Creating demand for your product

Creating demand for your product. Well what is the metrics for demand. X amount of attendees, and Y amount of exhibitors in a location that will bring both and in a destination city that is attractive to both audiences.


Now faced with online tools and an economy that is watching every dollar and is very sensitive to where they spend and what they spend it on. Ok we all get that I hope at this point as travel dollars are under alot of scutiny these days. So if we have had an event for a long time do we still need to create demand for our product?
I hope your answer is yes, because we always need to do so in good economic time and also during times when we are all under duress.

So we all get that this is a new economy or those that do get it will realize that we need to work even harder to create demand for a product that is being questioned during these times.  I'm not questioning whether you have a great product. I'm throwing out the question are you creating demand for your product.
I've already made one mistake to not include vendors, destinations, venues etc. in this equation as well because they need to create demand as well along with exhibitors and believe it or not attendees in their participation in this new supply chain.

It's interesting the web refers to web 2.0 and now up to 4.0. Well should all of us that are participants in the tradeshow model refer to our model as the 2.0 or the 4.0 model? No we don't have to do that but my point is we do need to upgrade our program to the current realities of doing business.

It's not an easy job to create demand from exhibitors and attendees. Yes it was easier but now it's much harder, not because your fighting off obstacles that you have never seen before. However these obstacles are becoming more unified and efficient.

The demand is not as simples as saying we have over x amount of exhibitor and we expect y amount of attendees. They want to know how much business opportunity will come out of this marketing vehicle. The attendee wants to know their take away and the exhibitor wants to know their take away. This not as easy as just saying we brought together 50,000 people in a global marketing showplace.
Both of your customers bases are going to push you for tangible measurable results. What does this mean?
Well what is means is you need to collect more data. You need to collect more intelligence you need to begin to evaluate all of your offerings for a measurable return.

Example if I buy a snickers, if I like it enough I will buy another one. If I buy your event and I like the satisfaction results I will also buy it again. This all goes to all of the other groups involved in events as well.

We need to become very pro-active in the way we gather data and I would suggest that we begin to understand and collect metrics on who our attendees buy products from and create a measuring stick going forward to continue to track this metric. This proves true ROI also you should look at collecting data from your attendees on their search process from every show they attend and collect that data to measure performance of the product and long-term ROI.

Exhibitors will give you the numbers that they want to hear. You need to collect more data then they are offering. Also in creating demand you need to understand your attendees wants and needs and their justification for attending an event. What is their take-away.  Also work with your base and see how they can help you get a better understanding of their needs from a attendee and exhibitor standpoint.

You might be surprised by the results and the direction the overall group gives you and the good part is they are going to give you the data you need for creating demand.

Hope all is well in your industry sector and look forward to you continuing to read this blog. Just like everything I mentioned above I need to see how a I can create demand for this blog and what topics and information people want to talk about. If I do this hopefully we can have a very engaging blog for the industry.