Exposing Yourself the Correct Way!

3 Jul

Admittedly, this blog post isn't going to get your heart racing like an evangelical pastor campaigning for gay marriage at the annual church picnic, but in the larger scheme of things, it does carry come impact for thousands of businesses seeking to be exposed the right way.

If your industry has not been in a constant state of flux over the past few years, then you would have to be considered one of the fortunate few. We are not living in what you'd consider to be normal times, and the law of unintended consequences makes it very difficult to see what's next.

In the trade show industry, we see constant changes with regard to the type of trade show displays exhibitors are purchasing based on forces at work in their own markets, just as service contractors are constantly adjusting their pricing to take into account how exhibitors are moving to different product lines. I've always been a big fan of differentiating yourself as an exhibitor, in the whatever market you exhibit in. I appear to be seeing, however, a shift in the price point, and it's becoming more and more difficult to differentiate yourself in that segment; and it's not in the middle any more.

During the past 30 years, there have been a majority of exhibitors who purchase exhibits in the middle of the price pack; which is where the pop up displays have had a monster grip on the market since their inception. This is the place in the market where it's been the most difficult to differentiate yourself due to the fact that half the displays in any given show are pop ups. Your get lost in aisle after aisle of sameness.

But what has changed? Well, for one thing, exhibitors are becoming increasingly weary and impatient of all the escalating show costs passed down by show service contractors, and have waved the white flag and elected to go from the middle of the pact, down a notch to the bottom by using a string of banner stands rather than a hundred pound pop up. Even though they can still store the shipping case in their booth during the show with the aid of a case to counter kit, it still is increasingly expensive when purchasing new photo murals as products or shows change.

So, where is it becoming the most difficult to differentiate yourself? It's at the bottom end because the sameness that used to be in the middle with pop up displays, is now at the bottom with banner Banner Stands
stands; and that's not good news for the show contractors who will soon have to figure out how to make up the revenue that is being lost due of that trend. You see, with a pop up, they can still get the minimum of 200 pounds at whatever drayage rate is established for the show, but the exhibitor always carries his banner stand in the door and that's zero revenue.

So is there any good news to this trend? Yes there sure is! In a few recent shows that I've attended, the exhibitors with the pop up displays with great photo murals, actually stood out in the crowd. Now it was the banner stand booths that all looked pretty much the same.