Trade Show Intelligence

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Frame of reference

In this chapter the theoretical framework is presented. Brands and trade shows and their features are discussed in-dividually before explaining how the two concepts can be combined.
Brands
The concept of branding
The concept of branding is very abstract. No brands can be claimed to be alike, but generally it is the uniqueness of the offer for which a brand stands for that is the essence of branding. Brands can be on different levels from product to company brands.
The creation of a strong brand can be crucial for companies in crowded markets. Jansson (2003) argues that branding is more than just a logotype, branding is in everything you do as a company. This means that the brand has to be consistent in its interaction with stakeholders and customers. Branding is about creating long-lasting relationships with these groups.
According to Randall (2000) brands have five main functions. It needs to have a strong identity. The identity is the messages the company sends to the environment, customers and stakeholders. It aims to create a shorthand summary of the brand and trigger associations about it. We believe that it can be done by the use of symbols and that the personal meeting also contribute to creating such a shorthand summary, depending on the customers’ feelings towards the salesman’s behav-iour and presentation of the company. The brand should further create security for the customer so that they know the benefits they get from the brand. We believe that security means that the customer feels safe with the company’s promises and can rely on it to provide them with prod-ucts they need in time. The brand should differentiate the product or company from competitors and contribute to making the offer unique and create added value. All these functions combined compose the brand image. Brand image is described by Randall (2000) as the customer’s percep-tion of what the brand is based on the information that the individual has obtained. The informa-tion is mixed with the customer’s own beliefs, norms and values. The brand image cannot be controlled by the company and may be very hard to change. We believe that a strong brand im-age is easier to loose than a bad image; it is easier to destroy than to create brand reputation. Kot-ler, Armstrong, Saunders and Wang (2001) supports this view by emphasizing that a strong brand today may not be a strong brand tomorrow. To maintain a strong brand it is important to keep a good relationship with customers. They further stress that brands are the most enduring asset of a company, outlasting the company’s specific products and facilities and that behind every pow-erful brand there is a set of loyal customers. Branding is a strategic process that involves the whole company, in an ever changing business environment the brand must continuously adapt to meet the customers’ expectations and needs and keep providing them with superior customer value (Randall, 2000).

Benefits of a brand

Even though the exact value of the brand is hard to calculate there are benefits of a strong brand. LePla & Parker (2002) argues that the benefits of a brand is a clear companywide focus, higher margins, deep customer loyalty and a higher success rate with new products. A clear companywide focus has strong strategic benefits for the company that makes it easier for management to ensure that the com-pany is working in the same direction. A strong brand reminds the employees of the company values and believes. Brands have also proven to be an important tool to use to produce higher margins. On average, a 15-20% price premium can be charged for a branded good, compared to a generic one. Customer loyalty is a very important factor when building a brand. The offer that a company provides to the market should revolve around the wants and needs of the customer. Brands aim at building strong relationship between the company and the customer. This relation-ship and a strong brand will ease the introduction of new products to the market. The brand is a reassuring mark of trust for buyers that make buying rational and easier (LePla & Parker, 2002).
Randall (2000) points out that there is a set of internal and external benefits. The internal benefits that the brand provides are: a clear strategic direction, consistent messaging, employee loyalty and initiative. The external benefits are: price premium ability, a short customer repurchase decision cycle, customer loyalty, capabilities to capture and retain market share, new product success and less share price fluctuations through improved company financial valuations.
A beneficial brand is one that is built on the company’s strengths and its customer’s values. The brand needs to be integrated throughout the company and not only exhibit itself in the commu-nication of the company. Consumers perceive a brand to embrace a set of values which makes them reject other brands (Randall, 2000).

