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KristineS
01-30-2012, 12:28 PM
I'm not sure how many of you do tradeshows on a regular basis, but the company I work for does between 8 - 12 per year. In the past we've always handed out bags with samples of our products and our catalog and other literature, only to find that a lot of the people attending the shows take the bags home and drop them in their workspace and don't look at them again for months. Putting together the bags is a huge expense in labor and product and it isn't worth doing if no one is trying the samples.

This year, we're doing something different. We've created a sample card that people can use to request samples from us after the show. You can use a QR code, go to a special URL or call us and request any or all of the samples that we've given out in the past, and get them for free. The difference is that you have to request the samples and that they'll come to you specifically, not be mixed in with all the stuff that gets picked up at a trade show.

Our first test of this new program will be the beginning of March. I think it has the potential to be effective and save us money. Has anyone else tried something similar to this?

lucas.bowser
01-30-2012, 02:53 PM
I've never worked for a company that took this approach, but my first reaction is you may be focusing on the wrong thing. You're focus seems mostly on reducing your trade show costs, as opposed to focusing on increasing the effectiveness of your trade show materials (just my impression. I could be completely wrong about this.)

The problem with trade shows are you tend to have three main types of attendees. People the company sent because that's just what you do, people who are using the trade show to get a company sponsored vacation and people who are actually looking to learn or solve a problem. What's critical is that you design your trade show booth to attract and quickly impact the learner/problem solvers, giving them enough information on the spot to turn them into a warm/hot lead. So my question to you is, what can you do at the trade show that will impress the attendee that they will have to open up that bag and find your stuff immediately when they get back to the office?

The company I work for has a division that makes product additives which increase the efficacy of various products. One such additive improves self-leveling cement. A couple years ago we introduced a 2 minute looping video at a trade show that showed how our product solved some of the unique challenges associated with this type of product. Our response was better than anything we had ever gotten before because we showed the industry a solution that they had never seen for something that was a pain point for all the major manufacturers. It's okay to have the material request card, so long as you have the materials that drive people to make the request. Otherwise you are reducing your costs while getting the same results. This is good, but may not be the best you can do.

greenoak
01-30-2012, 10:48 PM
i just got back from a big trade show at the merchandise mart in chicago...as a buyer....to me, the main thing would have to be about the appeal of the product.... if i was interested then any special sample would be nice.... if i wasnt interested, or decided i didnt like it, then the sample wouldnt make much difference...

Steve B
01-31-2012, 05:42 AM
I agree with Lucas. You will be successeful at reducing your expenses, but that's probably not really your company's goal. If too many people were not paying attention to the sample that was already given to them - then the percentage of effective samples is certainly going to go down if you're going to throw in a requirement that they go back to their office, then request a sample - then wait for it to arrive - then try it out.

KristineS
01-31-2012, 01:07 PM
Good points and things that we did consider. I have to admit part of the idea was to reduce the costs of the samples we were sending out, but more because the samples didn't seem to be working than because we were concerned with the cost. We'll send out samples all day long if they do what they're supposed to do.

The problem with the shows is that everyone there is handing out samples, so you have people coming by with bags and bags of stuff. Many complain about all the stuff they're carrying and we know, from having done these shows for several years that most of the stuff goes back to the attendees homes and gets dumped in a pile. We've tried bags with our logo on them, we've tried giveaways, and nothing has seemed to speed up the cycle of taking the samples home and then trying them. We also know, from followup calls we've made, that our stuff tends to get lumped in with other stuff.

On the other hand, from tests in other venues, we do know that people who request samples tend to try them sooner, and are more likely to convert into customers. Something about the excitement of requesting a sample makes it more significant. We definitely see the samples get tried sooner, get more feedback on those samples, and have a better rate of conversion. Given that, it made sense to try something similar at a trade show. Our first real test of this will be in March, and we may discover it's a bad idea, but given our data, it seemed worth a try.

Steve B
01-31-2012, 08:16 PM
That sounds like a logical thought process. I'm curious how it turns out.

Maybe you could hand out $1 or $2 bills (if they're still available) to anyone that gives you their business card and agrees to let you send them a sample after the show is over. You can tell them it saves you the effort of buying too many samples and lugging them all over the country for the show. This will probably cut back on the people that aren't serious about trying it because a couple bucks probably isn't enough for people to give you their business card if they definitely aren't interested. But, if they are, it may be enough to get their attention and make them willing to cough up their mailing address.

henryz
01-31-2012, 10:40 PM
I'm sure most of the people who attend these shows are like myself, try to get every companies catalog and samples and hope that they can show it to their customers, what I think might work for you is give a sample of a unique product that only you guys carry, so when someone needs it you guys are the only ones that have it.

lucas.bowser
02-01-2012, 11:00 AM
I wouldn't be so sure. I made 3 general classifications above which I would say covers 80%. The other 20% often had other reasons like looking for a job, seeking new clients, etc... I was usually went with a specific goal (and therefore a booth guys dream, since if I was stopping there I was already a warm lead.) If I didn't have a good reason to go, I usually sat that one out.

