Exhibitions, Trade Fairs and Industrial Events

Warwick Frost, Jennifer Laing, Warwick Frost, Jennifer Laing

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781138219359
• eBook ISBN: 9781315415277
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Hospitality, Travel & Tourism Industry
• Index: Business

This book is the first to take an in-depth examination of the breadth and scope of exhibitions, trade fairs and other industrial events as a marketing tool or channel. Industrial Events are planned events that are staged with the primary aim of marketing businesses, industries and products. This may lead to direct sales through these events, as well as the development of brand image or building brand awareness; penetration of new markets; trials of new products and knowledge diffusion. These business goals might be future-focused, with meetings of strategic players from across an industry or sector contributing to the shaping of future innovations and development. Industrial events act as a marketplace, but rather than seeing them as temporary or isolated activities, they can be understood as cyclical clusters.

This is a multidisciplinary book written by an international group of leading academics, offering a wide range of case studies that feature countries such as the United Kingdom, United States of America, Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Australia and New Zealand. It will appeal to students and researchers in the fields of cultural studies, history, tourism, sociology, economics and management

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Understanding international exhibitions, trade fairs and industrial events

Concepts, trends and issues

Warwick Frost and Jennifer Laing

Prologue: Steve Jobs and Alexander Graham Bell

The launch of the NeXT computer was a meticulously planned event. At Apple, Steve Jobs was seen as a genius in combining marketing and technical innovation. However, in 1986 he had lost control of the company he had founded and had departed to set up his new enterprise. Two years later he was ready to launch. Renowned for his flair with the 1984 launch of the Macintosh computer, Jobs wanted to go much further with a product launch that would gain international media publicity, generate sales and justify his strategy.

The venue was the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall, the home of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. Over 3000 invited industry and media guests were present. Jobs took centre stage and proceeded to deliver a two and a half hour long speech on his new computer. Running through its features, he constructed an argument that with this computer, he had been able to do what he couldn’t at Apple. Coming towards the end of his pitch, with audience fatigue a factor, he unveiled his finale. The computer contained a music synthesizer software application and it now played Gamelan music from Indonesia. Next, Jobs welcomed San Francisco Symphony Orchestra Concertmaster Dan Kobialka on to the stage. What followed was a five-minute violin duet performed by Kobialka and the NeXT computer. The finale garnered a standing ovation and effusive reviews. The NeXT computer was launched to the world (Schlender and Tetzeli 2015).

A century earlier, another giant of telecommunications innovation used an event to launch his new technology. In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell exhibited his telephone at the Centennial International Exposition in Philadelphia. At 29 years old, he was slightly younger than Jobs, who was 31 years old when he launched the NeXT computer. As a static exhibit, his equipment gained little attention during the normal course of the exposition. The key part of the event was the awarding of the prizes in the category of ‘electrical apparatus’, for this was the opportunity to provide a practical demonstration. The judging was held in the area of the Western Union Telegraph Exhibit, with the head judge being Sir William Thomson, famed for overseeing the trans-Atlantic undersea telegraph cable. Taking place on a Sunday when the exposition was closed to the public, there was a small crowd of distinguished guests and Bell’s rivals (Grosvenor and Wesson 1997).

Chief amongst the VIPs in attendance was the Emperor Dom Pedro II of Brazil (the last emperor of Brazil, who reigned from 1831 to 1889). Just as Bell was about to begin his demonstration, the Emperor rose and walked over to him, greeting him warmly. They had met previously through the Boston School for the Deaf and shared an interest in helping deaf people. To the bewilderment of many of those present, the Emperor accompanied Bell and Sir William Thomson up a flight of stairs to where the apparatus was. None of this was planned, but clearly no official was willing to tell the Emperor to sit down. Fascinated by new technology, the Emperor enthusiastically proceeded to take part in the presentation. With Bell speaking into the telephone in another room, both Sir William Thomson and Emperor Dom Pedro exclaim that they can hear Bell’s voice electrically projected down the line. Bell’s triumph was complete as he was awarded a prize which would help him to further develop and market his invention (Grosvenor and Wesson 1997).

