Feature article—
"Future of
Trade Show Marketing? You Decide."
Continued ...
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Remember that
ability to "probe" for answers I mentioned earlier? It's a two-way
street: Buyers frequently have a need to pin down ambiguous sellers as
well.
So, we know
this is the best tactic for the corporate businesses we are a part of.
But let's also be honest: We have "job security" motivation for getting
that word out, with substantiation, to the right people.
Here's where
things get dicey. Anyone need to spit or rinse at this point?
According to
data provided through the American Marketing Association (from
McGraw-Hill Research and The Wayman Group), 1984 marketing budget levels
averaged 8.9 percent of sales. That number had dropped to a mere 3.5
percent of sales just ten years later.
As sales
increase, you say, so do real dollars. But so, too, do expenses. So does
the work which has to be done with those relatively smaller marketing
dollars which must work to help generate larger sales dollars. Therein
lies the rub. Where are businesses investing? The Direct Marketing
Association predicts (and is promoting to ensure) that their
business-to-business segment will grow by 8.4 percent annually, through
the year 2000. Yikes! Trade shows face stiff competition for what is
clearly a shrinking marketing budget pie.
As reported
in the April Sales & Marketing Management, citing a
Cahners Business Confidence Index survey, the future is as follows.
Trade magazines get 49.9 percent of new spending dollars, 40.0 percent
to the Internet (as if that comes as a surprise to anyone!), 8.2 percent
to "general interest magazines," 1.1 percent to broadcast TV/radio, and
0.8 percent to cable TV.
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