B2B Branding

Branding in B2B is not as developed as in B2C. De Chernatony (1998) argues however, that brands are as important in B2B marketing. He further states that it is more common that a brand name in the B2B setting is the company name.
The B2B market has some general distinctions. Business buying decisions are more rational than consumer buyer decision and more complex in the sense that more expertise is needed in both companies for making an informed purchase. This is especially true in the subcontractor context. There is likely to be a stronger bound between companies as their businesses are linked together tightly in a co-operative way. In a company setting the purchase will have a large impact; more people from different departments of the company will be involved in the buying process in a company than in a consumer buying process. Each person will have their different aspect on what they want out of the purchase. This will contribute to a much longer time to make the buy-ing decision (Randall, 2000).
The main reasons for developing a brand in a company selling B2B is that it is easier to support new products, build demand for components and supporting spare parts. It is also done in order to stay competitive in a market where competitors are branding their businesses. However com-panies should really consider whether they have what it takes to create a strong brand. Develop-ing a strong business brand takes time, commitment and money, and may not be suitable for all companies (Randall, 2000).
As mentioned above, branding can be performed at various levels in a company. Corporate iden-tity is about branding of the whole company and communicating the corporate ingredients to the customer (Diefenbach, 1992). A corporate brand is important when maintaining business rela-tionships and trying to find new customers, but it is also essential when looking for prospective employees, financers and other corporations (Randall, 2000).
When communicating the corporate identity, emphasize should be on the uniqueness and the company’s position it has on the market. According to Diefenbach (1992), corporate identity is a system of all the visual elements which serve as points of public contact. Visual elements are all things about the company that are visible to the environment and it can be buildings, vehicles etc. The public contact points form a network of permanent media. To create a strong message these contact points need to be symmetric. In a trade show context the visual elements can therefore be said to be everything from the invitations that are sent to the customer before the show, the exhibition stand design and the behaviour and appearance of the trade show personnel.
Measuring the brand
We believe that brand strength is determined by the sustainability of the company’s offer, espe-cially in the B2B market. When branding the company and its products evaluating the brand is crucial to the success of the building of it. The brand’s strengths and weaknesses must be as-sessed to be able to make the most out of the brand. This can be done by looking at the different parts of the brand equity. The concept of brand equity has been developed to try to establish the value of a brand. According to Aaker (1991) brand equity can be calculated from the following assets and liabilities: brand loyalty, brand awareness, perceived quality, brand associations and other brand assets such as patents, trademarks etc.
Brand loyalty has to do with strengthening and intensifying customer relationships in each loyalty segment. If customers do not care about brands and buy on rational factors like features, price and convenience the brand equity is low. If the customer chooses the brand before a competing brand with similar or even superior features, the brand loyalty is high and the value of the brand is strong. Aaker (1991) provides four loyalty levels to be considered and measured. Behaviour can be measured through looking at purchase patterns such as repurchase rate, percent of purchases and number of brands purchased. Switching costs can be looked upon to see how these costs im-pact brand loyalty. In an industry with high switching costs, such as industries with high product involvement from the customers, costs might prevent customers from switching brands due to costs when they would rather change suppliers. Satisfaction is another important aspect in brand loyalty. The company should examine what causes dissatisfaction among their customers. The fourth loyalty level is Liking of the brand and has to do with the extent of the relationship between the company and its brands, and the customer.
Brand awareness is a measure of how well-known the brand is to the target group, which means the ability that potential customers have to recognize and being able to place the brand in a cer-tain product category. The awareness can be divided into four different levels: unaware of brand, brand recognition, brand recall and top of mind. The levels are defined by the amount of aid that the re-spondent in the test needs to remember the brand. Aaker (1991) further points out the benefits of brand awareness as being a signal of substance and commitment and that the brand is a brand to be considered. He further argues that the awareness in itself leads to the customer’s liking of the brand since people tend to like what they are familiar to. Another benefit is that the brand is “an anchor to which other associations can be attached” (Aaker, 1991, p. 63) Perceived quality tries to pinpoint how the customer perceives the overall quality of the brand, when its purpose and alternatives are taken into account. The perceived quality is hard to meas-ure as it is very individual from person to person. A company can benefit from the perception by differentiating, by extending their brand, by charging a price-premium and create an incentive to buy the brand (Aaker, 1991).
