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Or will the show be a lamb in these uncertain times?
It’s March. For me, that has always meant the first day of spring (even if that first day of spring generally looks an awful lot like that last day of winter); the college basketball tournament; and St. Patrick’s Day, when I try to find something, anything, green to wear (not my best color).
For the past 17 years, March has also meant GlobalShop. I’ve been around this show since the beginning, when it was the Store Fixture Show at the Merchandise Mart in Chicago. I saw it move to bigger and grander space in McCormick Place. I saw the floor fill with people and conversation and manufacturers build bigger, costlier, showier booths.
There were parties to go to, dinners all around town, then apres-dinner events. Sleep was not a big item on the GlobalShop agenda.
I was part of the discussion to change the name of the show to GlobalShop. (My part of that discussion was telling anyone who would listen that it sounded too grandiose to me, too overreaching, too Napoleon-invading-Russia. But nobody listened – it was the ’90s. Napoleon and Josephine were still the fun couple of Versailles, shopping regularly at Louis Vuitton.)
I saw “the show” (that’s how it was always referred to in Atlanta, no full name, like Valentino or Beyonce) move away from Chicago, successfully to Las Vegas, somewhat less successfully to Orlando. And I’ve seen the show reflect the industry: robust and ambitious in the beginning; a little desperate-feeling more recently.
So it’s March again, and this industry is wondering: Which GlobalShop will show up this year? The robo calls from Doug Hope promise that it will be, as it always was, a can’t-miss event. And those still standing will probably not miss it. It’s still an important place for retailers, designers and suppliers to get together and do some business. But how much business is being done?
Sadly, I think, still not as much as we’d like. It’s a trickle-down world, and the trickle is slow. First, the economy needs to turn around. Then consumers need to be convinced the economy’s turning around. (Jobs would be a wonderful step in that direction.) Then consumers have to begin shopping again. Then retailers have to begin investing in marketing and merchandise and, finally, in building new stores – then talking to design firms and getting bids from suppliers – then awarding those bids. Then the suppliers have to begin rehiring labor and opening up plant shifts again. Then they have to see some black ink in the ledger books.
Then, GlobalShop will become once again that robust, vibrant meeting place of retailers with money to spend and manufacturers with resources to show off.
Start trickling. We’re ready!
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Global Shop: Not AT ALL "in like a Lion." Instead, I would argue that it is "Out like a Dinosaur".
For many years our company, Winntech, utilized trade shows as our principle marketing channel. Beginning with the CES shows in 1993, and adding other major industry trade shows like C.T.I.A., Global Shop, etc. along the way. by 2002, our company was investing nearly 1 million dollars a year attending three major trade shows, plus a host of smaller ones. We were trade-show junkies--and believed that it would be impossible to continue building our business without remaining active in these big shows.
But the economies of attending these giant shows just continued to head in the wrong direction--So by 2007, we'd cut our trade show budget by 70%. By 2009, we had cut it to less than 100k TOTAL on all marketing.
Now here's the really funny part: We have simultaneously posted record years in 2007, 2008, 2009, and expect to again have a record year in 2010. At a time when so many others are "laying people off" we keep expanding and hiring. Our company is over twice the size this year that it was in 2002--while spending 1/10th the money on marketing.
How can this be? Well, it's quite simple, really. We've moved entirely over to a relationship marketing platform, and away from the old "show our tail feathers" at a big expensive trade-show booths type of plan.
The benefits are many:
*No money wasted on trade show booths that only last a year or two before the designs needed to be changed, and hundreds of thousands of dollars of material thrown in the trash.
*No more money wasted with union laborers at convention centers ripping us off for tens of thousands of dollars just to move our exhibit into the hall.
*No more 30-50k charges for union laborers to "set up" our exhibit ("set up" actually being a euphemism for DESTROY).
*No more costly hotel rooms in "convention friendly" cities where we have to warehouse tens of our staff members away from their families (and their regular work responsibilities) for 7-10 days while we pull off one of these major shows.
*Better end-pricing for our clients, since we have eliminated 90% of the money the company used to spend marketing!
But the biggest benefit of all? We can focus exclusively on building great relationships, one at a time, with the retailers who we'd really rather be doing business with--instead of pitching wildly to the reams of weary people flooding past our booth bleary-eyed from the prior night's parties. Trying to sort out which of these ghosts might be a real lead, and which ones are merely 'killing time' away from their offices as some sort of diversion from real life was an impossible challenge. And one that we increasingly realized was futile.
But we haven't entirely stopped attending shows. We've just stopped attending BIG shows. And recently, we've become huge fans of a very different kind of event--the ones put on by Connecting Point, including the StorePoint, and TechPoint Events. These shows are rigorously well-orchestrated "meet and greets"--where the Connecting Point show organizers have diligently worked to pair up retailers whose stated key interests align specifically with particular vendors who can provide the products and services required. In this scenario, there is virtually NO wasted time. The shows are quiet, professional, fast-paced, efficient, and FUN. In two or three days, and for 1/10th of the money we used to spend at other trade shows, we'll walk away with at least as many quality opportunities, --sometimes MORE.
Unfortunately, in the age of high travel costs, high shipping costs, and high labor costs--trade shows are being rapidly replaced with digital meetings, and smaller one-on-one relationship marketing programs. Suppliers and retailers who want to get seriously acquainted can jump on a plane and fly directly to see one-another personally when a specific project or opportunity is a right fit. NO wasted money, NO wasted time. NO hangovers.
Barrett Prelogar
Founder/CEO
Winntech.