Bob Milam, trade show manager at Kerry Americas, is a past All-Star Award winner, a current Editorial Advisory Board member, a Conference Advisory Board member, and an EXHIBITOR Conference faculty member. [email protected]

t was the best of booths; it was the worst of booths. It was the booth of wisdom; it was the booth of foolishness. It was the booth of ice cream; it was the booth of meat.

Oh, and it was the World Wide Food Expo (WWFE), a show so full of tasty victuals that even Oliver Twist would stop asking for more.

In 2007, two different divisions of my company, Kerry Group Inc., a supplier of processed-food ingredients, were planning to exhibit at the WWFE show in Chicago. One division made ice-cream ingredients, the delicious add-ins such as cookie dough or caramel swirl that turn plain ice cream into gooey decadence. The second division made meat flavorings, the spice combinations and marinade mixtures used when making specialty sausages, Slim Jims, and other meaty treats.

Because the two divisions sell to such unique groups of clients — ice-cream makers and meat processors — it made perfect sense to have two separate booths at the show. But despite our divisions’ disparate target audiences, we couldn’t have imagined how distinctly different their respective exhibits would turn out.

That’s not to say the booths didn’t have anything in common. Both had what we call a front porch, a space where we offer samples to passersby while determining who is just looking for a bite to eat and who is a potential customer. Both had meeting rooms and food-prep areas, as well as graphics to attract attendees. The two divisions both had literature to highlight the key messages of their respective product lines, and each had a team of sales staffers to man its booth.

So if both exhibits were constructed the same, featured similar signage and literature, and were staffed with similar salespeople, why the Dickensian culture clash? Well, the simple answer is that the two divisions approached the show so differently that one was destined for success while the other was headed for comparable failure.

We All Scream for Ice Cream

The ice-cream division developed an all-out marketing plan for WWFE. With a finite number of customers, the division planned to target clients selectively, based on what kinds of ice-cream ingredients each could afford. (Add-ins need to be customized for each client, so the cookie dough in your Ben and Jerry’s, a top-30 national maker, is different from the cookie dough in your Kemps, a Midwest regional ice-cream maker.) With about 90 potential clients at the show, the division divided its target audience into the top 30 prospects vs. the bottom 60.

The division then sent all 90 ice-cream makers pre-show materials that presented products designed to meet their specific needs and appeal to their budgets. The mailers sent to the bottom 60 were a bit more vanilla, extolling the virtues of our basic line of ice-cream ingredients. The top 30 were invited to come sample the more unique flavors, the add-ins that only the big companies could afford.

When attendees arrived at the booth, staffers used the exhibit’s architecture to help them qualify and segregate potential buyers. The front-porch area kept the ice cream flowing to the masses while providing a point for staffers to determine if an attendee was a top manufacturer, a regional ice-cream maker, or just someone looking for some free samples.

Once identified, staffers brought prospects past the porch for a private sales meeting, and presented a customized sales pitch featuring the ingredients each particular prospect was most likely to be interested in based on their volume of business and existing line of products.

To wrap things up, the ice-cream division sent a post-show mailer to each prospect that sat down for a private sales meeting at the show. The mailers were customized like the sales pitches, with each including information and samples based on what the client — big or small — expressed interest in during his or her visit to the booth.

Don’t Be a Meathead

While the meat market is similar to the ice-cream market in that there are a finite number of potential clients that can be divided into national giants vs. regional processors, the meat division didn’t send any pre-show mailers, targeted or general. In fact, it didn’t develop a marketing plan to define or target specific attendees at the show. The division’s main goal was simply to talk about its lines of natural flavors and cures.

Once at the show, attendees’ first interaction with our meat division came when they saw a sign over the booth heralding the division’s natural cures, along with images of pepperoni pizza and barbecue ribs. Unlike the ice-cream booth, which kept the same flavors on the porch, didn’t encourage repeat business, and kept a lookout for targeted attendees the staff had been told to seek out, the meat group trotted out new samples every couple of hours, happily serving anyone who showed up. In fact, the focus on the porch seemed to be making attendees happy with meaty flavor. Booth staffers would only perk up once an attendee mentioned his position with a top-prospect company, and pre-show training hadn’t committed the names of any particular attendees or the need to look for them in the minds of the meat group’s staff.

