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Advertising
and Marketing of Nursery Products: The Case of Industry Trade Shows
Enefiok
Ekanem, Surendra P. Singh, Fisseha Tegegne, and Safdar Muhammad
Cooperative
Agricultural Research Program
Seminar Series
Tennessee State University, Nashville, TN
April 28,
1999
Introduction. In the U.S., nursery producers
spend and average of 4% of gross sales, annually, on advertising.
Nursery producers advertise their products and services at industry
trade shows. Over the years, the costs of attending trade shows have
been increasing. Despite the high costs of attendance, nursery producers
continue to attend many of the 60 different shows that take place every
year in North America. Trade show attendees average from 1,000 in small
regional shows to about 10,000 in the larger national shows. Fortunately
for these shows, while the cost has been going up, the number of
attendees has also been going up. Trade shows involve the following cost
factors: transportation, accommodation, registration, booth space
rental, personnel/booth staff and other miscellaneous expenses. Trade
show marketing requires strategic planning. Exhibiting at a trade show
should be treated like any other component of a marketing and advertising
plan, and should focus on attracting potential customers. However,
attracting customer to a booth is a difficult task. Trade Show Bureau
research shows that about 76% of show attendees plan what booths to
visit at trade shows and stick to the list. On average, attendees visit
fewer than 23 booths per show (2.5 days) and spend an average of 20
minutes in each booth. According to trade show experts, what is done
before a trade show is as important as what is done during the show.
Factors such as theme, layout, lighting, giveaways, and after-show
follow-up program impact whether customers visit a booth. There is
evidence that good pre-show promotions can increase booth attendance by
as much as 33%. A carefully designed and well exhibited show helps
attract customers to the display booth.
Objectives. The overall objective of the
project reported here was to analyze effectiveness of trade shows
and other advertising tools used by Tennessee nursery growers.
Specifically, this presentation will estimate the level of usefulness of
selected advertising methods, and assess the reasons for attending trade
shows for Tennessee nursery producers.
Methodology. A stratified random sample of
Tennessee nursery producers drawn from the 1997 Active Membership
Listing was used for this study. The population of nursery producers in
the membership listing was stratified to size (gross annual sales) and
region (east, middle, west). The following size classifications were
used in drawing the sample: small size: $500,001 - $999,999 and large
size: > $1 million. A random sample of 200 nursery producers that
represented all groups were then selected for the survey. Sixty-nine
useable questionnaires were analyzed using the Statistical Package for
the Social Sciences.
Results/Impact. The survey showed that
word-of-mouth, brochures, trade shows and catalogs were top advertising
channels. Word-of-mouth is an important and effective way to advertise
nursery products and has been recognized as one of the most powerful
marketing vehicles for nursery producers. It is effective for small as
well as large-scale sellers. Making contacts for future sales was
selected as the most important consideration for attending trade shows
followed by an interest in finding out what is new in the market.
Because of the large sums of money involved in attending trade shows, it
is important to understand how trade shows can be utilized effectively
as a strategic marketing tool. There is a need to know what economic and
non-economic gains could be ascribed to trade show attendance.
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