Marketing Communications

460 CHAPTER 14 EXHIBITIONS AND TRADE FAIRS

from diff erent industries. Companies selling chemical components may participate in that type

of exhibition to market their products to buyers from diff erent industries (food, detergents, etc.).

In vertical trade fairs , diff erent industries present their goods and services to target groups

belonging to one single fi eld of activity. Various marketers of building materials, wooden doors,

plumbing equipment, etc., may participate in trade fairs aimed at construction companies.

RFID 2007 is an event organised by Fairtec. Fairtec is a Belgian organiser of technical fairs in the Benelux countries.

RFID was organised for the first time in Belgium on 7 July 2007 in the Metropolis Business Center in Antwerp. RFID

(Radio Frequency Identification) technology has been around for many years and is used in applications such as

access control, animal tagging and electronic payment. The technology consists of two elements that communicate

via radio waves: a tag (or transponder) and a reader. It is a promising and upcoming technology in various industries

for many different applications. RFID 2007 offered an opportunity for companies to expand their network in the

Benelux countries. RFID focuses on three domains: logistics and distribution, control and sensors, and supply

management.

The problem for RFID was who to communicate with. Fairtec was sure that many companies could be interested

in this technique, but they did not know which specific persons to communicate with. Therefore, at the beginning,

Fairtec decided to communicate broadly. A website where people could register was very helpful in making

communications easier. Another way to communicate RFID was to have contacts with the Flemish engineering

federation. This federation could help communicate the existence of RFID to possible visitors. Communications in

foreign countries for RFID were done via trade magazines. For the RFID event, a special English-language website

was developed for the visitors as well as for the exhibitors. Fairtec also tried to give incentives to exhibitors

who made the databases of their clients available. It made use of all the existing databases from former years, and

every visitor who had expressed an interest in the automation industry got an invitation to the RFID fair. RFID is an

international event. Therefore, the location and the date when the fair is being organised are essential. It is very

important to organise a certain fair by taking the other international fairs into account. The big fairs are normally

organised every two or four years in May or June, and all other fair organisers follow these dates. Fairtec organised

its RFID fair in July in Brussels, a well-known international city.^3

BUSINESS INSIGHT

RFID: establishing a fair

Conference-bound exhibitions 4 are small exhibitions linked to a conference. Th ey have a low

reach, but may be highly eff ective as a result of their high selectivity on the target group. Th is

kind of exhibition, in combination with a conference or symposium, has become very popular

both because it is fi nancially attractive to conference organisers and because they off er an

eff ective way to reach target groups that are hard to reach through other communications

media. Th e fair conference formula is very popular in the USA, as opposed to exhibitions

which are more explicitly aimed at buying and selling. Unlike their European counterparts,

American companies do not enjoy buying and selling in the open. In Europe the concept of

a ‘market’, where sellers and buyers of competing products stand next to each other and try

to out-shout each other, has always existed.

A trade mart is a hybrid kind of exhibition, i.e. half-exhibition, half-display, with a high

frequency. Participants rent a permanent stand and aim to sell. Participants in trade marts

have samples permanently on display.

In Table 14.2 , an alternative classifi cation of exhibitions is presented, based on types of

visitors and exhibitors.^5 Other classifi cations include: public versus private fairs, indoor versus

outdoor exhibitions and static versus mobile exhibitions.

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