In these two instances, there was a long chain of product development, as these entrepreneurs journeyed from concept and prototype to release on the mass market. Critical to this development pathway was an event – a product launch and an international exhibition respectively – in which the new technology was demonstrated and gained media attention. These events were staged with the objective of highlighting innovation and generating sales and extending market penetration. Such a commercial imperative is an entirely different way of understanding events and their roles in society.

Introduction

Typically, research in Events Studies is divided into two broad fields. The first considers the role of events in promoting tourism. The second focuses on social impacts, conceptualising events as vehicles for disseminating persuasive social messages. In this book, our aim is to introduce a third core area for understanding events and their impacts. This is what we term industrial events – which are staged with the primary objective of selling goods and services.

The concept of industrial events is extended from that of industrial tourism. As defined by Otgaar, industrial tourism involves visits by tourists, residents and day trippers and not only comprises ‘company visit/tours, but also visits to company museums and brand parks such as the World of Coca Cola and Autostadt [Volkswagen]’ (2012: 87). His two examples may also be termed brand museums, where visitors to a purpose-built centre are immersed in the culture and heritage of global brands (Hollenbeck, Peters and Zinkhan 2008). Another example of this, visited by us as fieldwork for this book, is La Cité du Vin, in Bordeaux, France. Opened in 2016, at a cost of 81 million Euros, this promotes the brand of Bordeaux wines. Given its cost, it is a good illustration of how critical industrial tourism can be for a region. However, while such centres are important, a focus on industrial tourism misses the substantial devotion of resources by businesses to marketing through events.

Common examples of industrial events include world’s fairs, trade shows, industry exhibitions, food and wine festivals and product launches. While these make up a major part of the events industry, their scope and meanings as a category of events have tended to get lost. Yes, they might attract tourists and engender social changes, but for their organisers and other stakeholders, their main role is to sell. These are commercial events, operating within a business paradigm, in which success is measured by the increased sales generated through participation in the event. Similarly, for those who attend, the main attraction is to try and buy.

In this introductory chapter, our aim is to sketch out some basic concepts, issues and examples. We start with considering stakeholders and their motivations for being involved in industrial events. In the second and largest section, we provide some examples of the main types of industrial events, identifying key features and the relevant prior literature. In the third section, we qualify the commercial paradigm associated with these events, explaining that they may also have social and tourism aspects as well. In the final section, we detail the scope and structure of this book.

Stakeholders

Industrial events function as a marketplace, with the key stakeholders including sellers, buyers and organisers.

Sellers

Sellers, exhibitors, traders, stallholders or merchants – these are all common terms for those businesses that participate at industrial events. Most of these events feature large numbers of sellers who congregate in the temporary marketplace to exhibit, market and sell their goods and services. Generally a common theme or industry connection binds them together. For example, a hospitality industry trade show includes food and beverage wholesalers, manufacturers and sellers of glasses, crockery, cutlery and furniture and staff training colleges. Intermingled with these industry specific operators are providers of more generic products that could be of interest to a wide range of industries. These include suppliers of cash registers, business services and interior design.

Sales revenue from industry events is generated in the short and long term. The former includes what is sold during the period of the event, the latter occurs afterwards, but is due to interactions with the customers that took place at the time. Another divide is between the markets targeted. Some sellers may be seeking customers from among industry operators; such sales are characterised as wholesale or business-to-business (B2B). Other sellers may be more focused on consumers and their involvement at industrial events is aimed at reducing their reliance on wholesalers and retail businesses.

Sellers may utilise industrial events as just one part of a broader marketing portfolio, complementing existing shops, showrooms and online sales systems. An alternative business model adopted by some – generally smaller operators – is to use these events as the sole or major sales outlet. For example, a manufacturer of premium cheeses told us how they initially opened a shop on their farm. In choosing this option they were encouraged by their regional tourism organisation, keen on promoting agri-tourism. However, these farmers found this model frustrating and ineffective, for low sales were matched by the inefficiency of having to leave farm tasks to attend to visitors at irregular and unpredictable times during the day. On the advice of a friend, they participated in a farmers’ market and found that they sold their entire stock in a couple of hours. As a result, they closed their farm shop and focused on farmers’ markets, partitioning production and sales into separate parts of the week and their lives.

