Collateral Literature- What can you do to ensure your company's literature makes it past the litter bins?

COLLATERAL LITERATURE

You're right. Immediately after a trade show, countless product brochures become trash-can liners, as attendees lighten their loads before their flights home. And that's exactly why many exhibitors have switched to electronic product catalogs. Indeed, digital brochures certainly eliminate print-production costs, and they decrease weight-based shipping and drayage fees; plus, electronic communication is the medium of choice for some attendees.

However, printed magazines and books still exist for a reason: Not everyone favors digital data. Some people simply prefer the tactile experience of holding a piece of paper while others like to jot down notes in a catalog or add sticky notes to important pages. Plus, booth visitors often enjoy sharing their trade show treasures with colleagues without having to fire up a tablet or squint at tiny images on a smartphone.

So paper still has its place. But there are two reasons why it's gotten a bad rap: 1) unqualified distribution, and 2) a lack of creative vision. Here are some ways to deal with both of these problems.

Unqualified Distribution
Luckily, the first issue is fairly easy to solve. Just as you likely shouldn't hand out high-value tchotchkes to every person that wanders by your booth, you need not offer everyone a glossy, premium-paper brochure either. In both cases, you need to qualify potential recipients before you decide what, if anything, to distribute to them. Now that's not to say that every attendee has to be an A lead before you fork over a folder. But a certain level of interest or buying intent should be present before a booth visitor gets a hold of your literature.

Store your brochures out of sight in your booth and set up some distribution parameters for the staff. For example, instruct staffers that they can only give out your brochure after they've spent a minimum of five minutes talking with an attendee, they've assessed that this person has a high level of interest, buying power, and immediate intent (or whatever qualifiers you choose), and/or the person has specifically asked for literature.

Also consider creating two types of handouts. For less-qualified booth browsers, you might place several low-cost one-sheet options in plain view in your booth. Then you could position glossy, multipage pamphlets in a concealed location and only distribute them to qualified attendees with high purchasing authority and interest levels.

Creative Vacuum
So the first key to using literature effectively in your exhibit is to pair its distribution with attendee qualification. The second, then, is to hand out something worth keeping. You need to give attendees a reason, over and above product information, to hang onto your handout – because most people can, and should, get detailed product information online.

That reason, then, usually has little to do with the content of the handout and more to do with its delivery medium. Here's where your creative vision comes into play. Rather than handing out a traditional product sheet or brochure, ask yourself: How else could we distribute the same information in a memorable or at least nontraditional manner? To get your wheels turning, here are some options that will rarely go straight to the inside of a dumpster.

Shapes and Textures – Traditional literature is printed on flat sheets of paper with square corners. Simply changing the shape of the piece or the texture of the paper can help it stand out. For example, if your company offers cloud-computing services, create a brochure shaped like a cloud and make the cover out of a soft cotton-like material. Or, for your one-sheet handout featuring sale prices, design a red, sales-tag-shaped piece, perhaps even with a hole at the top and a string tied through it. And what if the cover of your brochure was actually a piece of sandpaper? This texture could tie into messages about product durability or how your company smoothes out attendees' problems. Bottom line, to give your literature staying power, think beyond the strict confines of stock paper and square shapes.

Pop-ups – This technique is often found in greeting cards. When you open such a card, a 3-D image or word "pops" off the card interior. Why not create a product handout or a couple of pages of your brochure that pop off the page and surprise and delight recipients? Or if you want to get fancy, add one of those musical greeting-card chips, but load it with product messages instead of tunes.

Multifolds and Interactives – Most brochures have a linear progression from the front of the literature to the back. But what if your handout folded accordion style or maybe like a travel map? Or what if you gave attendees a flat piece of paper that when folded according to directions created an origami crane covered with product information? Some companies also offer slide-show-like books with a tab on the side. When the tab is pulled out almost like a tape measure, additional pages emerge from inside a hidden flap. While attendees may have seen these techniques before, they've rarely seen them used in conjunction with trade show exhibits.

