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

loyalty, time, and investment of their members. A county or city
fair may compete against summertime family vacations that draw
many potential attendees away from the community or region.
The key to competing for any event is to analyze the competi-
tion, which may be direct or subtle, and to respond with market-
ing strategies to overcome the competition. Obviously, the ap-
proaches will vary greatly, depending on the challenges presented
by the competition. The following generic examples of analyzing
your competition will be helpful.

1. Rate the competition’s event in comparison to yours in
   terms of:

■Cost/price

■Timing

■Program features

■Quantifiable benefits

■Influential players/demographics of audience

■Demand (perceived or real)

■Quality

■Marketing strategies employed

■Attendance trends

■Geographic distribution of venues

These and any other pertinent comparisons should be charted
on a grid, comparing your event and that of the competition. The
rating system used on each comparison can be any that makes
sense to you and your analysts (e.g., a scale of 1 to 10, rating poor
to excellent; or a ranking system of “E,” “G,” “F,” and “P” for ex-
cellent, good, fair, and poor). The grid will enlighten you as to rel-
ative strengths and weaknesses and areas to improve the market-
ing strategies. Don’t overcomplicate the process! List only those
elements that are important to you. Use a weighting system that
others can understand. Most important, once the analysis is in
place, “work the plan!” The more user friendly it is, the greater
the chance that it will become a living document during the mar-
keting effort, easy to respond to and relevant to changing market
conditions. Maintaining the tool on a computer is most conducive
to retrieval and modification, but not essential to the effort. Hand
charts will suffice for those who, for whatever reason, find the
computer a barrier to easy access and manipulation of compar-
isons. Then archive the charts for year-to-year reference.

Developing New Marketing Strategies to Beat the Competition 189