I have been to the Food & Drink Expo exhibition today at the NEC. The purpose of my visit was to complete some research on how companies used promotion teams at exhibition events.

I was talking to the managing director of a food company, a lovely lady who set up her business just 12 months ago. Her take on promotion teams put a smile on my face, her response was ‘my product sells itself, I don’t need scantilly clad young women to do that for me’.

It took me back to a time when I worked for Hotpoint, I was told by my colleagues that a previous well respected owner of the business Mr. Schrieber refused to attend fancy exhibtions at wonderful venues, preferring instead to promote the brand at the company’s own premises in London. It worked, customers came in droves to attend any new product launches, because the brand was so well respected. No gimmicks, no fancy frills or scantilly clad ladies, just a product with a great reputation.

Times move on, competition gets stronger, and new markets need to be courted. Promotion teams can play a huge contribution to counteract this especially at exhibitions. ‘Scantilly clad’ might be the route some brands pursue, it may be relevant for the product or market, and no one can deny that it can attract footfall onto the stand. 

For me though, whether it’s minimal clothing, dressed for the Winter or wearing a promotional outfit, the first and most important thing is for any promotion person to wear a smile, it’s a perfect way to break the ice and encourge customers to take notice. Secondly the ability to communicate with customers is a must and will start to deliver value for money, a good return on the clients investment in a promotion team. Make sure they have a suitable level of product knowledge and they soon become your first line salespeople.

I hope that the conversation I had with the lady helped change her mind about promotion teams. Employed correctly, they can make some real valuable contributions to a business, and ensure that important client doesn’t pass your stand. To top it all most take such a pride in their appearance, have fabulous personalities and display a real passion for their work that ’scantilly clad’ or not they brighten the day for visitors and for other exhibitors!

Share This

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 9th, 2008 at 8:07 pm and is filed under Exhibitions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.