Again, I think an in-booth product demonstration with a wow factor is really the way to go. Having them request the sample is fine. If you really wowed them, and it is applicable to their situation, I think they'll request it. BTW... What is the trade show you're attending. Personally, I'm speaking from a manufacturing and software engineering perspective when I talk. Henryz and greenoak seem to be speaking from a retailer perspective. Knowing what it is that you're offering samples of would help as well.

KristineS
02-01-2012, 12:22 PM
We sell embroidery and sublimation supplies for garment decoration. We do have an embroidery machine and a sublimation printer in the booth and do demos of our products. The people who attend the shows are people who own garment decoration businesses and are looking for supplies.

As for having a unique product, as HenryZ suggests, that's tough in this business. We have a few things we're working on right now, but they won't be ready for debut in March. We do have a thread brand that no one else in the U.S. can sell to commercial embroiderers, and that is one thing we capitalize on when we can.

SteveB - we don't take business cards, we scan the badges of everyone who visits our booth - so we do have all their contact and mailing information. It's not that people are reluctant to take the samples, it's that people take all the samples they can get and then have a huge pile of stuff to try when they get home and forget what samples came from where (despite labeling) or wait months to try things.

I think this is a great discussion and I hope it continues.

lucas.bowser
02-01-2012, 12:41 PM
And what is so great about that thread brand when compared to the more commonly available thread brands? Does it solve a specific problem? Do people who sublimate (sounds very odd to say as an engineer) often do embroidery and vice-versa? What are the samples you give out?

I don't know much about the sublimation process. My understanding is that it's a transfer printing process that works best on light colored clothing. Other than that, I don't know much about it. Is there anything unique about your sublimation supplies? Is there knowledge that you have about the process that commonly exceeds that of your individual customers (i.e. not your customers collectively?)

KristineS
02-01-2012, 01:07 PM
Lots of good questions!

The thread, Iris Thread, to be precise, is a premium quality thread, which means it's strong, sews without thread breaks and has a strong, vibrant color and shine that holds up under washing. What makes it unique is its price point. We are able to offer this thread at a price point that is less than other premium threads, which gives us an edge. It also performs better than other premium threads, the measure of performance being thread breaks, wash fastness and speed at which it sews in a machine.

People who sublimate may have an embroidery machine in their shop as well, or they may screen print, or they may just do sublimation. You get all kinds of combinations. We gravitated toward sublimation and machine embroidery because that's what our parent company does for industrial laundries, so we had the experience and the connections already. One of the ways our business stands out is that we have experience in using our supplies in real world conditions, and we are able to educate our customers and assist when they have issues.

By the way, your basic understanding of sublimation is correct. I especially like that you mentioned light colored clothing. We get people who think you can sublimate on dark shirts quite often so the bit about light shirts is something I try to emphasize.

lucas.bowser
02-01-2012, 02:07 PM
So if it's so superior... why would you offer it at a price point that is less than other premium threads?

Also, how often do thread breaks happen and what are the primary causes? Manufacturing defect, complicated pattern, etc...? What is the consequence to the embroiderer if there is a thread break? Annoyance, re-work, bad looking product, etc... What percentage of people at the trade show sew with a premium thread? 5%, 25%, 50%, 90%? How much faster can it sew in the machine when compared with the next leading competitor? 5%, 10%, 30%. How many of your potential customers are set up to take advantage of this fact, i.e. have machinery that could be sewing faster if only they had the thread that would allow it? Is there a way you can demonstrate this to potential customers at the show that would really peak their interest?