Brand association is the way in which people attach different set of meanings to the brand and connects the customer and the brand. These associations can be created through the use of sym-bols and imagery. Special product attributes, organizational associations and use situations are other things that can trigger associations about the brand (Aaker & Joachimsthaler, 2000). A suc-cessful brand is one were associations are created by the company and connects with the values and offers that the company provides.
The four paragraphs above describe the parts which need to be taken into account when calculat-ing the brand value. Randall (2000) opposes the thought of valuing brands. He argues that there are difficulties in making calculations on brand value since the brand is an intangible asset. Brands can indeed be said to be intangible and therefore hard to measure. SDR Consulting (2006) argues that there are two main challenges when measuring the brand equity. First, it is to examine how much affect the brand has in the customer’s product selection process and second, to see which parts of the brand measurement that are the most important and relevant to the company.
We believe that parts of the brand equity are possible to measure in connection with a company’s trade show participation. Brand loyalty can be measured through the amount of customers which remain customers at the company after being exposed to the competitors offers, name awareness and brand associations could be measured by expanding on the kind of survey that Flodhammar, Gröndal, Jansson, Lundqvist and Molnar (1989) uses to measure how memorable a trade show exhibition stand has been. They propose that the exhibiting company sends out a survey to com-panies who have visited the stand and ask them to fill out which stands they remember visiting. An average of 70-75 % should remember the company’s presence from the trade show. A lower remembrance rate points to an inefficient reception at the stand, a bad layout of the stand or a weak way of following up the results. The same measurement could be applied to measuring the brand, by looking at how visiting companies perceive the benefits of the company’s offer (brand associations) or how many who remembers the brand name (name awareness). As there are many factors determining the strength of the brand besides trade show participation, we believe that the result of measuring it will be biased as other factors of a company’s activities also affect the brand strength.
Nordiska Undersökningsgruppen performs surveys where visitors are asked if and what they re-member from a company’s stand. Companies can come together and jointly make use of the same investigation. However, companies are reluctant to hire Nordiska Undersökningsgruppen since it is considered expensive (Å. Dahlqvist, personal communication, 23-10-2006).
Trade shows
Introduction to trade shows
Trade shows are known to be one of the oldest marketing tools for distributing products. Even though that the phenomena has existed for so long, it is still one of the most influential tools for marketing to organizations today according to Miller (1999). The history of trade shows has for a long time effected the development of different industrial markets and the growth of them. Trade shows has made it possible for markets to grow beyond the domestic market reaching the foreign markets as well. Business contacts have been developed between different countries as trade has become much easier in society today (Popli, 1990).
A trade show provides a medium where the entrepreneur can explain and show the product in action to the potential buyers at one specific place (Lawson, 2000). The trade show has changed its function from being just a place where buying and selling takes place to a situation where in-formation and communication flow is increasing (Kim, 2003). Exhibiting in trade shows provides a very powerful business opportunity for interacting with the market that you are in (Dudley, 1990). Furthermore, trade shows are an important instrument for increasing the awareness of the company to the market. During the few days that the exhibition takes place; the company will be introduced to a mass customer base. Popli (1990) therefore stresses the importance of grasping every opportunity for a potential sale or creating new business connections. The marketing cost of a trade show compared to a situation where the firms would have to contact each client indi-vidually is low. The opportunity of information exchange is very large.

1 Background
1.1 Problem
1.2 Purpose
2 Methodology
2.1 Qualitative approach
2.2 Data Collection
2.3 Case Study Approach
2.4 Validity and Trustworthiness
3 Frame of reference
3.1 Brands
3.2 Trade shows
3.3 Trade Show Intelligence
3.4 Expectations
4 Empirical Findings.
4.1 Ljungby CNC Teknik
4.2 Swedrive
4.3 Svend Høyer A/S
4.4 Holsbyverken
5 Analysis .
5.1 Planning
5.2 Invitations
5.3 Exhibition stand
5.4 Activities
5.5 Exhibitions stand behavior.
5.6 Follow-up
5.7 Evaluation
6 Conclusion
6.1 Further Studies
References
Appendices.
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