Trade fairs a good tool in tough times
Attending trade exhibitions, where you can directly reach target customers, is a good marketing tool for these troubled times.
"The economic slowdown does affect you, but you still need marketing to keep up awareness, and now it's a matter of which marketing tool to apply," Reed Tradex's vice president Chainarong Limpkittisin said. He said attending good trade exhibitions assured a return on investment. Production Management and Services (PM&S) managing director Natprapa Yokputtaraksa said trade exhibitions made it easy for companies to meet good customers. "When you spend Bt1 million on advertising in the mass media, you never know how many potential customers you actually reach, because you don't know who sees your ads," Natprapa said. Trade exhibitions offer a chance to meet publishers who might be interested in your business and in publishing articles about it. Also, businesses can see who their competitors are and meet potential partners. Another benefit is finding out about industry clubs and associations. Natprapa said the current economic slowdown did not worry PM&S or other trade-exhibition organisers. It has not had to revise its business plan or its target revenue yet. The company always has contingency plans. Chainarong said that Reed Tradex was also seeing good growth of 10 per cent compared to last year in terms of the number of companies reserving booths in trade exhibitions. He said the company was lucky to be one of the top two trade-exhibition organisers in Thailand and to have arranged many well-known exhibitions. "Companies don't want to attend so many trade exhibitions, so they tend to select one or two big ones that are really worth the investment. "Top organisers have this advantage," he said. Nevertheless, he admitted that Reed Tradex had seen a slow-down in decision-making by many companies. As an organiser, the company needs to assure exhibitors that certain events will attract a high volume of target visitors. Reed Trade plans two major trade exhibitions in Thailand this year. Assembly Arms@Automation World is being held next month, and Metalex 2007 in late November. It also plans two minor exhibitions, Metalex 2007 in Vietnam in October and World Didac 2007 Asia in late November in Thailand. Meanwhile, PM&S is set to stage its first trade exhibition, Proud Asia 2007, in September.
Nitida Asawanipont
The Nation
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