Scratch-Offs and Pull Tabs – You don't need a gaming license to hit it big with pull tabs and scratch-off cards. In their simplest form, these items can be branded with your company's information, and attendees can scratch or pull to reveal product info or messages. But what if you integrated the concept into a large brochure or handout? For example, you could place a small scratch-off square on the front cover of a large brochure. Then, text could instruct people to scratch off the square after the show and to visit your company's website to see if they'd won a prize, such as a percentage discount on their next purchase, an electronic component, or even a high-dollar giveaway such as a motorcycle. This tactic could help ensure that most of your handouts stay with attendees long after the show has closed – or at least until they can scratch off the square to see if they've won.

Nontraditional Objects – If you want to take your literature even farther outside of the box, consider printing your product info on unexpected items, such as paint cans (the labels can be easily custom printed and applied), Chinese takeout and pizza boxes (you can print the flat boxes and then fold them into their unique shapes at the show), etc. Or, create a handout that looks like an everyday item. For example, design product pamphlets that look like airline-ticket jackets, menus, movie tickets, cash-register receipts, etc.

So as you can see, traditional trade show literature doesn't have to be traditional at all. If you devise a handout that stands out amid the stacks, and you develop a distribution system based on lead quality, you can greatly decrease the chances of it landing in a landfill – and increase the probability of it taking up long-term residence on attendees' desks.

— Dan McAdams, vice president of marketing and sales, McAdams Graphics Inc., Oak Creek, WI

byBest Events

in Trade Show Tips

5:00 PM

Collateral Literature- What can you do to ensure your company's literature makes it past the litter bins?

COLLATERAL LITERATURE You're right. Immediately after a trade show, countless product brochures become trash-can liners, as attendee...

Read More

Event Staffing- How should staffers handle difficult questions?

The vast majority of in-booth interactions involve merely listening to attendees' needs and then relaying product information accordingly. But once in a while, exhibit staffers are bound to get a question that throws them out of their normal listen/respond rhythm. Depending on what's happening in your industry and your company, they could get queries about everything from how your product stacks up to the competition's new shiny bauble to why your brand just gobbled up one of the beloved industry little guys.

So in addition to preparing your staff to handle these awkward situations, you need to give them some down-and-dirty strategies to sidestep them as well. Here, then, is a primer on how to prepare for and respond to atypical questions in the booth.

1. Prepare. After each day of a show, ask staffers what odd questions they received from attendees, and create a list. This will help you keep a finger on the pulse of the industry and make some generalizations about what people are concerned about at the time. Then, devise appropriate answers for these tough questions, and others like them, seeking help from other people within your organization if necessary. Go over these questions and suitable answers or prescribed courses of action for each.

Furthermore, take a look at your company and industry to see if there's anything going on that might prompt new questions. For example, is one of your new products late to market or defective? Has a company executive recently made the news for improper behavior? Have stock prices plummeted, or are there industry rumors of an upcoming merger? Devise a list of potential questions and fitting answers and distribute these to your staff. By giving staffers a few examples of the questions they're likely to field in the booth, you'll help them mentally prepare for the onslaught and hopefully prevent any blank-stare responses.
Finally, encourage staffers to discuss oddball questions with each other and devise answers on the fly (with your assistance if necessary). If one attendee posed a tough query to your staff, chances are that other similar questions could be coming their way. Even if a staffer fudged the first response, there's no reason to get it wrong twice.

2. Master the handoff. Once in a while, attendees' queries are better answered by an executive or trained media professional in the booth. If you have these people on hand at the show, be sure your staffers are aware of who they are, how they can find them, and what type of questions should be directed their way. That way, tough questions can go straight to a booth staffer that's specifically trained to answer them.
And, if your company is indeed involved in some kind of scandal, merger, or "tricky" situation, consider sending someone to the show whose sole purpose is to address attendees' concerns. That way, you'll have one person with the right answer every time, so the rest of your staff can focus on traditional staffing duties.

3. Call their bluff. Some people are just jerks. They want to see staffers squirm, so they'll keep pounding away at them with rude comments and questions no matter how charming or informative the answers. In this case, it might be best for staff to respond to these questions with questions. Staff should ask attendees why they're posing these specific questions, and if there's some underlying issue they're not discussing.

Occasionally, these people do have an issue, which when ferreted out, can be solved or at least addressed. But if attendees are simply being jerks, responding to their question with a question will often disarm them and give staffers a little more time to formulate answers â?" or to bring other staffers into the conversation to render aid. Remember, though, staffers must always stay calm and be polite. Otherwise, they'll come off as defensive, and that could open a whole new can of worms.

