CHALLENGING THE BIG BANG THEORY
CHALLENGING THE BIG BANG THEORY
She was curious as to how many cards/shows the stacks represented so we counted one inch of card (27) and measured the stacks (12 inches). About 325 convention attendance cards. Over a 25-year period that’s about 13 shows a year. AAAHHHGGG!
In that time, we’ve seen and tried probably every trick in the book to launch new products at trade shows. Our pre-show advice to clients is always the same: Unless you’re AT&T, Coca-Cola, Microsoft or Oracle; holding a press conference or having an event to launch your new product at the show isn’t the best use of your money, the product or your opportunity.
Coverage doesn’t appear for weeks or months. By then, everyone has gone home. The company missed an important opportunity for meaningful one-on-one product specific discussions…at the show.
It may have been a big PR hit with lots of editors, reporters and analysts hanging on every word but was it in the best interest of the company’s long-term objectives? Did you really catch the competition off guard? Did they slink away into the night as everyone rushed to your booth? Was it so important that it grabbed network and cable news coverage? Did on-line news services immediately flash it as their lead story around the globe? Did newspapers, business weeklies and trade monthlies stop the presses to remake their pages?
Probably not.
Press coverage is nice but the real reason companies spend hundreds of thousands of dollars each year for trade shows isn’t to schedule press meetings or get coverage after the event. Management’s objective is simple – get qualified prospects/suspects into the booth for meaningful company/product/service discussions for near term sales.
Everything else is frosting on the cake.
Instead of marching to its own three-reporter-meetings every hour and clippings-by-the-pound approach to trade show roll-outs, trade show PR needs to support the company’s corporate, marketing and sales objectives.
That’s why whenever possible we counsel clients to follow a different, more results-oriented approach.
Product line and service launches are major positioning and marketing opportunities for a company. They deserve to be given more than just three to four days of a trade show to shine. Make the most of the opportunity.
Some people say the only reason to participate in shows is to give the engineering department a real deadline for finalizing the product. But, the real objective is to:
• roll-out newer, better, faster, more cost effective solutions, products, services or concepts
• establish new national and international customer and channel relationships
• increase mindshare/marketshare
• …increase sales
If public relations is to support these objectives, common sense says it is important to get press coverage on the product, service or program prior to the show. Attendees can then “pre-qualify” themselves and plan their trade show floor tour to make certain they visit your booth. They can intelligently discuss your new products and how they will fit into their product line, work in their organization or meet their company’s requirements.
Nowhere in the above list did we say that editors, reporters and analysts would come by in droves to discuss the product or service. That’s a fringe benefit a trade show…not the sole reason to commit hundreds of thousands of dollars and hundreds of man-hours to the events.
New Product Tools
Too many PR people take the easy way out in announcing new products at trade shows…news releases, photos and interviews with anyone who’s wearing a press badge.
With all that has been invested in the new product or service. It deserves more than a poorly written news release and a few 1-1 meetings.
Phase One
Instead if this is a major new product launch marketing PR (MPR) should:
• Brief key industry analysts and customers and get their inputs/feedback before the announcement. Include their contact information with the release.
• develop a market, product, applications and technical backgrounder(s) that include analyst and customer/prospective customer inputs
• develop a visual presentation that positions the product/service, discusses features/benefits, applications, technical superiority and future trends
• shoot more than a photo of the product on a white seamless background. Get graphically interesting product shots and in-use application shots digitally and in slide format.
• develop application, technology artwork that shows how the product fits in an overall solution
• Carry out an editorial road show 3-4 weeks prior to the trade show and give editors/analysts a complete, in-depth briefing.
Every CEO and VP of marketing has 10-15 publications he or she feels are key books so focus on these meetings. Certainly they lust for Wall Street Journal, Business Week, Forbes and Fortune coverage but be realistic. Focus on the publications and editors that will do the company the most good in the marketplace.
Done properly you’ll have in-depth coverage regarding the announcements before the show doors open. Then prospective customers, channel partners, analysts and the press will know exactly why they are coming to the booth. Discussions can be more intelligent…more profitable.
Phase Two
Now Its time to turn the PR activity up to full flame:
• Send out a media alert a few weeks prior to the show over BusinessWire or other PR news service to all media (nationally and internationally). Say what you’re unveiling, where (show, dates, location, booth number) and brief product highlights
• Develop a similar e-mail media alert targeting specific editors, reporters and analysts two weeks prior to the show requesting specific interviews with key executives. Give them the options of time, date and place for the interview.
• If you still don’t have the people you want (focus on quality, not quantity) use the telephone and “smile and dial.”
• Press for specific meeting times and locations. This ensures you’ll have the right people at the meeting so reporters and analysts will get the information they want/need for their articles.
• Prepare a detailed briefing book for your management and booth team. This ensures the company’s message is consistent. Include product and competitive positioning, channel details and availability, specific features and benefits, product and issue Q&A and similar information including guidelines on talking with the media.
