Trends in Trade fairs : history, environment, marketing, motivation

Abstract

The paucity of literature devoted to Trade Fairs and Exhibitions (TFE) is quite rernarkable, since thousands of firms invest annually millions for this purpose and over the entire world millions of people show by their visits to the events that they have a lively and active interest in the TFE medium. In marketing publications, which chiefly derive from the Anglo-Saxon countries, the TFE phenomenon is either left out or barely mentioned when dealing with the media types, let alone studied. An explanation for this could be that the TFE phenomenon in its various forms, especially in the 19th century played a dominant role and that since then, other media types have arisen which have taken over certain communicative tasks. As a result a train of thought is conceivable which regards the TFE medium as being out-dated or out-moded, and consequently not applic­able within the framework of the sophisticated marketing policy of a firm. Another possible explanation for the absence of an exhaustive literature on the TFE as a marketing instrument is the circumstance that the USA was the first country where market orientated thought, through scientific application, became an integrated part of management policy. The medium in the USA possesses entirely different structural charac­teristics than is the case in West Europe. Consequently the need for literature in this specific field did not arise. This tact could possibly be an explanation for the void which one notices bath in trade and industry as well as in the case of marketing specialists regarding an adequate use of TFE as a marketing instrument. After all, the marketing techniques are generally studied with the aid of American literature. The present study is therefore intended not only for the said managers and marketing specialists, but also for those who study the media types, or make use of the TFE medium, or who are interested in the TFE simply as a socio-economie phenomenon. This study aims at providing a theoretica! explanation for the functioning of a social economie phenomenon, whose users appear to make use of it in an intuitive manner. The provision of such a theoretica!, generalizing and abstract approach leaves little space for a multiplicity of concrete specific digressions. Nevertheless, the latter could not always be avoi,ded, since to do so would have meant the danger of a too great degree of abridgement. The integration of a West European phenomenon into the Anglo-Saxon marketing literature met with a number of difficulties. In the first place the genesis and rapid development of the phenomenon took place chiefly 1in Germany, so that for the study of the literature generally German authors had to be consulted. An additional complicat­ing factor is that German Betriebswirtschaftslehre as regards its way of thinking and conceptualization differs entirely from the Dutch schools of economics and to an even stronger extent trom the Anglo-Saxon schools of economics. The result of this is a certain amount of semantic confusion, which is further increased by differences within the TFE itself, i.e. diversity owing to pluriformity. lt therefore follows that an attempt at reducing these pluriform concepts to a common denominator is no easy task. Possible imperfections cannot therefore be absolutely excluded. This study is divided into tour parts. In Part 1, a short historica! account of the origin and development of the TFE is given, in which recent developments are also discussed. In Chapter 5, the Royal Netherlands Industries Fair at Utrecht has been chosen as a specific example of the genesis and development of a trade fair. In Part Il, within the framework of the marketing concept the structures etc. are discussed, which can have an influence on the operating and external form of the different types of the TFE. As an example of the effect of legislation on the TFE, the implications and consequences of the EEG legislation are analysed in Chapter 8. In Chapter 9 the questlon will be examined whether conversely there is an influence on the environment emanating from the TFE. In Part 111, which is devoted to a micro-economie account, the function­ing of the TFE as a marketing instrument is examined, within the frame­work of a systems approach. Using field and desk research, an attempt is made to demonstrate that the TFE can be used as an effective marketing instrument. In Chapter 13 the place of the TFE in the market­ing mix is further studied. In Chapter 14 attention is given to the evaluation of results, whilst in Chapter 15 a number of trends regarding actual participation in the TFE are described. To conclude, in Part IV the results are offered obtained by an invest­igation into the behavioural patterns of Dutch participants in the TFE. In conjunction with this, in Chapter 17 a comparative account is given of the results of West German and Dutch investigations into the behav­iour and motivation of participants in the TFE. Finally it is pointed out that in order not to overburden the text, quotations have only been translated in full where absolutely necessary.