Exhibition Activities for Exporters

Exhibition activity accompanies business as it develops and expands its spheres of influence.

Logically, when entering export markets, this tool should be used more actively, as it is one of the key tools for building foreign trade relations. At the same time, costs also increase, which is why it is extremely important to use such a marketing tool as exhibitions in a targeted and justified manner.

Development of export sales at international exhibitions in Russia: opportunities and limitations

You don't necessarily have to go abroad to meet potential foreign buyers or partners. A large number of exhibitions with international status are organized in Russia, attended by businessmen from various countries around the world.

The main advantage of participating in Russian exhibitions is, as a rule, lower costs. This is especially relevant for companies from the Central Federal District and the European part of Russia in general. The lion's share of status events takes place in Moscow; St. Petersburg can also be noted. In other regions, there are far fewer exhibitions, and they, with rare exceptions, are not interesting or visited by foreign companies.

For Russia, with its hypertrophied centralization, it is difficult to attract foreign enterprises to the regions, not least because most regular flights are operated via Moscow. Thus, the capital acquires even greater importance as a meeting place due to its convenience for both parties. The coronavirus pandemic will also have an impact, at least in the medium term, as regular air service is first restored between state capitals, and only then are regional airports opened for receiving and sending flights abroad.

Furthermore, participation in an international exhibition in Russia entails lower costs for domestic companies in terms of organizational issues – it's easier with accommodation, communications, booth construction, and so on. Any international exhibition, regardless of the host country, is always oriented, first and foremost, towards resident organizations, starting with the mandatory translation of all exhibition event content into the native language of the majority of participants. Abroad, a deep knowledge of English is usually required, as the use of Russian declines every year. Our language retains its significance mainly in the countries of the Customs Union; even in Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan, fewer and fewer entrepreneurs, especially young ones and those living in the provinces, speak Russian at a level sufficient for conducting commercial negotiations.

The key limitation in developing exports through the tool of international exhibitions in the Russian Federation is that the number of visitors from countries of interest is quite small, while competitors are present "in full force." Thus, it is important to prepare well for the exhibition in terms of formulating a commercial proposal that will definitely be interesting for a foreign company compared to competitive ones.

On the other hand, those foreign firms that visit Russian exhibitions are more focused on interaction with our country and know the market better. It can be said that they are characterized by fairly high quality. However, this does not negate the fact that companies arriving from abroad for exhibitions are more often those looking for buyers, not suppliers. As the saying goes, "bread follows the belly," so the majority of foreigners will be quite indifferent to offers to buy something, but they may be quite interested in representatives in the Russian market.

Thus, when participating in international exhibitions in Russia, the preparation of the exporting company for the event becomes of paramount importance. It is advisable to conduct a search for potential partners in advance not only among registered participants for the current exhibition but also to analyze exhibitors from previous years, as well as to invite for communication those companies from the country or countries of interest that have not yet come to Russia.

Naturally, such a firm can only be attracted by remotely discussing the basic parameters of potential cooperation, up to pricing conditions for exports and a detailed plan of measures to overcome all barriers to entry into the foreign state's market.

It is easier to lure foreign partners to a Russian exhibition venue for those companies whose main advantages lie in the field of production and development. Especially if the export is proposed to be developed using the "private or own brand" tool. In this case, it is extremely important for a potential foreign partner to familiarize themselves with the production of the Russian company and other related processes directly in Russia, and the exhibition becomes the very place where the initial acquaintance takes place. If successful, a site viewing can be quickly organized. Approximately the same scheme works well if a company or even a non-profit organization is looking for a foreign investor.

Traveling to industrial exhibitions abroad: "the stakes are raised"

However, it is much more effective to develop exports through exhibition events in the territories of countries where we see sales potential for our products.

The increase in the potential effectiveness of participation in such events is accompanied by a significant increase in costs, especially if we are talking about the so-called "far abroad."

Therefore, participation in international industrial exhibitions in a specific country or group of countries must be justified by the commercial and marketing services of the exporting company, ideally representing a tool for implementing the marketing strategy for export development.

At a minimum, a company wishing to participate in an exhibition abroad must conduct a desk marketing research, within which answers to the main questions of working with the new market will be obtained. If it is important to choose a country market, there are significant doubts about where to start export activities or in which geographical direction to develop them, then there may be a need to conduct market prioritization. However, when a company considers participating in exhibition events abroad, as a rule, it already possesses all the necessary marketing information.

The search for potential partners when traveling abroad is not as relevant as when trying to organize an export shipment at a Russian exhibition. However, the effectiveness of work will increase significantly if preparatory work is carried out before the actual participation in terms of selecting foreign companies for negotiations. When the exhibition is large, several countries whose representatives are active at this event can be considered.

