Category Archives: Exhibitions

Mar 29
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Exhibition strategy!?!

By | Exhibitions, Marketing Strategy | No Comments

Time to schedule your event!

An exhibition is an ideal way of promoting your business, new product or service and of course generating those all-important sales leads.

Before you sign on the dotted line, there are two steps you need to take. The first is setting measurable objectives, write down exactly what you want to achieve by attending the exhibition. This will not only give you a measurement of the success of the exhibition, but it also gives your staff working at the show a target to reach.

The next step is key; making sure you attend the right exhibition for you!!!

It’s easy to sign up for an exhibition because your competitors are there but make sure you investigate the opportunity on offer; are the organiser’s promoting the exhibition and if so ask to see their marketing plan! How many people attend and from which organisations/industries? These questions will help you identify if the exhibition is going to attract your potential customers.

Once you know where you are exhibiting, why your exhibiting and what you want to achieve, make sure that the stand is designed to meet these objectives. You should know what the key marketing message is that you are trying to get across so make sure your stand tells that story. A good stand design will help deliver your exhibition objectives.

Make sure you do not fall into the “one size fit’s all” category – a generic poster or pop up will not inspire people to come and talk to you. Be specific – make your offering relevant to the visitors at this particular exhibition. Don’t forget – the exhibition is your shop window! Make sure you don’t look like your penny pinching –what does that say about how you handle your customers?

Train, Train, Train – Eighty per cent of the success of your stand is down to your staff so train them before attending the exhibition. Make sure they are all in appropriate clothing – branded preferably as it shows you mean business!

Jan 21
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Memory Palaces – every marketers target!

By | Branding, Direct Marketing, Email Marketing, Exhibitions, Food for thought, Marketing Strategy, Public Relations, Social Media | No Comments

I don’t know about you, but I loved the latest series of Shelock from the BBC and was disappointed that is finished last week. The last episode with Sherlock going head to head quite literally against Charles Augustus Magnussen; memory palace to memory palace! It was a fantastic episode with many twists and turns so no wonder there is still such a buzz about it.

The memory palace has been playing on my mind this last week (no pun intended) – how powerful it is, and how as marketers we are trying to tap into the memory palace to influence both consumers and customers with strong logos, branding and corporate images. Using different tactics and ensuring each tactic has a consistent image and message to make sure that we are locked into the memory palace of our customers so we don’t get kicked aside by our competitors.

This has led me to think about the retail environment, how 70% of purchasing decisions are made in front of the fixture and that you have 3 seconds to influence the consumers mind to choose your product over your competitors. This is where the power of the memory palace really comes into play. It’s vital that your product / brand has been securely locked in before they even reach the store.

Knowing your customers

This links back to my blog last week, about knowing your customers, where they go and what they read. This enables you to ensure that all “touch points” that your customer goes through in their every day life has your product or brand there. If your marketing budget can not stretch to TV advertising, then think about page advertising, money off coupons or even advertise on the social media sites they visit. Do they fill their car with fuel at a local garage? Try sponsoring the fuel pumps with your logo. If their son or daughter play’s football or rugby for the local town team, have a advertising board there.

Knowing this level of detail of your customers takes time and commitment so don’t expect it to happen over night. If you consider that Coca-Cola have been in the market for 128 years, no wonder they are securely lodged in all our minds! The one thing they have done very successfully is made sure that the brand has remained the same and consistent over the years. They have even managed to become a tradition at Christmas, many of my friends saying “it’s not Christmas until I see the Coke Lorry advert” – Well done Coca-cola!!! The other thing they have managed successfully are any changes to the brand; they made changes as a evolution otn a revolution so consumers and customers do not have to replace the images in their memory palace.

I know what your thinking – Well that’s great Laura, but I can’t wait 128 years! That’s true for all of us, but let me ask you this…… Do you know how many more customers you need to remember your product in order for you to add an additional 10%, 15%, 20% to your profit or market share? You will be surprised at the difference that some small consistent messages or small changes to your marketing can make year on your to your business.

After all, you don’t want to end up coming back like Moriarty asking your customers – Did you miss me???

Sharing is caring…

Please don’t forget to share my blog with your friends and family, or share through the various social media links. I would love to hear your thoughts on my post, what are your thoughts on the memory palace? Do you think integrated marketing still has a place in this digital marketing age we are in?

I look forward to receiving your comments.
Laura