You mention badge scanning, which I'm definitely familiar with. and you mention not wanting to give out samples at the trade show because they tend to get lost in the shuffle or not being used at all. Do you have a way to match the badge information to a survey? What about an idea where you have a contest where they fill out a survey as their entry form. The survey would have 2 questions. The first is "What brand of thread do you currently use (choose the five most common premium and five most common non-premium threads)? The second is "What is your biggest frustrations in embroidery (i.e. not able to sew as fast as machines are capable, too many thread breaks, to many customer complaints about fading, etc...)?" I would come up with a list of 5-10 complaints that they could solve just by using Iris thread. You can still provide them the card to request a sample if you wish. Now, once you get back to the ranch, so to speak, spend the next month using the information you have collected to identify your best prospects for converting to Iris thread. About a month after the trade show, send the users of premium thread a post card that invites them to talk to you about how they can solve their X problem. Preferably the front of that post card would have a picture that represents the problem. If you don't hear from them, follow up with them by phone a couple weeks later about their X problem.

henryz
02-01-2012, 08:44 PM
KristineS,
I attend a few of the shows you guys do, and I've attended numerous of other industry shows as well, but in the business we're in we usually go to find a supplier of a product we use or need, or to see what is new in the industry, one of the things that catch my eye at a show is when they are doing sublimation demos, either because they sell sub dies, transfers or the printers and they are applying it to items you normally don't think of and hand those out to people who seem interested in the product, maybe a thin piece of acrylic with your company info to hand out and could be used as a paper weight.

KristineS
02-02-2012, 12:24 PM
So if it's so superior... why would you offer it at a price point that is less than other premium threads?

Also, how often do thread breaks happen and what are the primary causes? Manufacturing defect, complicated pattern, etc...? What is the consequence to the embroiderer if there is a thread break? Annoyance, re-work, bad looking product, etc... What percentage of people at the trade show sew with a premium thread? 5%, 25%, 50%, 90%? How much faster can it sew in the machine when compared with the next leading competitor? 5%, 10%, 30%. How many of your potential customers are set up to take advantage of this fact, i.e. have machinery that could be sewing faster if only they had the thread that would allow it? Is there a way you can demonstrate this to potential customers at the show that would really peak their interest?

You mention badge scanning, which I'm definitely familiar with. and you mention not wanting to give out samples at the trade show because they tend to get lost in the shuffle or not being used at all. Do you have a way to match the badge information to a survey? What about an idea where you have a contest where they fill out a survey as their entry form. The survey would have 2 questions. The first is "What brand of thread do you currently use (choose the five most common premium and five most common non-premium threads)? The second is "What is your biggest frustrations in embroidery (i.e. not able to sew as fast as machines are capable, too many thread breaks, to many customer complaints about fading, etc...)?" I would come up with a list of 5-10 complaints that they could solve just by using Iris thread. You can still provide them the card to request a sample if you wish. Now, once you get back to the ranch, so to speak, spend the next month using the information you have collected to identify your best prospects for converting to Iris thread. About a month after the trade show, send the users of premium thread a post card that invites them to talk to you about how they can solve their X problem. Preferably the front of that post card would have a picture that represents the problem. If you don't hear from them, follow up with them by phone a couple weeks later about their X problem.

First of all, thanks for the thoughtful questions. They've been very helpful.

As to the price question - the short answer is because we can. The cost savings come from where the thread is made and our price point, and it made sense to price it more economically since we were bringing a new thread to the American market. The other premium threads have been in the market for a quite a while and are entrenched, and price is one way to start to drive a wedge.

Thread breaks happen for a variety of reasons, improperly threaded machine, tensions are wrong, improperly digitized design, wrong stabilizer, too many stitches in the design, machine is set to fast, poor quality thread, poorly stored thread, there's a whole laundry list of reasons. The cost to an embroiderer is mostly time, each time a thread breaks the machine has to be rethreaded which costs production time. It is of course, also an annoyance.

We do demonstrate how the thread sews on an embroidery machine that is in our trade show booth. We once ran the machine for two days, 8 hours a day, at a show and never had a break. That really impressed people and did pique people's interest in the thread.

Your idea about trying a survey is a good one and something I will definitely remember if our postcard idea doesn't pan out. We can match badge scans to information in other places, so that wouldn't be an issue. We already do follow-up calls, so that wouldn't be a problem either.

If nothing else, you've pointed me toward a few good blog post topics. I appreciate the thoughtful answer. :)

KristineS
02-02-2012, 12:28 PM
KristineS,
I attend a few of the shows you guys do, and I've attended numerous of other industry shows as well, but in the business we're in we usually go to find a supplier of a product we use or need, or to see what is new in the industry, one of the things that catch my eye at a show is when they are doing sublimation demos, either because they sell sub dies, transfers or the printers and they are applying it to items you normally don't think of and hand those out to people who seem interested in the product, maybe a thin piece of acrylic with your company info to hand out and could be used as a paper weight.

Actually, we're working with our sublimation ink supplier to be able to give samples of sublimated goods at the DAX shows this year. I think it should be fun.

lucas.bowser
02-02-2012, 03:00 PM
No problem.:)