Because the meat division so poorly qualified its leads, its meeting rooms were barely used. As a result of the lackluster qualified traffic during the show, the enthusiasm from the staff waned — and the enthusiasm of attendees followed that trend.

Since staffers showed prospects the products they hoped to sell — its natural flavors and cures — rather than what might fit each prospect’s pre-determined needs, the few meetings that were conducted lacked a focus on what each meat processor could afford or what would work well with that processor’s existing product line.

Finally, when the show ended, there was no coordinated effort to follow up with product samples or additional information.

The Moral of This Tale

Not surprisingly, the ice-cream division easily boasted far better results from WWFE than those achieved by the meat division. How much better? Without getting into dollar amounts, which would be like comparing caramel apples to orange-glazed chicken anyway, the ice-cream division hosted four in-booth meetings for every one meeting held in the meat division’s booth.

So how did two divisions from the same company, exhibiting at the same show and in similar exhibits achieve such vastly different results? Simple. One had a marketing strategy, and the other did not.

If your company’s results from your last show classify you as a meathead, you might want to consider the following steps to develop your own basic exhibit-marketing plan.

Define your target audience. Start out by defining the basic characteristics of your target audience. The ice-cream group, for instance, was obviously targeting ice-cream makers. However, take it a step further and identify any segmentation within that audience. That segmentation could be based on geography, company size or budget, etc. The more you know about your target audience, the more you can tailor your exhibit-marketing campaign to attract their attention and meet their needs.

Get on their radar. Pre-show communications are a great way to get on your target audience’s must-see list. Consider sending e-mails or direct mailers that include information about why prospects should visit your booth. You wouldn’t host a party without inviting any guests, so why exhibit at a show without telling your prospects that you’re going to be there?


Separate them from the masses. If possible, devise a way to identify members of your target audience when they enter the exhibit. Train your staff to identify top prospects quickly by asking a couple of initial questions after welcoming attendees to the booth. You can also encourage prospects to bring your pre-show mailer to your exhibit to redeem it for a promotional item. That way, you know the moment they turn in the postcard that you’ve got a top prospect on your hands. Bottom line, you’d probably rather spend your quality time with your most qualified attendees, so determine how you’re going to know who they are when they come to visit you during the show.

Customize the experience. Unless every member of your target audience is identical, it’s unlikely that the exact same elevator speech is appropriate for everyone. For example, if you’re hosting in-booth meetings, customize those meetings to each prospect’s needs. The ice-cream group knew that smaller ice-cream makers could not afford its brownie-fudge cheesecake ingredient, so it didn’t waste their time with the brownie-fudge cheesecake option. Instead, staffers showed them ingredients that were more in line with what they would want to buy. In fact, a list of ingredients was determined for each potential lead — big or small — before the show even began. In the end, you’re far more likely to be successful if you know your prospects and demonstrate that during your in-booth communications. Nothing will turn a prospective buyer off more than a company that clearly doesn’t understand his or her needs and/or constraints.

Don’t forget to follow up. I can’t stress enough how important it is to have a follow-up plan for post-show communication with your leads and booth visitors. But beyond that, it’s critical to indicate you listened to attendees while they were in the booth. It’s absolutely infuriating for an attendee to spend 30 minutes in your booth talking specifically about his or her needs and budget, only to receive a generic post-show phone call from a sales rep asking about needs and budget. Take what you learn about each of your top prospects during the show and then customize your follow-up communications accordingly.

So if you want to ensure a far, far better result from your next trade show appearance, remember this tale of two booths — one with a marketing plan, and one that decided to wing it — and ask yourself what in the Dickens you should do.e