• Always have a PR representative in the booth. He or she can take care of the needs of the unscheduled media people who come by and can possibly turn this “drop-in” meeting into major coverage. By listening closely public relations can learn what the market really wants, what it needs as well as how it perceives and will use the new product or service
Phase Three
With your pre-show press coverage, meeting schedule and completed press kits, you’re ready for the head rush of the event…its show time!
• Drop your press kits off at the press kit room as early as possible. Put them in the bins yourself if possible and check the stock often, especially during the first two days, to make certain they are available and not sitting in boxes somewhere.
• Have a PR person at every editorial meeting to ensure everyone gets what they want from the meeting and that commitments are met after the show
Phase Four
Follow up…follow up…follow up.
Editors often say that the only time they hear from some PR people & companies is when there is a trade show. It’s almost as though PR people are trying to impress their bosses or clients by filling the schedule with warm bodies.
If you really want to impress the media become a valuable source year round. Feed them story ideas. Immediately assist them when they need information, customer or dealer contacts, access to senior people, technical facts and industry statistics, photos and product for round-ups or reviews. Help them do their job and meet their deadlines.
Unless you’re working for Mike Armstrong (AT&T), Larry Ellison (Oracle), Bill Gates (Microsoft) or Doug Ivester (Coke) don’t focus on trade show events for product/service launches. Use them as launching platforms for the company’s positioning and marketing activities. Remember trade shows are about selling something. They aren’t about press conferences and press meetings. And, they certainly aren’t about collecting badges from 10-20 trade shows a year.
Avoid the big bang trade show approach. Make shows pay off for the company and its bottomline.
########
CHALLENGING THE BIG BANG THEORY - To learn more about this author, visit Andy Marken's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
In the middle of planning for an upcoming trade show one of our newest staff members asked why I kept two huge stacks of credit cards on my credenza. Looking for a break in the meeting, I explained they weren’t credit cards but plastic name badges I’ve accumulated over the years from trade shows.
She was curious as to how many cards/shows the stacks represented so we counted one inch of card (27) and measured the stacks (12 inches). About 325 convention attendance cards. Over a 25-year period that’s about 13 shows a year. AAAHHHGGG!
In that time, we’ve seen and tried probably every trick in the book to launch new products at trade shows. Our pre-show advice to clients is always the same: Unless you’re AT&T, Coca-Cola, Microsoft or Oracle; holding a press conference or having an event to launch your new product at the show isn’t the best use of your money, the product or your opportunity.
Coverage doesn’t appear for weeks or months. By then, everyone has gone home. The company missed an important opportunity for meaningful one-on-one product specific discussions…at the show.
It may have been a big PR hit with lots of editors, reporters and analysts hanging on every word but was it in the best interest of the company’s long-term objectives? Did you really catch the competition off guard? Did they slink away into the night as everyone rushed to your booth? Was it so important that it grabbed network and cable news coverage? Did on-line news services immediately flash it as their lead story around the globe? Did newspapers, business weeklies and trade monthlies stop the presses to remake their pages?
Probably not.
Press coverage is nice but the real reason companies spend hundreds of thousands of dollars each year for trade shows isn’t to schedule press meetings or get coverage after the event. Management’s objective is simple – get qualified prospects/suspects into the booth for meaningful company/product/service discussions for near term sales.
Everything else is frosting on the cake.
Instead of marching to its own three-reporter-meetings every hour and clippings-by-the-pound approach to trade show roll-outs, trade show PR needs to support the company’s corporate, marketing and sales objectives.
That’s why whenever possible we counsel clients to follow a different, more results-oriented approach.
Product line and service launches are major positioning and marketing opportunities for a company. They deserve to be given more than just three to four days of a trade show to shine. Make the most of the opportunity.
Some people say the only reason to participate in shows is to give the engineering department a real deadline for finalizing the product. But, the real objective is to:
• roll-out newer, better, faster, more cost effective solutions, products, services or concepts
• establish new national and international customer and channel relationships
• increase mindshare/marketshare
• …increase sales
If public relations is to support these objectives, common sense says it is important to get press coverage on the product, service or program prior to the show. Attendees can then “pre-qualify” themselves and plan their trade show floor tour to make certain they visit your booth. They can intelligently discuss your new products and how they will fit into their product line, work in their organization or meet their company’s requirements.
Nowhere in the above list did we say that editors, reporters and analysts would come by in droves to discuss the product or service. That’s a fringe benefit a trade show…not the sole reason to commit hundreds of thousands of dollars and hundreds of man-hours to the events.
New Product Tools
Too many PR people take the easy way out in announcing new products at trade shows…news releases, photos and interviews with anyone who’s wearing a press badge.
With all that has been invested in the new product or service. It deserves more than a poorly written news release and a few 1-1 meetings.
Phase One
Instead if this is a major new product launch marketing PR (MPR) should:
• Brief key industry analysts and customers and get their inputs/feedback before the announcement. Include their contact information with the release.
