THE TRADE FAIR VISITOR’S PERCEPTION: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY

* K. MOHAN ** V. VENKATANARAYANASAMI ***BABU P GEORGE

ABSTRACT

When it comes to marketing products or services, the goals of marketing can be achieved through TV, radio, newspaper, magazine, Internet, telemarketing, special events or exhibitions. Which is the most effective tool to use in trying to achieve the goals in marketing? In many of the Asian countries, the exhibition is becoming an increasingly more popular marketing medium, particularly for small and medium sized companies trying to reach large number of prospective customers via person-to-person method. The general public today is probably more informed about science, technology and medicine than at any previous point in history. There are too, more exhibitions of science, technology and medicine than ever before; and as the attendance figures of science centres and industrial heritage sites and recent science exhibitions, such as the theme parks at EXPO 2000 and the Sieben Hügeln and Theatrum Naturae et Artis in Germany, have shown, there is apparently an enormous public hunger to know about science, technology and medicine (STM). (Sharon MacDonald)This study focused on Trade Fairs and Exhibitions visitor’s perception and attitude in comparison with that of the literature surveys of the museums visitors, focusing the various factors that demanded in accordance with the international standards by the visitors of the conventions of the Trade Fairs and Exhibitions held by the Zak Trade Fairs and Exhibitions Pvt, Ltd , Chennai, who are the pioneers in India organizing more than 100 trade fairs and exhibition solely demonstrating the importance of the such sort of trade fairs and exhibitions in South India which they believe will be order of the day in the near future to come in the arena of Marketing. The paper first explores the importance of such trade fairs and exhibitions and to tap the information about the visitor’s opinion about their requirements at the conventions for the visitors so as to enable the exhibitors to equip themselves at the trade fair in order to attract the visitors. The paper aims at bring out the factors that are essential for such trade fairs and also the convenience of the online shopping by analyzing the various variables by the statistical tools and the findings are spelt out for the benefit of the exhibitors for their advantage in bringing out successful Trade Fairs and Exhibitions.

Key Words: STM, Trade show, exhibition, museums, theme parks, online shopping, visitor’s perception and attitude.

INTRODUCTION

Trade shows provide marketing opportunities to showcase consumer products to gain market penetration. Not only do trade shows help showcase one’s products in local, national and international markets, but they also enable one to test products or services by allowing for instant feedback from consumer or buyers. Often a buyer needs to see the technology in action or feel the product in order to appreciate its unique qualities. They also offer a tremendous opportunity for networking with new prospects, the competition and other vendors, and become aware of the latest trends and developments. These fairs are a platform to educate and persuade the audience. A further impetus to participate in trade shows is the fact that they help you establish credibility.

* Reader, School of Management, Pondicherry University, Pondicherry – 605014.

** Assistant Professor, New College Institute of Management, Chennai – 600014.

***Lecturer in Tourism Studies, Pondicherry University, Pondicherry-605014. Mobile: 91-

9245439038. Email: myselfgeorge@gmail.com

(Address all correspondences to Babu P George at the above address)

The seminars, contact promotion programs and BSM’s or Buyer Seller Meets conducted are important for promoting business and information dissemination. On the other hand, there is often a complaint that there are too many trade shows being held – there are not too many shows but just plenty of opportunities! In the globalized scenario, increased competition, newer markets to be penetrated, customized product launches can be handled effectively through multiple trade shows closer to production centers and consuming markets. There are many vendors who mistakenly believe that such shows are meant for the bigger players in the market. Another prevailing myth is that the sole purpose to exhibit is to sell. Immediate returns on investment should not be the sole aim of participation. The primary purpose of these shows is to educate the consumer on the different types of products and services and qualified leads can subsequently be turned into post-show sales.

