Ah, Christmas/holiday shows! They sound great. Lots of sales opportunity. Lots of public exposure. We took a look at the finances and how much we could afford to lose, and we signed up for a couple of local ones. These were large (650 and 450 vendors) regional shows, somewhat expensive ($850 and $675, respectively, and the $850 gave us better ratios than the $675 show), and lots of time on one’s feet. We don’t know if we will ever do another one.
The event coordinators of these larger shows cruise the summer fairs looking for suitable vendors, which is how we got into these shows in the first place. We now think, though, that if a large show coordinator is still trying to fill slots for a late October or November Christmas show in July or August, beware. It harkens back to the point about vendor turnover. Large turnover or lack of interest from previous vendors means these companies have to be out diligently cruising for a new crop of suckers like ourselves. This is when getting information about vendor turnover, public turnout, and advertising avenues is more important than ever before committing financial resources. You might even get last year’s exhibitor list and call a few of them to learn about their previous show experiences. Experiences can vary widely between vendors depending on what they sell, but you can still get a very good idea of the overall trends by talking to a few of them.
We got lucky and broke even only because one show’s gains covered the other show’s losses. Once again, we did not follow our own advice about researching the shows (we had not yet devised our own advice at that time). However, given what other veteran vendors were saying at these shows, I don’t think our research would have done us much good. 2007 has not been a good year for most vendors, regardless of their successes in 2006, and most of them indicated they did quite well in 2006.
Our big learning experience was that attendee entry fees are an effective barrier to public purchasing. One show’s entry fee jumped from $7 in 2006 to $12 in 2007. The second, smaller show charged $14 per person. We heard from many attendees that this dampened their buying enthusiasm. So, the combination of economic downturn, a dour public and ridiculous entry fees did not bode well for our 2007 experiences.
Our second lesson was that our previous market research was reflected in these shows. When researching future shows, we will take a look at the typical attendee and see whether it fits our target demographic. Restated in English, we will take a look at whether the types of people attending the show are those who would normally be interested in our product. Despite the fact that these shows draw a lot of people, the show’s location, where and how the show is advertised, and other factors influence the type of attendee. What’s good for one vendor may not be good for another.
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