Sublime Thoughts

Have you ever been to a trade show that didn’t quite get the attendance you were expecting?  A few months ago, I found myself at my first trade show as a vendor and in that situation.  I can’t call on years of experience to share with you, but I would like to mention a few ideas that turned out pretty well for me and things that I learned.

1. Demo Products Don’t Have to Be a Loss – As a new business, and a very new business then, watching expenses was and is a big priority.  I knew I’d be making more than a handful of demo products, and I really didn’t want to make a “Fred’s Web Design” mug that would probably get packed away and maybe damaged after the show.  Light bulb!  I put together a quick little web page listing the products I wanted to make for the show and advertised that you had the opportunity to buy any of these products with your logos or designs just above my cost!  Perfect.  My demo products paid for themselves, were not packed away, and were in the hands of potential future customers.
2. Potential Customers May Be on Both Sides of the Tables – As I sat at the show, watching small streams of attendees, I quickly realized that there were not going to be many opportunities to talk about my products.  Was this a total loss?  Absolutely not.  I began conversation with the vendors around me and found that, as small business owners, they were precisely in my target market and were very interested in my products.
3. Bears Like Trade Shows aka Think Outside the Box – Meet Charlie.  He’s our Customer Service Bear, and one of our products, so he was at the show with us.

   

   Toward the end of the show, I decided to make the rounds through the vendors’ tables and strike up some conversation, since it was idle there.  I decided to bring Charlie with me as an ice breaker.  We were both wearing our ID badges, like you see on him in the picture, so I imagine that sight got a few people wondering.  We got several people who asked us to come closer so they could look at the bear, and that started conversation that ultimately turned to my products.  Simply walking around the trade show floor with a plush bear was a unique marketing tool.

These photos are clickable and will take you to the Flickr photoset for the trade show.