Dull Future Waiting For Trade Shows
Dec 18th, 2008 | Category: Featured Articles, NewsBy Jimmy Vu
When Apple announced to stop attending MacWorld after the last show early next year, questions also rise seriously over the future of trade shows in general.
There were many comments about the ROI a company gains at a trade show and it appears not efficient enough for Apple, according to the company’s claim:
Apple is reaching more people in more ways than ever before, so like many companies, trade shows have become a very minor part of how Apple reaches its customers. The increasing popularity of Apple’s Retail Stores, which more than 3.5 million people visit every week, and the Apple.com website enable Apple to directly reach more than a hundred million customers around the world in innovative new ways.
So, apart from the retail stores Apple has invested a lot on to get touch with customers directly, Internet is significant factor that leaded to Apple’s decision. In a post titled “Are bloggers & social networks killing the big shows?” Scobleizer pointed out the emerging of user-generated contents and relationships on net was the murderer of trade shows.
“Why? 44,000 people go to MacWorld. Hell, a lot more people watch Engadget report from that much cheaper conference room,” wrote Scobleizer on how a big blog about gadgets can spread all aspects of Apple’s products to much, much more audiences than a so-called successful trade show can reach.
Jason Kincaid, TechCrunch, gave another reason why Apple should no longer attend MacWorld from business perspective:
MacWorld’s timing as a January event has always been questionable - many consumers have long since learned not to purchase Apple products in the weeks leading up to the event, which likely resulted in lost sales during the holiday shopping season.
All above may be particular reasons of Apple whose strong brand loyalty makes every word about its new or future products be immediately posted on headlines of top blogs and news sites, then echoed via fan communities on Facebook, MySpace etc. to get big buzz quite easily.
But other companies do not have such advantages and trade shows like CES are still good places to get coverage by media, to show new products to target customers. Yet all are questioning it is worth pouring tons of money into the events while Internet can be a better put to reach users if they give enough effort and money to build the name.
“Small booth: $15,000 You wanted internet? $1,000. You wanted curtains? $4,500. Decent carpet? $2,000. Power? Trash cans? You wanted extra outlets? Have to hire one of our union electricians. How many hours you want him for?” said Wil Shipley, an independent software developer, criticizing the expensive pricing scheme the organizers of trade shows are following.
Now suddenly companies recognize that the prices are beyond acceptable during the time of bad economy. “My sponsor, Seagate, told me they are reducing their spend this year at CES,“ Scobleizer said in the post “AMD and Delphi are doing the same thing and I’m hearing about many other companies who will either stop going, or reduce the size of their booths,” he added.
There are many things that seem obviously necessary at normal time have become too luxurious to afford today. Individual customers can flatly refuse over-priced stuff while some companies still have to pay for due to signed contracts but they will turn their back next times.
Dull future is waiting for trade shows and it is high time for IDG and the rest to think about a total change.