Selling at industrial events provides businesses with the following advantages:

• 1. They are able to directly interact with potential consumers, providing samples and advice. Industrial events provide an important opportunity to reach new customers.
• 2. Building brand knowledge and loyalty. The personal interaction provides the opportunity to effectively tell brand stories or impart persuasive messages.
• 3. Cheaper sales costs, paying for a temporary outlet with high customer flows.
• 4. Controlling their own sales outlet. In contrast, conventional retail channels such as supermarkets or department stores are outside the control of suppliers and while they act as ‘agents’ during customer interaction, they have their own objectives which may conflict with those of suppliers.
• 5. They complement the trend towards online shopping and promotion via social media. Businesses can use customer interaction at these events to market their websites and sign attendees up to their various social media platforms.
• 6. Valuable marketing intelligence, both through direct feedback from customers and through observation of the trends amongst competitors.
• 7. The opportunity to promote new or little-known products, which might be overlooked by customers in conventional outlets.
• 8. Educating customers on the features of their products, such as the health benefits of certain foods or the energy efficiency of electrical goods.
• 9. There may be public relations opportunities. For example aerospace companies exhibiting at airshows will interact with the general public, even though their customers are major businesses. Exhibiting to the public might not generate any sales, but it promotes technical, environmental and safety advances in the aerospace industry.
• 10. At some industrial events there are prizes for the best exhibitors, often spread across a range of categories. This recognition is then used for brand differentiation in future marketing and may be reinforced by media coverage. Examples of intense competition for prizes include garden shows (such as the Chelsea Flower Show in London), beer shows and wine festivals.

Buyers

Buyers at industrial events may be businesses or consumers. Businesses – commonly referred to as trade – use these events to view, try and discuss new products and trends. As these events are tightly focused on a particular industry and occur within a concentrated space and time, they allow business operators to efficiently explore new commercial possibilities.

Consumers are primarily motivated by the opportunities to shop. As with businesses, they value that the event is focused in theme, space and time and they are strongly interested in new developments and technical innovations. Cheaper prices may be a motivation, as many industrial events offer discounts and specials for attendees. Apart from making purchases, there is a strong leisure component to these events, with attendees seeing them as an entertaining and relaxing day out. Much of the research on consumers at industrial events concerns their motivations, an issue of high practical value for organisers and business participants (see for example Dodd, Yuan, Adams and Kolyes...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• List of contributors
• 1 Understanding international exhibitions, trade fairs and industrial events: concepts, trends and issues
• 2 Modernity on show: World’s Fairs, international exhibitions and expos, 1851–2020
• 3 The High Point Furniture Market: a dilemma of eventful place making
• 4 The evolving nature of commercial art fairs
• 5 Couture on the catwalk: department store fashion shows
• 6 Cars of futures past: Motorclassica 2016 – The Australian International Concours d’Elegance and Classic Motor Show
• 7 The symbiotic relationship between unusual venues and street food commercial events: the case of Street Feast in London
• 8 Narrowing the gap between paddock and plate: the Real Food Festival, Australia
• 9 The Noodle Grand Prix as a regional food industrial heritage festival: a Japanese case study
• 10 Saudi food events as multi-purpose products
• 11 Craft beer festivals: the craft brewers’ experience of getting beer to market in the USA and UK
• 12 Supporting the industry or just consuming leisure? The case of industrial festivals and events in Jeonju, South Korea
• 13 Exploring family farms and sustainable entrepreneurship in Australian farmers’ markets
• 14 Beyond branding: the role of booktowns in building a relational marketplace
• 15 Selling sustainability and the green economy: a case study of Ecofest, New Zealand
• 16 Exhibitions, trade shows and industrial events in a digital age: setting a research agenda
• Index