company known for its products that treat persistent pain, DiDomenico healed the company’s ailing return on investment by creating a made-to-order exhibit.

Using input directly from Purdue’s physician and clinician attendees, DiDomenico designed a program to meet Purdue’s two simple goals: Increase the company’s flatlining leads, and educate attendees.

Purdue's Medical History
"Purdue’s trade show functions had resided for many, many years with sales administration, and they were viewed purely as logistical operations," DiDomenico says. "At shows, we set up our exhibit, people visited, people left, we dismantled, and moved on. There really was not a connection with the marketing department or the brand itself."


Furthermore, according to DiDomenico, "The company’s exhibit was antiquated, and attendees associated that with Purdue’s image. We were constantly refurbishing it, and I think someone compared it to changing the curtains on the Titanic as it was going down. On top of that, staff morale and ownership in the program was low, especially when they could look across the aisle and see the competitors’ beautiful, fairly new booths."

A third-party audit from one of Purdue’s 2004 shows indicated that 33 percent of booth visitors came to Purdue’s booth only by chance. DiDomenico wanted to make the company’s new exhibit a must-see destination. And what better way to design an exhibit that attendees would want to visit than to ask the attendees themselves what they’re looking for?

After expressing her concerns, DiDomenico persuaded management to move trade shows from the sales department to the marketing department. But most important, she convinced the company to pony up for a new property.

Next, DiDomenico arranged for third-party exit interviews in which attendees were asked what they thought of Purdue’s trade show program, what they would like to see in the new booth, if they would be more or less likely to purchase a product from Purdue as a result of their visit, and other questions about the kind of in-booth experience they would prefer.

DiDomenico analyzed the results to develop some key needs, which she used as the basis for a request for proposal (RFP) to exhibit-design firms. DiDomenico sent out several RFPs, and after evaluating the responses, she selected Czarnowski Exhibit Services as Purdue’s new exhibit-design partner.

Once Czarnowski signed on to the project, the company sought to verify DiDomenico’s results by completing its own physician polling. It sent a survey by mail to a sample of physicians in a variety of different specializations to see what elements they wanted to see in an exhibit, from the physical space to the activities within that space.

According to Nick Simonette, a national accounts manager at Czarnowski, the surveys asked attendees what types of information they want to receive when they go to trade shows, conferences, and exhibitions. Upon analyzing the results, one guiding word immediately floated to the top, defining virtually everything the doctors wanted. “We asked, ‘What are you looking for when you walk a show?’ And everyone said they’re looking for value: They want to go to someone with the answers, and they want someone who will educate the market,” Simonette says.

When Purdue and Czarnowski examined their independent survey results, they found several commonalities. Physicians desired a serene, comforting, and open environment. Respondents thought information about pain management and its results should be part of the exhibit experience, and they valued the opportunity to speak and network with their peers while interacting with industry experts and learning something valuable in the process.

DiDomenico then took that feedback and worked with Czarnowski to begin customizing an exhibit to the specific preferences of the very attendees she hoped the new property would attract.

The No-Pain Gain
Under DiDomenico’s leadership and guidance, Purdue unveiled its newly designed booth at its 2005 shows. As attendees requested, the new booth focused on pain management and pain relief. “We wanted to create an environment focused on relief and on nature — something that was harmonious, not flashy,” Simonette says.

Straight lines, an open floor plan, bamboo and other images of nature, and even the sound of rushing water invited attendees into Purdue’s exhibit, fulfilling physicians’ requests for both serenity and comfort. The open floor plan matched attendees’ preferences and gave them ample room for conversations with their professional peers.

The booth also contained circular detail stations with faux-stone bases. Their shape removed barriers between sales representatives and attendees, transforming meetings into consultative conversations where both physicians and sales reps learned together. Additionally, the small, circular stations allowed the reps to display only a limited number of products and kept the stations free of clutter, maintaining a serene, calming environment.

An upper-deck area, “almost like being in a tree house,” as DiDomenico says, provided a private, focused space for learning and other special in-booth events, including a book signing, where attendees received copies of “The Truth About Chronic Pain,” by Arthur Rosenfeld. Based on physicians’ feedback, the event had a clear learning focus, allowing attendees to meet and learn from an industry expert. It further made pain-management discussion and information-sharing a key component of the exhibit experience.

To facilitate peer interaction and keep visitors in the booth while creating the comforting environment attendees desired, DiDomenico also arranged for cappuccino and cookies, and even set up a fondue station inside the space.

A Rapid Recovery
Purdue wrote an entirely new prescription for its 2005 shows, and the results upgraded the company’s trade show program from critical to stable condition, with a 258-percent increase in sales leads over previous years’ shows.

The company’s percentage of visitors who came to its booth by chance also decreased by 8 percent between 2004 and 2005. Even better, Purdue met its goal of educating attendees, as 65 percent said they left Purdue’s booth having learned something new.

“These shows required a huge paradigm shift for us. We hadn’t looked at the program in at least 10 years, and in the past we had the mindset of, ‘We’re at the shows because we’ve always gone.’ Now we focus on the attendee — the physician — and by extension, the patient. [With our new approach], we not only met our goals, we exceeded them,” DiDomenico says.

All-Star Awards judges “liked the approach of using customer feedback to redesign the booth” and praised Purdue’s “good understanding of target-audience drivers.”

By using customer feedback to guide an overdue update to Purdue’s trade show program and to create the company’s new exhibit design, DiDomenico wrote a customer-made prescription that was just what the doctors ordered. e