Posted by

Barry Siskind

Community Manager

Here’s an interesting question? What criteria do your exhibitors use when choosing to participate in your trade fair?  If you said they examine the audience profile, understand the logistics involved in the facility and have carefully compared your trade fair with others in the industry then you may be right. Then there are those exhibitors who choose a fair because it’s performed well for them in the past and they are comfortable. Which is correct? The answer is both according to an article written by Michael I. Horton, a marketing professor at Harvard University titled “Are We Thinking Too Much or Too Little? http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/6630.html

According to Horton’s thesis there are a whole lot of decision makers who micro-manage the decision making process. With too much information they tend to not decide at all. Instead they become paralyzed. On the other extreme we find decision makers who decide quickly, often relying on their “gut instinct.”  For these decision makers familiarity can sway their decision. The problem is that they assume that past experience will dictate future performance. Another problem arises when this type of decision maker is replaced by a new person who lacks the historical context.

The question for the exhibit organizer is how to ensure you are providing the right balance of information so your exhibitors will make the right decision.

It seems that the first step is to understand your exhibitors better. Many of us survey exhibitors to uncover what they like and don’t like about the exhibiting experience. Perhaps another criterion to survey is how they make the decision.  With this added bit of knowledge your marketing initiatives can be better focused on the right balance of information.

Remember Robert Southey’s story,  Goldilocks and the Three Bears? Goldilocks went for a walk in the forest and she found an empty house. Being tired from her walk she decided to rest. The first bed she tried was too hard so she went to the next which was too soft and finally a third which was just right. Goldilocks had just three choices. Your exhibitors and it can rightfully be argued your attendees have many more. Understanding how they decide seems to me to be crucial information many of us are neglecting to learn.