Feature article—
"Future of Trade Show Marketing? You Decide."

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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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