Trade Show: A Not-To-Be-Missed Opportunity

If you do not participate in trade shows, you are missing out a clear understanding of what you expect to gain from exhibition. There are some things in business one just can’t dot.com. And one definitely can’t dot.com the human touch. Morrow (1997) characterized the exhibition as a temporary market place that facilitates the buyer interaction with the seller. Bello (1992) and Blythe (2002) noted that exhibitions offer marketers a unique chance to influence key members of buying center who may not be easily reachable through field sales and other promotional methods. Hansen (1999) also stressed the importance of relationship marketing in the international exhibition arena. The attendees are selected and delivered in large numbers, using their own expenses, during a short period of time. In contrast to such impersonal forms of marketing, such as the Internet or advertisements, exhibitions offer a more unique venue where visitors can see and evaluate products, as well as build or enhance business relationships with key suppliers. New products can be introduced and non-portable products can also be displayed easily. If used in tandem with other marketing methods, exhibition provides an opportunity to accelerate the selling process. Overseas agents or distributors can also be found – indeed many companies exhibit just to find such a valuable link, which can provide key inroads in foreign markets. However, despite all the merits of overseas exhibitions aforementioned, these advantages do not come without some caveats for the participating companies (O’Hara et al., 1993). Because of the many practical difficulties, many countries try to provide assistance to their prospective exhibitors through export promotion programs. Thus, support for corporate participation in international exhibition is becoming a major component of the export promotion programs (Hansen, 1996; Seringhaus & Rosson, 2001). As a reference, support for corporate participation in international trade shows by major countries is shown in Table 1.

Table 1

Support for Trade Show Participation by Country

Country Organization Support frequency Support ratio (%)France CFME-ACTIM 79 40Germany AUMA 89 50United Kingdom BCC 350 Lease/installation 45%Italy ICE 414 48Taiwan CETRA 80 50Japan JETRO 13 33China CCPIT 20 100Hong Kong HKTDC 214 50Singapore STDB 30 Service support

Korea Korea KOTRA 70 50 Source: KOTRA Report (2002)

But the visitor’s perception and attitude is entirely different from the organizers or the exhibitors. In a way it may be compared with the visitors perception and attitude of the museum and exhibitions goers so as to enable us to equip ourselves to the latest trend of this modern world trade fairs and exhibitions. If the trade fairs and exhibitions are not able to draw the crowd it means that the exhibitors will end up in a colossal waste in terms of money, time, and to the company its irreversible prestige. So it is better to plan for the correct facility that required not only for the exhibitors but also for the visitors who is going to make the exhibitions a very success. Otherwise it is better make the visitors to understand the convenience of online shopping their product with ease and security.

LITERATURE REVIEW

There is a vast literature about how people learn and how they learn in informal contexts, including museums/exhibitions (Crane, Nicholson, Chen and Bitgood, 1994; Falk and Dierking, 1995; Roschelle, 1995; Hein and Alexander, 1998; Hein, 1998). Learning isa key issue for museums/exhibitions to address and are positioning themselves in the market as places for learning and, at the same time, research has shown that people visit museums/exhibition to learn. This growth in popular interest and the expansion of provision of popular information about science, technology and medicine, has been accompanied by increasingly vocal calls of concern about public illiteracy in, and popular misinformation about, STM. (Historian of science John Pickstone calls this `the paradox of twentieth century STM' (2000: 190).) All argue that science, technology and medicine are crucial to our lives and wellbeing, and that we need to be properly informed about them in order to make the right decisions in relation to our own lives, both individually. All also argue that these decisions are increasingly complex, partly because STM have in some respects become increasingly complex themselves, but also because of the proliferation of different sources of information. As many sociologist (Giddens 1990) have pointed out, a major problem for our information societies is the question of trust: how, in the face of alternative and competing sources of information, do we know which to believe, which to accept and which to reject One of the responses to the problem of public decision-making has been a call for better levels of education in `basic' science and scientific principles. The first wave of public understanding of science initiatives was in

many respects characterised by an attempt to provide such education. Science centres were the main `museological' example of this. Probably the first of these was Frank Oppenheimer's Exploratorium, which opened in San Francisco in 1969 (though smaller concentrations of science centre type exhibits already existed in science museums such as the Deutsches Museum and the Science Museum, especially the latter's Children's Gallery, opened in 1931). The Exploratorium certainly acted as a model for many which followed though interestingly many ignored one aspect which Oppenheimer himself viewed as central, namely the role of art in the presentation of science (the Exploratorium was classified by Oppenheimer himself as a museum of `science, art and human perception' Hein 1990: 148; see also Barry 1998, 2001). The key features of the wave of science centres which opened from the 1970s on were their attempts to demonstrate basic scientific principles by allowing visitors to themselves conduct `kind of' experiments in order to `discover' these principles for themselves: which they named it as the `orchestrated discovery', `Hands-on' became an alternative name for such centres and more generally for exhibits organised along these lines.

