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AUMA Trade Fair Benefit Check now online
New instrument for calculating trade fair efficiency

28.09.2004 An increasing number of exhibitors want to calculate the cost-benefit ratio of their trade fair participations more precisely. However, because small and medium-sized companies, in particular, frequently do not formulate any exact trade fair objectives, the benefits of participations are often not determined on a wide enough scale; the focus is thus primarily on the costs. As a result, some companies believe that trade fair participations have an unfavourable cost-benefit ratio.

AUMA – The Association of the German Trade Fair Industry has, therefore, in close cooperation with the exhibiting industry and the trade fair organizers, developed the AUMA Trade Fair Benefit Check which has been available online since end of September and can be downloaded free of charge at www.auma-fairs.com.

Trade fair benefits = costs of alternative marketing instruments
The basic idea is that exhibitors should first be clear in their own minds which objectives they wish to achieve, to what extent they wish to achieve them and how they can measure their achievement. The utility value of quantitative objectives is determined in by the costs which would be involved in the use of alternative marketing instruments. Thus, for example, the extremely expensive sales force would have to be employed more intensively if the company wished to achieve a specific number of contacts to new customers by means other than a trade fair participation. The utility values thus calculated for the individual trade fair objectives are added together to arrive at the quantitative utility value of the trade fair participation.

In addition to this, the exhibitor checks what the achievement of qualitative trade fair objectives is worth to him, for example, the presence at the trade fair as a central sector event. The value of such objectives is expressed as a percentage of the total expenditure.

Subsequently, within the scope of the trade fair check, the costs of the participation are calculated taking into account the desired benefits. These costs are then compared with the total utility value of the quantitative and qualitative objectives.

Tool for small and medium-sized companies
With the Trade Fair Benefit Check, both trade fair participations which have been implemented and those that are being planned can be calculated and evaluated with relatively little effort. Correspondingly this instrument addresses itself particularly to small and medium-sized companies. The Trade Fair Benefit Check should, furthermore, persuade the exhibiting industry, first of all, to consider the benefits and only then the costs of communication. It should contribute to an examination of the entire spectrum of possible trade fair objectives and to the formulation of exact objectives as the precondition for effective monitoring of success.

The AUMA Trade Fair Benefit Check is available for downloading free of charge at www.auma-fairs.com. AUMA’s previous online trade fair costs calculator is integrated in it.

Press contact: Harald Koetter, phone: +49/30/24 000-140, fax: +49/30/24 000-340, email: h.koetter@auma.de


Veröffentlichung kostenfrei - Beleg erbeten / Publication free - File copy requested
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Last update: 10/2004