• develop a market, product, applications and technical backgrounder(s) that include analyst and customer/prospective customer inputs
• develop a visual presentation that positions the product/service, discusses features/benefits, applications, technical superiority and future trends
• shoot more than a photo of the product on a white seamless background. Get graphically interesting product shots and in-use application shots digitally and in slide format.
• develop application, technology artwork that shows how the product fits in an overall solution
• Carry out an editorial road show 3-4 weeks prior to the trade show and give editors/analysts a complete, in-depth briefing.
Every CEO and VP of marketing has 10-15 publications he or she feels are key books so focus on these meetings. Certainly they lust for Wall Street Journal, Business Week, Forbes and Fortune coverage but be realistic. Focus on the publications and editors that will do the company the most good in the marketplace.
Done properly you’ll have in-depth coverage regarding the announcements before the show doors open. Then prospective customers, channel partners, analysts and the press will know exactly why they are coming to the booth. Discussions can be more intelligent…more profitable.
Phase Two
Now Its time to turn the PR activity up to full flame:
• Send out a media alert a few weeks prior to the show over BusinessWire or other PR news service to all media (nationally and internationally). Say what you’re unveiling, where (show, dates, location, booth number) and brief product highlights
• Develop a similar e-mail media alert targeting specific editors, reporters and analysts two weeks prior to the show requesting specific interviews with key executives. Give them the options of time, date and place for the interview.
• If you still don’t have the people you want (focus on quality, not quantity) use the telephone and “smile and dial.”
• Press for specific meeting times and locations. This ensures you’ll have the right people at the meeting so reporters and analysts will get the information they want/need for their articles.
• Prepare a detailed briefing book for your management and booth team. This ensures the company’s message is consistent. Include product and competitive positioning, channel details and availability, specific features and benefits, product and issue Q&A and similar information including guidelines on talking with the media.
• Always have a PR representative in the booth. He or she can take care of the needs of the unscheduled media people who come by and can possibly turn this “drop-in” meeting into major coverage. By listening closely public relations can learn what the market really wants, what it needs as well as how it perceives and will use the new product or service
Phase Three
With your pre-show press coverage, meeting schedule and completed press kits, you’re ready for the head rush of the event…its show time!
• Drop your press kits off at the press kit room as early as possible. Put them in the bins yourself if possible and check the stock often, especially during the first two days, to make certain they are available and not sitting in boxes somewhere.
• Have a PR person at every editorial meeting to ensure everyone gets what they want from the meeting and that commitments are met after the show
Phase Four
Follow up…follow up…follow up.
Editors often say that the only time they hear from some PR people & companies is when there is a trade show. It’s almost as though PR people are trying to impress their bosses or clients by filling the schedule with warm bodies.
If you really want to impress the media become a valuable source year round. Feed them story ideas. Immediately assist them when they need information, customer or dealer contacts, access to senior people, technical facts and industry statistics, photos and product for round-ups or reviews. Help them do their job and meet their deadlines.
Unless you’re working for Mike Armstrong (AT&T), Larry Ellison (Oracle), Bill Gates (Microsoft) or Doug Ivester (Coke) don’t focus on trade show events for product/service launches. Use them as launching platforms for the company’s positioning and marketing activities. Remember trade shows are about selling something. They aren’t about press conferences and press meetings. And, they certainly aren’t about collecting badges from 10-20 trade shows a year.
Avoid the big bang trade show approach. Make shows pay off for the company and its bottomline.
########
CHALLENGING THE BIG BANG THEORY - To learn more about this author, visit Andy Marken's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
 | |
 |
No article feedback found. |
| |
Leave Your Feedback |
 | |
| |||
|
To learn more about the Evan Elite Author Program please contact us. |
 | |
|  |
Subscribe to Andy's articles
 | |
|
|  |
 | |
|
| |
 | |||||||
|
 | ||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
|
| ||
 |
| Have you written articles that would be of value to entrepreneurs? Become an expert on our site by publishing them! Expose yourself to a wide audience, drive more traffic to your website and get more sales! Click Here for details. |
|
|
 |
| Modeling the Masters: Learn the true secrets behind Walt Disney's business success factors & grow your company! Video produced by Phanta Media |
|
|
 |
"Learn straight from Evan how you can Make a Full Time Income (And More) from a Website"
Click Here To Learn More |
|
|
|
|
Get advice & tips from famous business owners, new articles by entrepreneur experts, my latest website updates, & special sneak peaks at what's to come!
|
|
|
 Testing and Measuring Business Emotional Intelligence Challenges Of Change CAN-Spam Checklist Explode Expo Results |
|
 | ||
 |
Top 50 Raising Capital Blogs
Top Blogs To Watch In 2008 | |
 |
The Top 10 ProBlogger Posts
Best Posts for Bloggers | |
| ||
 | ||||
| ||||
|
| ||||
| ||||
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||
|
Email us your ideas on how to make our website more valuable! Thank you Sharon from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for your suggestions to make the newsletter look like the website and profile younger entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez and Sean Combs!
|
|
|
| ||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||