Do Visitors Learn From Exhibitions?

For Oppenheimer, and surely for many of those who pioneered other such interactive science centres, allowing visitors to interact and discover in this way was about more than just transmitting information about the particular scientific principles being demonstrated. As Oppenheimer said: The whole point of the Exploratorium is to make it possible for people to believe they can understand the world around them. I think a lot of people have given up trying to comprehend things, and when they give up with the physical world, they give up with the social and political world as well. If we give up trying to understand things, I think we'll all be sunk. (Quoted in Hein 1990: xv). So, the idea was that by helping people to understand some scientific explanations of natural phenomena, a window would be opened to help them understand much more about the world. This was a worthy ambition and it may have worked for some visitors. However, it is probably fair to say that many of those involved in science centres and science museums have become more sceptical since the early days (Lindqvist 2000). It has been questioned, first, whether most visitors do indeed learn much about the scientific principles being demonstrated; secondly, whether this does help them to infer much beyond the particular examples which they experience (i.e. whether using science centre exhibits provides any more general basis or framework of understanding); and thirdly whether the hands-on experience does lead to a more general quest to understand the physical world or the social and political world in the way that was hoped. Science centres are probably especially good at conveying a sense of the `magic' of science (Conn 1998).

Visitor’s Lack of Proper Knowledge: True or False?

Expressions of concern over public scientific `illiteracy' are also accompanied by fears over the public succumbing to `irrational' and `non-scientific' ways of knowing (Lindqvist 2000). The growth of so-called `alternative' and `new age' practices is seen by

the scientific lobby as a symptom of a lack of proper scientific understanding and even of an underdeveloped society, which has not yet properly achieved intellectual `adulthood'. This, together with worries about `skills gaps', especially in the arena of technology, has contributed to the emergence in many countries of policies and initiatives directed towards improving the public understanding of science. Museums and exhibitions, which operate as voluntary or informal sources of education, which people can visit at their own leisure at any point in their lives, have often been identified as key institutions to promote the public understanding of science. By their very nature, exhibitions and trade fairs are very public. The efficient company is seen to be so impressive while the inefficient will not make a favorable impression. Smaller companies can take advantage of the event by exposing themselves to the expectation of the visitors through their well-organized operations. They do not need a large stand to do this; competent management combined with considerate and efficient staff will suffice. In this aspect, trade shows are the most effective medium, which enables one-to-one meeting with the right customer at our doorstep, where he can meet people from different departments under one roof.

There has been less work investigating the impact of museum/exhibitions visiting on subsequent learning through changes in attitudes and behaviour. Research has been undertaken with specific types of visitors such as families (Borun, Chambers, and Cleghorn, 1996; Moussouri, 1997), school children (Birney, 1988; Falk and Dierking, 1992; Griffin, 1998) and adult museum visitors (McManus, 1993; Silverman, 1995; Falk and Dierking, 1997; Falk, Moussouri, and Coulson, 1998). Most of these, however, are limited to either targeted, one-off studies or to particular types of visitors. In general the visitors of the present developing countries who want to metaphorically transform themselves to the western style culture, expectations are not known and so the research was taken in that aspect to tap out the visitors perception and their attitude towards these type of Trade Fairs and Exhibition of the present time in their own local residing city. Through targeted, creative use of questions, that uncover individual’s personal stories and experiences, we can demonstrate that we are making a difference. People can have amazing responses to exhibitions which may be mostly considered as the pre-purchase learning for the online shopping which is going to dominate our lives in the very near future of the day-to-day lifestyle.

