Applicability of Mobile Marketing in the Marketing Mix of Trade Fair Organizers

MA-Thesis / Master von Immo Prenzel

Introduction:

Trade fair organizers face a number of ongoing changes and an intensified intra- and inter-industry competition that reshape the structure of their markets and value chains.

Until the 80s, trade fair organizers had a huge market and little competition. They were solely administering their spaces. On this seller’s market trade fair organizers could pick the companies they would allow to exhibit at their fairs. Since then, more and more trade fair organizations have entered the market and invested heavily in new venues and hall capacities. The traditional venue owners increased their hall capacities tremendously and new regional venues emerged in the Near East and Asian markets.

The driver of the inter-industrial competition is the increasing number of communication, information, and sales opportunities (such as road shows, in-house exhibitions or virtual information channels like the internet) that constitute alternatives compared to the cost intensive trade fair participation.

These developments have made the market a buyer’s market. Consequently, the customer group’s requirements towards trade fair efficiency are getting increasingly higher. Trade fair organizers need to face these developments and rethink and reshape their marketing strategies and respective marketing mix to match them to the new environment in order to stay competitive. They need to implement instruments with which they can improve the communication and service offer and thus satisfy the customer’s requirements.

Mobile marketing is such an instrument. It is the new trend in the modern direct marketing that offers numerous possibilities for personalized customer communication and the provision of an increased service portfolio via mobile devices. Mobile marketing is the answer to the increasingly mobile society as it allows a location and time independent reach of the customer. The question if and to which extend mobile marketing can be applied in the marketing mix of trade fair organizers is the research objective of this thesis.

The approach to reach this goal is illustrated in figure 3 in the appendix and will be set as follows: chapter two will focus on the theoretical basics of mobile marketing in order to illustrate its potentials, capabilities and limitations. In chapter three the basics about trade fairs, its functions and participants are introduced. The analysis of the goals and needs of the exhibitors and visitors is the focus of this chapter as it serves as a starting point for the application of mobile marketing. The fourth chapter will focus on the traditional marketing mix of trade fair organizers. It will give an overview of each policy, its functions, goals and the commonly applied instruments. Within the framework of this marketing mix the potential of the mobile marketing instruments to create a value added for the customers as well as for the trade fair organizer will be analyzed in chapter five. By the means of examples and supported by the results of a survey that was conducted in the course of this thesis the chapter will present possibilities and evaluate the applicability of the mobile marketing instruments within the marketing mix of trade fair organizers. The final assessment considers the applicability for each policy and each trade fair phase (before, during, and after the event). The chapter ends with a conclusion and outlook for the future development.

The thesis is based on numerous publications, literature, internet sources and a survey about the current use of mobile marketing in the trade fair industry that was conducted in the course of the thesis. In literature and practice mobile marketing is a relatively new topic (especially in the B2B market) and there is little unanimity about definitions or its application in the marketing mix.

Trade fairs are considered in various publications though mostly from the perspective of the exhibitors which use trade fairs as part of their communication strategy. Peters and Taeger have first analyzed the marketing mix of trade fair organizers. Among the basic literature about trade fair organizers are also the Handbuch Messemanagement and the Kölner Kompendium that include short descriptions and developments of the marketing mix of trade fair organizers.

The potentials and applications of mobile marketing in the marketing mix of trade fair organizers have not been researched comprehensively. Until now, only few articles and examples mention its application.

Table of Contents:

Text Sample:

Chapter 4, The Marketing Mix of Trade Fair Organizers:

In order to meet the market challenges and satisfy the customer needs described in chapter 3 the trade fair organizer needs a professional, strategic and operative marketing as it is expected and taken for granted in other industries. This chapter will focus on the unique marketing mix of trade fair organizers. Since mobile marketing would need to be integrated in the traditional marketing mix its analysis is and comprehensive description is important at this point.

Definition Marketing Mix:

The marketing mix is the set of controllable tactical marketing tools that the company combines to produce the desired response among the target audience. It is derived from the marketing decision process which includes a systematical analysis of the marketing situation, market research, the definition of marketing goals and the creation of a marketing strategy. The strategy is implemented by market and customer oriented instruments called the marketing mix.

The concept of the marketing mix was introduced by Borden, but McCarthy’s 4Ps classification – product, price, place, and promotion – has been used as a basic guideline in the literature. This concept has been adapted, changed, expanded and altered in the literature by various authors. Trade fairs have a unique marketing mix which derives from the characteristics described in chapter 3.

The product is divided into the assortment policy that is the set of different trade fairs, the product policy that deals with each single trade fair for itself, and the service policy that decides about the services offered at the trade fairs.

The promotion is defined more widely as communication policy which consists of advertising, direct marketing, public relations and press, sales promotion, and personal selling.

The place which deals with the customer’s access to the product cannot be applied in its traditional sense since trade fairs are bound to the location of the venue and cannot be changed customer specifically. The term distribution policy is used instead to describe the distributional aspects of the product.

The marketing mix of trade fair organizers thus consists of the assortment, product, service, communication, distribution, and price policies which are described in more detail below.

Policies within the Marketing Mix of Trade Fair Organizers:

This chapter will introduce the trade fair specific marketing mix more profoundly. Each policy will be defined and its goals and functions will be described.

Product & Assortment Policy:

The product and assortment policies (both are also called event policy) are directly aligned with the overall strategic path of the trade fair organizer. The product policy refers to the development of new trade fairs, the continuation and cultivation of existing events, the testing of product alternatives and also the product elimination. It includes decisions about the structure, content, concept, and composition of the product in order to create an optimal business communication platform for its customer groups of one or more industries. Based on the market research the product policy includes decision factors like dates and timeframe, recurrence frequency, market reach, target groups, event partner and location for each single trade fair. The entire set of events organized by the trade fair organizer is managed within the assortment policy.

The assortment policy defines the positioning of the company in the market in relation to the competition, directs the expansion and ensures market security of the trade fair organizer. It is characterized by three main dimensions: the trade fair events, marketing and technical services and the reach.

The decisions within the event assortment consider the organization form of events (own event, guest event, joint venture), the location (own fairground, other fairground), the target group (public, professional visitors), and the product class (consumer, investment, semi-finished products, etc.) of the staged trade fairs.

The service assortment is another essential part since an increasing part of the profit is made with the offered services before, during, and after the event. Depending on the needs of the target group the trade fair companies offer a variety of marketing services to satisfy the exhibitor’s marketing needs and technical services to support the trade fair participation of exhibitors and visitors.

The assortment concerning the reach of the company deals with the implementation of events in different markets to reach other markets and target groups.

The goal of the product and assortment policy is to create a market driven product portfolio that is aligned with the trade fair organizer’s goals.