other instances. Print gets the message across and we need to keep reminding our customers of this fact.

So why don’t you try it? Get your sales team together and make a point of visiting the next consumer trade show in your area. Make a plan of what you will do and what you intend to get out of it. I would suggest that for each exhibit you and your team consider the following:

•    What three print ‘products’ are they using now?
•    What are three things you currently offer that they could use in the future?
•    What is your company strategy to get them to change to other print products?
•    What information should exhibitors collect from each visitor so you can best use the power of VDP for their follow up campaign?