METHODOLOGY

Contrary to increased attention to the exhibitions, little research has been paid to international isitors to these events. This is surprising since many international exhibitions have long tried to induce a significant numbers of foreign exhibitors and visitors (Seringhaus & Rosson, 2001). The lack of empirical research on visitors participation may be due to the difficulties of obtaining the definitive answers, as to whether exhibitions are really an effective way to promote products or services: it may also be due to the difficulty of reconciling the goal of the exhibitor with the goal of the visitor; or it may be due to the entrenched attitudes on the part of exhibitors (Blythe, 2000). Understanding visitor’s behavior can provide a better communication for both export promotion agencies and exhibit managers. The lack of detailed information about the visitors behavior attitude which is going to be different from place to place and to their cultures stimulated the development of this research but this research was confined

to the Chennai city visitors and to their perception only because the exhibitor is interested in conducting numerous Trade Fairs in the near future and planning to set up permanent place with the state of art convention Trade Center at Chennai which will make the visitors attracted to such fairs. The very success of any Trade Fairs not only lies with the exhibitors and the organizer but only with the visitors who is the prime most important for such trade fairs.

Zak’s Trade Fairs and Exhibition

This study reports on the summary of the on-site surveys at the Zak’s Trade Fairs and Exhibition 2005 organized by the Zak Trade Fairs and Exhibitions Pvt. Ltd., a Chennai based company, which was held at Chennai. Since the Trade Fair housed various national and International pavilions, a self administered questionnaire with a covering letter was distributed out every day to most of the out going visitors who came along with the family members.(n=500). Mostly the head of the family was asked to fill the questionnaire because they were considered likely to be knowledgeable on all the variables of interest but many cases the elder son or daughter was readily responded to fill the form with out any hesitation. The questionnaire was hand-delivered at the out post gate and collected it before leaving the Trade Fair. Most of the visitors who had the desire to move out immediately of the Trade Fair were orally asked and the researcher filled the questionnaire on behalf of the visitors with due care and interest. A total 415-questionnaire hand out was given but only 300 replies found to be complete in all respect and the remaining around 115 replies either was not returned nor incomplete. Thus the remaining yielded a response rate of 67%. The purpose of the paper to focus on to the forerunners of conducting Trade Fairs and Exhibitions to visualize the various attributes of the visitors need or requirement so as to enable them to get attracted to the Trade Fairs. The frequency analysis was done on the survey results along with the Chi-Square test, Two way ANOVA and Weighted Average Ranking Method to identify the visitors characteristics. Statistical analysis was used SPSS 11.0 and validated for 95% reliability level.

FINDINGS

The findings of the study have been summarized in the following paragraphs:

Sample Profile

Table 2

Profile of the visitors

Demographic Variables Frequency Percentage

Gender

Male 183 61 Female 117 39

Age

Less than 25 Yrs 165 55 26 Yrs - 35 Yrs 54 18 36Yrs - 45 Yrs 49 16 46Yrs - 55 Yrs 24 8 56 Yrs & Above 8 3

Income

Below 10K 54 18 10K - 20k 121 40

20k - 30k 68 23 Above 30k 57 19Education Graduate 59 17 Postgraduate 122 41 Professional 138 42 Status House wife 11 03 Officials 32 11 Doctors 91 30 Engineers 103 35 Businessman 63 21

Source: Primary data collected through questionnaire during 2005 at Chennai.

It can be culled out from the above table that male visitors are more to Trade Fair and the age group of the people visiting Trade Fair are under the age group of 35. Majority of the people visiting the Trade Fair are in the income group of Rs10000 –Rs20000, followed by the next category of people visiting are in the income group of Rs20000 – Rs30000 and finally 18% & 19% of the visitors are in the income group of below Rs10000 & above Rs30000 respectively. Visitor Respondents visited Trade Fair more of Household and Personal consumptions (31% & 30% ) and very few of IT, Career and Tourism (21%,2% &12%) respectively.. It is found that Newspapers and Hoardings have been effective means of advertisement for Trade Fair. The visitors are the readers of newspapers like The Hindu and The New Indian Express from which they obtained information regarding the scheduling of trade fair and its venue and the timings. They required information like venue, date, timings and Purpose / Theme of the Trade Fairs / Exhibitions in the prominent portion of the newspaper.

