On Flexibility and Your Exhibit Strategy.
A White Paper by Catalyst Exhibits

We believe in tradeshow marketing. 

We believe in what it is and are excited about what it could be.  After all, an exhibit program does many things... or should...  at different times.  There is overlap.  Very often your exhibit will be accomplishing several different tasks at once.¹  An appropriate exhibit can accomplish a great deal indeed (just as an inappropriate exhibit can accomplish nothing at all, or worse).

Any thinking on the subject of Tradeshow Objectives is, in fact, contemplation of flexibility.  After all, the ousia of exhibit flexibility is an exhibit's ability to achieve various things at various times.  And that idea is rooted in the notion of making a given exhibit into The Right Tool For The Job. 

Flexibility is ensuring that your exhibit is The Right Tool For The Job. 

It seems prudent in this context to examine some of the various activities and objectives an exhibit might satisfy.  More than anything else, it is clear that an exhibit program must be agile.

For the purposes of exploring the subject I've divided the issues that exhibits address into three groups of issues.   These can be viewed as "constituent groups" to whom your exhibit answers.  What is particularly interesting is the obvious overlap.  I've almost certainly omitted something, but this grouping does allow for solid analysis. 

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The three categories of exhibit "constituencies" are (as we see them):

• Your Product or Service
• Your Company / Brand / Corporate Culture
• The Tradeshow Itself

You will be faced with unique challenges from each of these groups every show.  An effective (and therefore valuable) custom exhibit program or rental exhibit booth will have the agility to answer each challenge.  Flexibility is essential.  Demand it.  If your exhibit plan is not adequately flexible then you will not maximize the value of your investment.

Take for example an exhibitor who is in the surgical equipment business. 

• At any given time, they will have a variety of products and services in various stages of their life cycles.  Their exhibit will have to remain responsive to these realities.
• There will be broad corporate communications needs that have little or nothing to do with specific products (branding, financial announcements, acquisitions, overall market strategies and positioning).
• There will be different audiences at different shows.  Surgeons and Hospital Administrators (for example).  There may be different regulatory realities at different shows.  Moreover, the exhibitor will have different spatial realities from show to show.

It is a necessity that the exhibitor's exhibit be responsive to each of the above realities.  Each.  Not "Some."  To fail to do so is to fail in a tradeshow program. 

Inflexibility = Failure.

Flexibility = Success.

And the situation is a good deal more complex than the hypothetical scenarios above.  Agility is not a luxury.  Agility is necessary.  Exhibit flexibility is a large part of this agility.

A product launch (for example) often shines a halo beyond the product itself... to the entire product lineup... to the corporate position of the entire company.  The attendee audience of a particular show is equally a function of the show itself AND the products and services that will be showcased.  The size of an exhibitor's exhibit is (or should be) a decision made to balance a particular tradeshow with a particular objective and a particular product or service.  The important point here is simply that every show has at least three constituent groups of issues to maximize.

Agility.  Flexibility.

We could fill hundreds of pages with the reasoning behind a diagram, and real-world examples (Success Stories) to support that reasoning. 

But it isn't necessary. 

Identifying just a few areas for discussion can make the key points much more clearly.  This is what I've tried to do.

The key issues to be examined (in my opinion) are:

• Product Life Cycle Migration and how it influences your exhibit,
• Program and Exhibit Scalability,
• How the "periodicy" of certain events influences exhibit needs,
• The important role of your current marketing in your exhibit program,
• How different audiences demand different tradeshow strategies,
• How trade shows can be used to exploit corporate initiatives,

And finally,

• "Trendy-ness" as a tradeshow strategy.

Each of the issues above is another way to think about exhibit program flexibility.