Unfortunately, many Russian companies still view international exhibitions (as well as business missions) more as introductory events, work passively at them, expecting active interest from buyers. But now it is extremely difficult to surprise anyone with the quality of a product or its price characteristics; the world has globalized, and production has standardized. It is important to convey the advantages of your market offer to partners who will represent the interests of the Russian company in their territory, and a position of waiting is not the best helper here.

Of course, international exhibitions can and should be used, including as an opportunity to familiarize oneself with the market directly on site, to conduct a de facto territory census, if time and resource capabilities allow. For certain groups of goods or services (for example, restaurant services), this can be so important that the census should be conducted not during participation in the exhibition, but in advance. But in any case, the company, especially if it is exhibiting at the exhibition with an individual stand, must prepare well, up to drafts of commercial proposals and website adaptation for local market players.

A number of companies experience organizational difficulties when participating in exhibitions abroad, especially if the event organizer's company has no Russian-speaking employees. This can concern accommodation, construction, and involvement in various types of exhibition activities. All these problems become especially acute when it is necessary to visit a country with high language barriers and pronounced cultural differences, for example, Iran or Japan.

In such a case, it can be recommended to outsource to a Russian or foreign company (preferably in the host country) that will take these issues upon itself. Moreover, with a certain level of qualification and specialization in these matters, the outsourcer can help with finding warm contacts for negotiations, organizing translation support for the trip, visiting enterprises and organizations interesting for the Russian company, and so on. In this case, of course, additional expenses arise, so it is necessary to approach the choice of such a marketing agency responsibly; an advertising agency is definitely not suitable. However, if chosen correctly, the effect of the event will increase significantly. Drawing a simple analogy, it is unwise when visiting a foreign country for tourism purposes to sit in the room or walk only on the hotel grounds and around, or to travel chaotically around the country; it is better to turn to a company that will satisfy individual needs for excursions and entertainment. Then the money spent on travel, accommodation, and the mandatory program will be used with greater benefit.

Wi-Fi marketing as a tool to improve the efficiency of exhibition activity

Separately, I would like to consider such an aspect of participation in industrial exhibitions as collecting a database of potential partners or clients.

This task is, on the one hand, quite trivial, and on the other – its solution requires significant time expenditure from the company's employees. As a rule, those exhibition participants who organize systematic work at it allocate responsible employees who record all visitors who come to the stand, while indicating not only contact details but also briefly recording the essence of the communication, interests, and preliminary agreements. Such information is most valuable and allows forming a list of "warm contacts" for further processing after the exhibition. However, the main volume of work is associated with recording data of those individuals who did not show particular interest but passed by the stand, possibly paying minimal attention. Thus, the load on employees increases, and the quality of work declines. Not to mention that many casual visitors do not want to leave their contacts at all.

To improve the quality of this work, it is possible to separate two processes – forming a database of "warm contacts" and a "cold database." The first task remains with charming and experienced contact employees, and the second is delegated to a soulless machine – a Wi-Fi radar.

You can read more about Wi-Fi marketing as a tool, its technology, in another of our articles. Here we will focus on how it can be used to improve the efficiency of work at an international exhibition.

The main advantage of Wi-Fi marketing is its high speed and significant audience reach. What does this mean in practice?

The implementation of the Wi-Fi marketing tool is essentially two-stage. First, the radar collects MAC addresses, then mailings are carried out through various services, social networks, etc., using them.

An exhibition in its active phase usually lasts three days, and during this time, much needs to be done. Therefore, all materials for the mailing – messages, messengers, banners – are prepared in advance. Then, when the exhibition starts, the radar is launched, which collects the MAC addresses of visitors. Based on them, a mailing is carried out the next day, which "lures" them to the company's stand and the events where it actively participates. Targeting allows, among other things, to work specifically with foreign participants of the exhibition.

At the same time, the Wi-Fi radar continues to work and collect addresses. The second wave of mailings in all necessary forms will go after the exhibition ends and the participants have departed for home. Here speed is already less important, so targeting can be set more precisely, and forms of information delivery can be personalized by groups.

For exhibitions, it is better to use mobile Wi-Fi radars that are easily portable and do not run out of power during the entire working day. If a company is not deeply immersed in Wi-Fi marketing issues, it is more rational to outsource this task, including in terms of equipment rental.

Another important plus of outsourcing is saving on mailings by reducing the number of "empty" appeals. It sounds strange, but it is true. In large exhibition complexes, there are a large number of permanently working employees. Their number may be comparable to visitors, but in any case, it amounts to several thousand people. Marketing agencies that professionally engage in Wi-Fi marketing implement several projects a year at each large exhibition venue. Therefore, those MAC addresses that are the same for all events are reasonably excluded from the mailing; they are more likely to belong to employees of the exhibition center. Such databases are formed and updated by marketing agencies. Furthermore, equipment rental for 3-4 days is much cheaper than purchasing or permanent rental payments.

As soon as exhibitions in their classic in-person format are massively resumed, this tool of marketing activity will again become in demand and relevant.