Visitor’s Facility Expectation in Trade Fair

Visitors expect the extra facility of Amusements, food courts and children’s play ground attached to Trade Fairs / Exhibitions. Majority of the respondents preferred shopping on Friday, Saturday & Sundays (74%) and very few during summer vacations and festival time. Majority of the visitors prefer visiting the trade fair/exhibition after the sunset (58%). Very few prefer during the early hours of the day. Many of the visitors were not mind spending Rs10 – Rs20 on the entrance ticket (44%) where as 34% want their entrance ticket to be below Rs10 and 18% are ready to spend Rs20 – Rs30. Visitors are of the opinion that the Trade Fair should be immaculate to the core in all respect like cleanliness, interior decoration with good ambience, parking facility and a good layout. They are also somewhat satisfied with the information display and the availability of the choice, but they feel that there must be more discounts given and also more space for movement. The main reasons for visiting the Trade Fair is being to compare the companies and prices, to collect brochures and utilize the offers given at the venue and to some extent to watch the demonstration and to collect primary information which they felt that the information would be much help while doing online shopping because of the genuineness of the organization which they themselves have witnessed. Very few people visit for relaxation and as family outing.

Visitor’s Perception Towards Trade Fair/Exhibition

Respondents were asked to check the ten primary perception criteria for visiting trade fairs. They were also asked to give rank and order from one to ten according to their opinions in a list. Almost all respondents were able to demonstrate their perception criteria given in the questionnaire in the 5 point Likert scale. To understand the weight of visiting criteria respondents preferred in a more rational way, weight (point) was given to 1 to 5 rankings ( rank 1 = 5 points, rank 2 = 4 points, and rank 3 = 3 points, rank 4 = 2 points and rank 5 = 1 points) the responded frequency was multiplied to obtain the total score. As a result, “Cleanliness (1147), Parking Facility (1045), Layout of the fair (1023), Information Display (1008), Wider Choice of the product exhibits (980), Lighting (975), Design of the stall (960), Space for the visitor’s movement (948), Discounts (806), and Daily offers/Gift(768) which confirms information found in the literature about the visitors. As shown in Table 3, the most common primary criteria expected for visiting the trade fair was “Cleanliness in around the trade fair” as the first preferred criteria followed by the “ Parking Facility”, Layout of the fair, Information Display, Wider Choice , Lighting, Design of the Stall, Space for the visitors movement around the fair, Discounts and lastly the Daily offers/Gifts that tempted them for their visit to trade fair.

Statement RANK 1 2 3 4 5 ∑wixi ∑wixi/∑wi RANK

Cleanliness 40 170 87 3 - 1147 76.46 1

Parking Facility 17 137 123 20 3 1045 69.66 2

Wider choice 7 113 133 47 - 980 65.33 5

Discounts 3 67 113 77 40 806 53.73 9

Daily offers / Gifts - 69 107 47 77 768 51.2 10

Lighting 33 70 147 39 11 975 65 6

Information Display 17 109 143 27 4 1008 67.2 4

Layout 23 100 159 13 5 1023 68.2 3

Design of the Stall 17 97 137 27 22 960 64 7

Ample space for movement 9 87 167 17 20 948 63.2 8

Table No.3

Source: Primary data collected through questionnaire during Feb 2005 at Chennai

Visitors percepttion of Trade Fairs / Exhibtions

11471045 980

806 768

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Visitor’s Reason for visiting Trade Fair/Exhibition

Respondents were asked to check the seven important reasons for visiting trade fairs. They were also asked to give rank and order from one to ten according to their opinions in a list as done before through the same questionnaire in the 7 point Likert scale format.. To understand the weight of visiting criteria respondents preferred in a more rational way, weight (point) was given to 1 to 5 rankings ( rank 1=7 points, rank 2 = 6 points, and rank 3 = 5 points, and rank 4 = 4 points, rank 5 = 3 points , rank 6 = 2 points and rank 7 = 1 point) the responded frequency was multiplied to obtain the total score.

