Event Marketing: How to Successfully Promote Events, Festivals, Conventions, and Expositions

motivations of its audience likely will be driven by improv-

ing their individual profits, education, and competitiveness.

This heterogeneous and complex mix of priorities within the

association market presents a daunting challenge for you to

identify and sell the benefits(before you sell the features) of

the event. This is yet another argument for effective quanti-

tative and qualitative market research.

■Corporations can usually take their events anywhere they

want. Incentive trips will usually be booked in exotic loca-

tions and resorts, the most popular of which are in Hawaii

and Florida. As companies participate increasingly in the

global market, more than ever events such as product intro-

ductions and sales blitzes are held throughout the world. For

marketing, this means that the promotional emphasis may

stress the location as well as the purpose of the event itself.

■On the other hand, associations may be restricted by covenant

or bylaws to certain areas. A state or county educational as-

sociation may not be permitted to convene outside of its

home locale. A national society in the United States may be

restricted to a U.S. venue for certain events. An adroit mar-

keter will determine this before preparing a marketing pro-

posal that, because of this lack of understanding, may be con-

sidered invalid at the outset by the sponsoring organization.

Now that you understand the critical differences between as-

sociation and corporate communities as target markets, let us turn

our attention solely to the corporate market.

Selling the Corporate Message

To sell the corporate message, you need to understand the corpo-

rate culture of your client or employer. Webster’s Unabridged Dic-

tionarydefinescultureas “the integrated pattern of human be-

havior that includes thought, speech, action, and artifacts and

depends upon man’s capacity for learning and transmitting knowl-

edge to succeeding generations.” In addition, it cites “the custom-

ary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious,

or social group.” To that definition, we could add “or corporation.”

Employees are imbued with the ideals, slogans, and symbols

of the company. Events will often personify these through

136 Chapter 6 Marketing Corporate Meetings, Products, Services, and Events