4. Apologize. Often, a simple "I'm sorry that ..." is all attendees are looking for with their questions or complaints. They want a real human to step up to the plate and admit that the company or product somehow wronged them. After that happens, their steam usually dissipates, and they can move on.

So if someone or something related to your company has truly wronged the attendee, ask your staff to admit the error and apologize. But then move on. And if it turns out that there has merely been a misunderstanding, perhaps between a salesperson in the field and this attendee, your staff should take partial or full responsibility for it and do their best to clear up the misunderstanding. Most attendees just want to know what's really going on, and an explanation will often satisfy their needs. Again, as soon as possible, staff should redirect the conversation toward a positive topic. You don't want the attendee leaving your company's booth with a bad taste in his or her mouth.

5. Don't call out or criticize the competition. If you're exhibiting at the right shows, you're probably surrounded by competing companies.
As such, you can expect to get questions about how your product stacks up to the competition. But you're at the show to generate awareness for and interest in your products, not those of your competitors. Even mentioning competitors by name gives them unnecessary "airtime" with attendees.

And blasting the competition isn't a good idea because for all you know, the customer with whom your staffer is speaking may already own the competitor's product. If you belittle the competition, you're essentially calling the attendee stupid for buying the somehow defective product. Or worse, the attendee might start arguing for the competition. Now you've got someone openly touting the competition in your company's booth where other attendees are likely to hear the exchange.

When an attendee asks how your product compares to the competition, staffers shouldn't mention competitors by name, nor talk badly about them. Rather, they should offer a vague answer and then ask the attendee about his or her needs. For example, they could try, "We compare favorably with all of our competitors. Tell me exactly what you're looking for." Or better yet, have them highlight differentiators that the competition can't match.

For example, let's say someone asks why your prices are higher than the competition. Staffers could say something like, "Actually, our list prices might be higher, but when you take into account the total cost of ownership, we're actually lower given our products' reliability and our outstanding customer service." And remember, staff shouldn't info dump a list of features on the attendee. All conversations should be geared toward attendees' needs.

As you can see, training staffers to handle tough questions isn't any harder than prepping them to complete other booth duties. Just prepare them with information and go-to sources in the booth, and arm them with appropriate responses and tactics. Before long, they will be managing awkward questions with ease.

– Matt Hill, president, The Hill Group, San Jose, CA

byBest Events

in Event Tips, Trade Show Tips

5:00 PM

Event Staffing- How should staffers handle difficult questions?

The vast majority of in-booth interactions involve merely listening to attendees' needs and then relaying product information accordi...

Read More

Rougeur- The new event venue in Kuala Lumpur

If you're familiar with driving around Kuala Lumpur, you would be familiar with the Tokio Marine Life Insurance building just opposite the posh Hampshire Residences. Along with chic office space and apartments in this area, you will now find a new venue for your next event.

ROUGEUR by Astelier offers over 12,000 sq. ft. space that can be transformed into any themed event or setting.

Set amidst an industrial warehouse styled ambience, ROUGEUR also comes equipped with full sound & light system, furniture rental facilities, in-house food and beverage operation, complete bar setup and mobile partitions for versatile segregation of space.

The floor is separated into three main areas. As you walk through the main entrance on the first floor, you will first see the bar on your left and just after the bar, a suitable space for Hen's Nights and birthday parties with its funky LED furniture. This area can comfortably seat about 40-50 pax.

 

This area with it's mobile partitioned wall, can be expanded into the main hall which can fit about 30 round tables.



There are a few pillars that will block the view of the stage but LED screens on the walls ensure that your guests don't miss out on the action.

The stage has its own LED screen and the hall is equipped with state of the art sound and lighting system so it is no longer necessary to bring in outside suppliers.

Parking in the building itself is easy enough after office hours but there might be quite a queue to use the ladies and gents.

Creative producers will love this raw space as they can completely transform it into an event venue of their dreams.

Mezzanine Floor, Menara Tokio Marine Life
189 Jalan Tun Razak, 50400 Kuala Lumpur
Operation Days & Hours:
Tuesdays to Sundays
11:00am - 12:00am

Please submit all event/venue enquiries to:
booking@rougeur.my
To speak to their Event Team, please contact:
03 - 7781 0009 (HQ)

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