This document discusses various types of large-scale events used by brands to communicate with trade and consumer audiences. It covers trade shows and exhibitions, events marketing and sponsorships, and cause-related marketing. The key points made are that trade shows provide a cost-effective way to promote products and services to industry audiences, sponsorship is an increasingly popular promotional method, and cause-related marketing can enhance a brand's reputation by associating it with charitable causes. Evaluation of these events' effectiveness can be challenging due to both direct and indirect impacts on awareness, attitudes, and sales.
2. overview
• There are a variety of large scale events
designed to communicate the benefits of the
brand to the trade and consumer audiences
alike
• Increasing use is being made of trade shows
and exhibitions to create events that can be
used to achieve cost-effective communication to
the members of the trade
• Equally, sponsored events are gaining
momentum to extend brand values and
communicate, in many instances, those values
to a world-wide audience
3. • The role of cause related marketing, in
which a company or brand links with a
charitable organisation to develop
promotional activities
4. Session objectives
• To consider the roles of trade shows and
exhibitions
• To examine the functions of events
marketing and sponsorships
• To appreciate the growth and scale of
sponsorship activities
• To understand the increasing role and
importance of cause related marketing
5. Trade shows and exhibitions
• Many companies participate in trade shows, professional
shows and other events that provide them with a forum
to promote their products and services
• Some events represent a major opportunity to establish
and maintain contact with trade.
• Trade shows provide the opportunity to affect multiple
phases of the industrial buying process in one location
• They can create awareness in new prospects, reinforce
existing customer relationships, provide product
demonstrations for evaluation, establishing relationship
between vendors and prospects and allow sales of
products on the spot
6. • Trade shows significantly influence the
industrial buying process during the need
recognition and vendor evaluation stages
of the purchase process
• Pre-show promotion: is necessary.
7. The advantages of trade shows
• A message delivered to a large number of qualified
interested people
• The introduction of new products to a large number of
people. Many companies use major shows as the forum
for the launch of new products eg cars are often
launched at international motor shows, computers etc
• Trade shows provide the opportunity to identify potential
customers
• Enhancing goodwill
• Gaining free company publicity. Made representative
attend the show
8. • Enhancing the corporate image among
competitors, customers, industry and the media
• Gathering competitor information
• Selling at show itself
• Gaining access to key decision makers
• Disseminating facts about products or services
• Servicing current account problems: opportunity
to deal face to face with customers will often
serve to alleviate problems that they may be
having with the organisation
9. Trade show objectives
• To enhance company/brand awareness
amongst trade audience
• To introduce new products
• To reach customers-cost effectively
• To generate additional sales
• To identify sales opportunities/leads
• To enhance relationships with existing
customers
• To gain information about competitive
companies
10. The negatives of trade shows
• Herbig et al[1998] suggest that trade shows have their
downside
• Tactical rather than strategic orientation might account
for finding that only 23% of executives think trade show
effort is very effective
• This poor opinion of trade shows by executives is often
exacerbated by the fact only 56% of firms participating in
trade shows have specific objectives before participating
in a given show
• Only 46% of companies set goals before they exhibit,
half are wishy-washy and one out of three exhibitors do
not set quantifiable objectives
11. • Few exhibitors do any pre-show promotion to
ensure that their key prospects reach their booth
• Booth personnel training has improved but
leaves much to be desired and lead qualification,
tracking and return on investment evaluation are
functions unexplored by most exhibitors
• Barely 17% of all exhibitors provide their
management executives with return on
investment [ROI] data
• Many firms have failed to measure quantifiably
the return on their trade-show investment
12. • Other disadvantages with trade shows include taking
sales people away from their territories, the crowded,
confusing environment found in large shows, labour
problems and unions, proliferation and excessive
frequency of trade shows and high proportion of sight
seers
• Unknown effectiveness on return per shilling spent and
difficulty of measuring efficiency, high and rising costs of
participation
• There is the cost of producing the company stand,
maintaining continuous staff presence to meet both
existing and potential customers, the cost of providing
hospitality etc
13. The evaluation of trade shows
• Substantial sums of money are devoted to exhibitions
• Trade exhibitions are clearly regarded as an important
tool of marketing communications
• Despite that, few exhibitors have an accurate way of
evaluating the return on their trade-show investments
• Blythe[1999] points out that only a minority of visitors to
trade exhibitions have a purchasing role
• Their attendance is predicted on information gathering,
particularly about new products
14. • He concludes that few exhibitors adopt a market-
oriented approach towards their exhibition activities
• The measurement of trade show effectiveness is made
more difficult as a result of a number of factors
• First, a firm`s participation in trade shows result in direct
sales effects as well as attitudinal effects[creating
product awareness and interest, building image and
reputation, developing a favourable corporate image and
handling customer complaints]
• Second, the trade show is typically combined with other
communication activities such as direct marketing,
advertising and personal selling
15. • It is difficult to measure the contribution of
each of the individual components
• Different participants have different
expectations of the benefits of trade show
participation. Some are interested in
generating leads, others in promoting their
corporate image,whilst others seek to
maintain contact with current customers
16. • According to Blythe[1999], ther e is an
anomaly in that few large firms making a
large commitment to exhibitions actually
use rigorous research to confirm the
success of the exercise
• It is clearly important to define precisely
what objectives are to be met by
participants in such events and how they
are to be measured
17. • Faria and Dicknson[1986] rated 34 trade show selection
criteria on a nine-point scale
• Their results indicated the firms that exhibited were
