Business actions of exhibitors at trade shows : implications for sales versus non-sales staff and type of trade show

Abstract

Direct communication in business markets is important due to the specific characteristics of business markets – where communication channels are shorter and the emphasis is placed on direct selling. Due to the differences in business-to-business markets, organisations select Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) elements that are more direct and personal in nature. The role of trade shows, as a communication medium, therefore, in business markets has been growing and they are playing an important role in one-on-one interaction between buyers and sellers. To be successful at a trade show, a business would need to go through specific actions. The study was explorative in nature, in order to establish the business actions taken for trade shows by exhibitors while looking at the role of exhibiting staff (sales or non-sales people) and the type of trade show. The data were gathered by means of a self-administered questionnaire at four trade shows, resulting in a sample of 232 – using probabilistic multi-stage sampling. A MANOVA analysis was used to test the proposed hypotheses. This study interestingly enough found that there are no significant differences between sales and non-sales exhibiting staff and the types of trade show.