When thinking about the strategy for the trade show display at your next trade show, you should be considering all kinds of things. The actual exhibit design is one of them: how do you want your trade show display to look and feel? Another is how you can seamlessly integrate your brand image and marketing materials into your exhibit’s display graphics. But, perhaps the most important aspect of your trade show presence is the message that you want to send to attendees.
The overarching reason that most companies attend trade shows is to see and be seen: to do competitor research, to establish your own company as an expert or leader in the industry, to generate sales leads and identify strategic partnerships. But, there are also specialized reasons why you want to have a presence at a particular trade show. Do you want the whole world to know about your new product launch? Are you announcing a new partnership? Do you want to push your new green/sustainability initiative?
No matter what your specialized message is, you should always focus not only on demonstrating to attendees who you are as a company and what you have achieved, but where you’re going in the future. A trade show is the perfect place to do this. And most of the companies who get the most out of trade shows are already using a focus on their company’s future to establish that they are forward-thinking and have big plans. If your company has major investors or shareholders you already know how important this is. At the next trade show, make sure that your trade show display and your display graphics reflect that you are looking forward to big things in your future.
Think about it, when you go to an auto show do the major automakers spend more time focusing on the success of their previous models, or do they focus on the future car models that they will bring out? Not only do they focus more on the future, they often use concept cars to demonstrate how forward-thinking they are. These concept cars won’t likely ever see the light of day outside of a major auto show and a few other demonstrations, but they establish the car maker as innovative and creative–two things that are the hallmarks of successful companies in just about any industry these days.