concerned primarily with audience quality, audience
quantity, display location and logistical aspects in that
order
• Another measure is exhibit efficiency, that is the
percentage potential audience that receives person to
person contact at the company`s exhibit
• Other measures might include:
• Personnel performance-the quality and the number of
exhibit personnel on duty at the booth
18. • Product interest-the percentage of booth visitors
who said they were interested in seeing the
company`s type of products/services
• Buying influence-the percentage of an average
exhibit`s visitors who claimed a buying influence
for its products/services
• Buying plans-the % of an exhibit`s visitors who
said they were planning to buy the company`s
products/services as a result of what they saw at
the show
• Memorability-the percentage of visitors who
stopped at the exhibit and remember doing so
19. Other measures of effectiveness
generally used
• The number of leads generated
• The quantity of actual sales that result
from these leads
• The cost per lead generated
• Feedback about the show given to sales
force
• The amount of literature distributed at the
show
20. Event marketing and sponsorships
• The term event marketing is used to describe a
wide range of activities in which a brand is linked
to some form of event
• Certainly, for many organisations, such activity is
an extension of their normal sales promotion
planning
• Elsewhere, however it takes on greater
significance, especially within the strategic
framework of the brand and some companies
have an individual or division specifically
responsible for managing events in which the
company is involved
21. • In some intsnces, this activity may be designed to
associate the brand with a particular lifestyle and
augment the barnd image
• When marketers associate their brands with events that
already provide an emotional appeal, they may be able
to associate these feelings with the brand
• By careful selection of the sponsored event, marketers
can target activities that appeal to specific segments of
the market
• Robinsons, which has long been associated with tennis,
has mounted a road show to strengthen its ties
• The play tennis roadshow, which coincides with the
Wimbledon championships event, will run for 4 months
22. • Players can test their serve at some 40 locations, including
supermarkets and shopping centres with coaches on hand to give
advice.
• Prize draw runs alongside the event with one participant at each
event given the chance to win a tennis racket.
• One winner will receive shs 500,000= worth of tennis coaching
• Event is created especially for the purpose of promoting the brand
• Events are used for the purpose of distributing samples or
information about the brand to potential consumers
• Some events are designed to forge links with charitable
organisations, others to commemorate specific moments in brand`s
history, such as anniversary etc
23. Issues to consider in identification
of an event
• Is the event compatible with the image[actual or
desired] or the brand or the company sponsoring
it? Events can be used to reinforce a brand`s
existing image or assist in the process of
changing that image if it is felt to be in
appropriate or out of date
• Sponsorship has its own characteristics that
contribute to making it commercially attractive to
corporations aiming to build favourable
associations and identities for their brands
24. • Will th event attract an appropriate segment of
the target audience
• Does it offer potential for trade entertainment?
• Will the event provide exclusivity of association
or will it be shared with other sponsors[some of
whom might be competitors]?
• Is it intended as one-off or a long term
association?
• Will the event attract media interest and create
publicity for the brand?
25. sponsorship
• a major area that is often included within sales
promotion armoury is that of sponsorship
• Erdogan and Kitchen [1998] define sponsorship
as the practice of promoting a company`s
interest and its brand by tying them to a specific
and meaningful related event, organisation or
charitable cause
• It has become an increasingly popular medium
of corporate communication especially among
companies operating in consumer markets
• Sponsorship is a versatile method of
communication
26. • It is used to achieve a variety of objectives
• It can persuade indirectly and by association
• Many companies now sponsor events routinely
as part of their promotional activities, however,
in many instances the objectives tend to be
vague
• Although various definitions of sponsorship are
given, they recognize that sponsorship is first
and foremost a commercial activity
27. • Sponsorship is often an extension of event
management, although it may take on a variety
of different forms
• An event such as the olympics represents a very
large expenditure for corporate sponsors, but
provides a superb marketing platform
• Sponsorship if it is associated with human
causes, philanthropic is likely to create positive
feeling among consumers
• These positive emotional reactions would then
extend to attitudes towards the sponsor or the
brand
28. Objectives of sponsorship
• Enhancing corporate image
• Increasing awareness of brands
• Stimulating the sales of products or
services
• Leveraging corporate good will
• Sponsorship is the underwriting of a
special event with the object of supporting
organisational objectives according to
Javalgi[1994]
29. Evaluating sponsorship
• Kover[2001] proposes that pay-off can be
measured by”
• Attitudinal effects
• Direct market effects
• The impact on stock prices
30. Methods of evaluation of
sponsorship activities
• Monitoring the quality and nature of the
media coverage obtained from sponsored
event
• Estimating direct and indirect audiences
• Tracking techniques can be used to
evaluate the awareness, familiarity and
preferences engendered by sponsorship
based on consumer surveys
31. ambushing
• An official sponsorship becomes increasingly
expensive to some companies prohibitively so
• Some seek alternative routes towards
associating their brands with major events
• In some instances companies purport to be the
sponsors of an event without paying fees
associated with the event
• By having a strong presence in the area outside
of the event, eg outside football stadiums or
atheletics tracks, manufacturers can associate
their brands with the event taking place inside
32. • Ambush occurs when companies try to create
the perception that they are associated with the
an event without actually being sponsor
• Cause related marketing is an area of
promotional activity that is receiving increasing
attention and support
• The purpose is to associate the company with
some form of charity activity in order to create
positive attitude towards itself through that
association
33. Impacts of cause related marketing
• Enhancing reputation and image
• Making corporate social responsibility and
corporate community investment visible
• Increased loyalty
• Building relationships
• Aiding differentiation
• Increasing sales
• Generating awareness
