To trade show or not to trade show?

Larger trade shows give the illusion of being this giant event with parties, balloons and fanfare, but, the fact is, suppliers exhibiting at an ASI show will see approximately 200 people. Depending on freight and the show’s location, it costs suppliers between $3,500 and $4,500 for a 10' booth at that show. If you take the 200 people and divide them by $4,500, suppliers are spending $22.50 per person. They could have taken that money and produced a direct mailing and hit 4,500 people.

Comparatively, road shows cost about $2,500 a week and exhibitors see between 200 and 300 people. If you must exhibit at a trade show, you may as well do a road show.

Next year, we’re just doing the PPAI Expo in Las Vegas because there we see 1,600 people, and we may also do SAAC. The money we’re saving on not exhibiting at all the industry shows will be invested in direct mail and the Internet, making sure we are positioned well on SAGE, ESP and PMDM Web sites. If we’ve got to pay for clicks, then that’s what we’re going to do, because on any given day that is where distributors are found, not at a three-day trade show.

When a distributor walks down the show aisle carrying a foam dog on the end of a coat hanger and refuses to take a catalog, it is disrespectful, it raises the prices in the industry and it hurts everyone. The catalog itself is running anywhere from $0.70 to upwards of $3 per catalog to produce, and $1 to $3 to ship every time distributors arbitrarily just want it mailed to them.

One time at a trade show, there was a booth giving away peanuts, just like the ones you can buy at 7-Eleven. Distributors were crowding around like it was gold bouillon or Tiffany jewelry. Why? Take the catalog, not the sample; that’s what you came for, isn’t it?