When Scott Lerner set out to launch an innovative line of all-natural sparkling botanical beverages, his team zeroed in on Natural Products Expo West, suspecting the world’s largest natural and organic products show would be a key component of their marketing mix.  They were right.

For Lerner, an experienced brand manager, the objective was clear: Attract distributors by making a big impression, while emphasizing the most salient aspects of the brand.

“Our packaging is a real differentiator, so it was important to present our brand in a way that reinforced the can as the hero,” says the Chicagoland entrepreneur.

Mission accomplished

Lerner admits that parting with precious start-up funds wasn’t easy, but once he decided to take the leap, he did it right.  “Initially, I had planned on a very minimal budget,” he explains.  “But I decided to invest in a trade show display that will last for years and deliver the punch I was looking for.  The result is a great trade show exhibit that makes a big impression.”

Lerner and his team were able to land The Vitiman Shoppe, a relationship that will prove to be quite valuable.  The leading nutritional products retailer has more than 400 stores in 37 states, and recently invited Lerner to exhibit at a private corporate event attended by store managers from across the nation.

Exhibit locally, distribute globally

Importers from around the world attend Natural Products Expo West in search of exciting innovations such as Solixir.  While international distribution deals may still be pending, Lerner acknowledges that exposure is key.  “We were able to get Solixir in front of several foreign importers at once – a feat that’s difficult and costly to accomplish other ways.”

The future is bright

With wins as noteable as Whole Foods and The Vitamin Shoppe, Lerner and his colleagues have a promising future ahead.  And, according to Lerner, trade shows will continue to help drive their success.  “We’ve done Natural Products Expo twice since launch,” he says, “and we plan to be there every year going forward!”

Find more reasons to exhibit at trade shows by reading The Value Of Trade Shows white paper.  This special report reveals how exhibitors and attendees find significant value in trade shows, and expect to for many years ahead!  Click here to request your free copy. 

Trade Show Marketers Wear Many Hats.  Brand Manager is One of Them.

As a trade show manager you probably think of yourself as a lot of things: a project manager, a firefighter, a purchaser – even a babysitter.  But do you consider yourself a brand manager?  If not, you should!

I attend 20 or 30 shows a year.  I observe and I ask lots of questions.  One of my favorite questions to ask exhibitors is why they’re there.  I’m curious about their objectives because, ultimately, my role is to help achieve them.  The most common response: to get leads.  Trade shows are a great way to fill the sales funnel, so that’s no surprise.  What does surprise me is the complete absence of responses such as “To change attitudes among my target markets,” or “To increase the relevancy of my brand,” or “To accentuate the unique characteristics of my brand,” and so on.

Sure people tell me they’re there to increase brand awareness, but Awareness (recall and recognition) is just one component of total Brand Knowledge – an important building block of brand equity and value.  The other primary facet is Image (see Keller, Aaker and Young & Rubicam for starters), and I think it’s ignored way too often to the great detriment of many a trade show program!

Why Should You Care?

You have a trade show booth to rent, a show book to complete and flights to book, so why should you add another entrée to your Mexican-restaurant-sized plate?  Because you may be missing the perfect opportunity to significantly enhance the value of your brand and the amount of value you bring to your company!

Too often we confuse branding with marketing aesthetics (e.g., how nice our brochures look or whether our web site has flash), and brand management with making sure we’re consistent in our use of colors and logos.  These are, of course, important aspects of brand building, but branding and brand management is much more than that.  It’s an important business process, a system that has a measurable impact on the bottom line.  Increase the value of your brand and you will likely:

• Earn higher prices
• Reduce switching behavior
• Acquire preferred distributors
• Have more successful brand extensions

Why, then, do we focus most of our brand-oriented trade show objectives on merely building awareness?  It occurs to me that there is no better opportunity than a trade show to manage the Image aspect of Brand Knowledge, and, in so doing, to systematically manage your brand in a way that will create real value.

So How Do You Do It?

Before I share some thoughts on how you might go about it, let me start with what not to do.  Do not completely ignore passersby because you’re busy staring impertinently at attractive shoppers.  Do not engage in a knock-down, drag ‘em out fight with your significant other in your booth.  And please, oh please, do not fire up a Marlboro Light while staffing your booth!  Yes, I’ve seen all these things and more and they never cease to amaze me.  Suffice it to say that it’s important to select the right people to be your brand advocates in the midst of thousands of members of your target market.  Obvious, I know, but…

A trade show is an excellent way to move the Image dial in a positive direction.  So once you’ve decided to send people who care enough to go outside to smoke, consider this:  Image includes a number of variables that are strongly associated with brand equity (see K.L. Keller, Y&B’s Brand Asset Valuator and others), including:

• Your brand’s personality
• The promise your brand is expected to deliver
• Perception of quality
• How relevant your brand is to an individual or organization
• How believable your brand is
• Level of satisfaction
• How different your brand is from your competitors’

Indeed, Image is Everything!

In short, Image is about the types of associations (i.e., positive or negative, unique or not, relevant or irrelevant) your customer has relative to your brand and the strength of those associations.

How your target markets perceive your brand’s personality is crucial.  Personality enables potential buyers to link your brand with the image they have of themselves (or their company) and how they want others to perceive them.  Make a connection between brand and self image and you’ve created latent value that you can later extract.  How do your most important market segments – thousands of whom are walking the show floor – perceive your brand’s personality?  Is their perception right where you’d like it to be?  If so, couldn’t you bolster that strength at the show?  If not, isn’t your major trade show, with all the press and buying power present, the perfect opportunity to begin changing the perception?  Whether you’re a precision component manufacturer whose brand is witty and sophisticated, or a surf gear retailer who’s quirky and eccentric, making sure staffers understand acceptable themes, content and subject matter, desired behaviors, proper attire, etc. can go a long way in developing precisely the personality you’re aiming for.

Promises, Promises

Delivering on the promise your brand represents couldn’t be more important when it comes to building value and customer loyalty.  Are there promises you can make to attendees before the show that you can deliver upon at the show?  Can you make explicit or implicit promises at the show and deliver as part of your post-show process?   Whether your brand promise is to be the most durable or to provide the most fun, your trade show program can play an integral role in forging the one-to-one bonds that you need to build a strong brand.

Lastly, the impact that your trade show efforts can have on perceptions of quality should be blindingly clear, yet smokers, fighters and ogling creepers abound.  Whether you use banner stands or a double deck island exhibit, trade show marketing can be a significant investment and should be treated as such.  As part of your brand management system it’s an important strategic investment.  If your graphics are soiled or your prototypes are falling apart, you may be spending tens of thousands of dollars to move the dial in the wrong direction!  Conversely, if pre-show research indicates that perceived quality is less favorable than you’d like it to be, why not leverage the unique tactile and experiential power of trade shows to stage a side-by-side comparison of your product against a competitor’s, or a hands-on demonstration?  And, imagine the added credibility and increased cachet you’ll enjoy in your organization when you provide hard data showing that your program has enhanced perceived quality!

Is brand management a key aspect of your trade show program?  If so, or if you have additional insights on how to align trade show marketing with brand management, we’d like to hear from you!

Is brand management part of your job?  What else is? Learn more about how your job compares to your peers by getting your own copy of The Evolving Role Of Exhibit Marketers, the new 36-page White Paper from Skyline Exhibits and Tradeshow Week Magazine.  Get your free copy by clicking here now.