Trade fair exhibitors pursue a wide range of objectives. First and foremost, they want to come into personal contact with their customers. Customer-oriented objectives are the focus of nearly every trade fair participation. This was a major finding of the AUMA MesseTrend 2016/2017 survey, a representative poll of 500 selected German companies exhibiting at fairs that are directed at trade visitors. The study, which has recently been published, was carried out by TNS Emnid on behalf of AUMA, the Association of the German Trade Fair Industry.
On average, German exhibitors set eight different objectives that they pursue at a trade fair. The five most important objectives are increasing corporate and product awareness (86%), maintaining contacts with regular customers (85%), customer acquisition (84%), presenting new products and services (82%) and improving the corporate or brand image (80%). For exhibitors, trade fairs are still important for closing deals and making sales both during the trade fair and in terms of follow-up business. Six out of ten companies exhibit at trade fairs with this objective.
Forty-four percent utilise trade fairs to conduct inexpensive market research and test customers’ acceptance of new products. Fourteen percent of trade fair exhibitors have the objective of acquiring new employees, saving expensive personnel recruiting costs, in part at least. For companies with annual turnover of more than 50 million euros, this number rises to 26%.
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