464 CHAPTER 14 EXHIBITIONS AND TRADE FAIRSNew companies can take off quickly in a market by immediately marketing their products
and services to the target market in a direct way. Trade fairs may help to increase brand and
company awareness rapidly within the target market, and to make deals with customers
whom they would not have met as quickly using other communications tools. One of the
major strengths of trade fairs is that products and services can be demonstrated and potential
buyers may experience the value of products by trying them out, looking at them, touching
them, etc. Potential customers can have all the technical details they want and the products’
features and unique selling points can be demonstrated.
In an era when food retailers are seeking to diff erentiate themselves, the SIAL show in
Paris, an international food, beverage, wine and spirits exhibition, provides a showcase of
innovative products in three ways. Th e exhibition fl oor off ers a range of products divided
into product areas, then subdivided by country of origin. A trend showcase provides a specifi c
array of products that are among the most outstanding of the new products. Th e show’s own
SIAL d’Or Awards spotlight items that are distinguished as fresh, inventive and trendy by a
panel of judges. In the category ‘Savory Frozen Products’ the Italian company Agrifood Abruzzo
won the award in 2012 with its ‘Foglia a Foglia’ product. Foglia a Foglia is a dish made from
layers of leaves of frozen spinach, beet, savoy cabbage and chicory. Th e innovative technology
keeps the leaves intact, and preserves the fl avour, colour and tenderness of the fresh vegetables.
Since 2010, SIAL has also rewarded innovative products aimed at children aged 3 to 12 via
the Disney-SIAL Award. Th ese products must combine the nutritional value required for a
balanced diet with taste and fun so that they satisfy both parents and children. Th e biennial
SIAL exhibition in Paris attracts more than 136 400 delegates from 200 countries and is one
of the biggest events in the world for the food industry. It off ers foreign and small companies
the opportunity to demonstrate their innovative products to the world’s biggest retailers.^14‘Adventure Affair’ is a public fair for adventurous travellers with a global passion organised by Flanders Expo.
There are more than 100 exhibitors who give people a look at all the adventurous and sport-oriented vacations,
specialised tour operators, new discoveries and destinations. The fair is also for active and extreme sports fans
(diving, mountainbiking, wildwater rafting, etc.). At the 2007 fair, around 12 000 visitors were registered. The fair
is composed of different sections: ‘Far away’, ‘Near home’, ‘Material’, ‘Bikes’, ‘Big kick’, ‘Non-profit’, ‘Four-wheel
drive’ and ‘Living abroad’.
In 2003, the organisation realised that there was a problem. Adventure Affair was overly focused on a niche. The
fair had been in existence since 1996. But, at that time, adventure travel was, for example, backpacking in Vietnam.
Nowadays people think differently about adventure travel: everyone is going to Vietnam. The concept of adventure
travel has acquired a new connotation. There were few young people at the fair. The young public did not seem
to be interested anymore, and they did not find what they were looking for at the fair. The organisation realised
that the market for adventure travel had changed in such a substantial way that a repositioning of the fair was more
than necessary to keep it alive. A SWOT analysis showed that the fair was still well known and that the market
for adventure was still rising. Other strengths were the fact that the fair received a lot of media attention and that
it attracted a qualitatively high visitor public. A major weakness was the fact that the fair for adventure travel
was no longer perceived as adventurous enough. Every year fewer people visited the fair. There were also many
opportunities, though. Adventure Affair could diversify into the more exciting side of adventure and travelling and
could focus on a younger public without neglecting the older public. On the basis of the results of the SWOT
analysis and brainstorming, the organisation found out that there had to be more modern kicks at the fair. So itBUSINESS INSIGHT
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