Table No.4

Statement 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ∑ wixi

∑wixi/∑wi Rank

To obtain Information 38 30 60 34 40 55 43 1155 41.25 5

To watch demonstrations 28 63 30 53 53 30 43 1198 42.78 4

To collect brochures / other materials 70 50 67 17 27 30 39 1373 49.03 2

To compare companies and prices 83 30 43 67 50 20 7 1441 51.46 1

To utilize offers / Bargain prices 27 47 70 57 50 40 9 1288 46 3

Leisure / Relaxation 16 50 23 34 63 67 47 1033 36.89 6

Family outing 43 30 8 40 16 53 110 945 33.75 7Source: Primary data collected through questionnaire during Feb 2005 at Chennai

As shown in the Table No.4, the reason for visiting the trade fair was to compare the company in person and the product price as we do in the pre- purchase session going around the market place for comparing which ranked Number one reason for the visit, followed by to collect the brochures and other related printed matters for casual reading as the second position, and in the order other reasons like to utilize offers given and to bargain the price with the company people rather than the dealers to obtain maximum advantage over the price, to watch the demonstration given by the company and other related information and at last as the family outing for visiting the trade fair in comparison with the museum and olden days exhibitions.

REASONS FOR VISITING TRADE FAIRS/EXHIBITIONS

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Once descriptive profiles were created, Chi-square analysis was conducted for the variables Gender and the type of Trade Fair they visited and found that there is significant relationship between the two variables rejecting the Null Hypothesis.(From the cross tabulation the calculated chi-square value =55.014 against the tabulated value for the degree of freedom 5= 7.814) In the same way we found that there is a significant relationship between the visitor’s income level and choice for the Entrance ticket fare from the cross tabulation table rejecting the Null Hypothesis.( The calculated value =48.831 against the tabulated value for the degree of freedom 5= 7.814). In the same way we found that there is a significant relationship between the visitor’s income level and choice for the Entrance ticket fare from the cross tabulation table rejecting the Null

Hypothesis.( The calculated value =48.831 against the tabulated value for the degree of freedom 5= 7.814). In a Two ANOVA the variable like Income and the reason for visiting the Trade Fair was analyzed and found that there is a relationship between visitor’s Income and their reasons to visit the Trade Fair/Exhibition.

CONCLUSION

As was revealed by much of the literature, it was also confirmed that Trade Fair exhibitors do not exhibit at shows just because competition is there but to make the visitors to educate the attributes of the newly developed product so as to erase any wrong impressions about the product. But the same time visitors are also not only just going to visit the Trade Fair but also they require the certain basic and also the rich environment around the Trade Fair in order to feel that they have come to the most ultra modern environment just to feel the same as that of a foreign country with all amenities. The visitors also come to the Trade Fair for the pre-purchase session to gain knowledge about the product in order to know the brand image of the product which will of great use during the purchase time. This logic can also be carried over for the upcoming online shopping buyers with which the online shopping buyer will have the real access to the different product at one place so feel the touch of the product and feel which is not available for the online shopping buyer. From the sample it is inferred the income group of the visitors are above the average and mostly those visitors in the Upper middle class who are having the broadband Internet connection which has become the additional service for the existing landline telephone , it is hoped that the visitors of Trade Fair will be mostly switch over to the most convenient system of online shopping which make the every purchase of any product by just click of a mouse rather than traveling, spending money and time which is going to add up to the cost of the product that they are going to purchase instead they can get the same with cheaper price through online shopping which is going to be the order of the day. That day is not that far ……….It has already come to replace the traditional shopping if not to all but to the most of product that will be buying in our daily life at least.It should be made clear that US which stands number one in online shopping revenue holds most of the Trade Fair in their land and also quiet often.This established that the Trade Fair is to see and feel the product just we do with the museum/exhibition but it can be stated that it is a pre-purchase for a online shopping.

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