It is my opinion that the message is more important than the medium, and also will depend somewhat on other graphics and advertising you have in your trade show booth as well as the size of the booth.
Important thing to Focus on
The message, as I've stated many times, is the most important thing you need to focus on. Do you know your target market? Have you tested various headlines and/or slogans to find out what reverberates with your target audience? Do you even know who your target market is.
Long before you concern yourself about a roll up banner stand that sits on the floor or on the table, you need to know who you're targeting when you attend any trade show or convention. The good news is that it takes much less time now than it did 15 years ago to find out what words, phrases, or slogans will attract your target audience.
Let's say you sell a really awesome line of ear buds for MP3 players. Your target audience, you believe, would be teens and twenty-somethings. But how do you know? There are many tools for determining the demographics of your clients, and Google has some tools that can help you to find this out as well.
Why Use Google Adwords
Google AdWords is a great way to learn, relatively quickly, what headlines and sub-copy will work to garner interest in your product line. If you have time, trade journals or magazines are a good source of data as well. For your ear bud selection, you might want to target teen and young adult periodicals or even tabloids, using coded ads with varying messages to learn what verbiage kids are responding to today.
It would also be a good idea to have some younger people in your marketing department, as old guys like me know how to run a business, but as my kids say, "you are so 20th century!" There are a lot of phrases that may be popular that come from TV shows or the movies that I won't have seen as I really am not a TV show fan except for sports, so having marketing department members who can clue you in to hip (that dates me right there!) jargon would definitely be of value.
So, if you have time, use as many of these methods or venues as you possibly can afford - and if they're successful, you may also turn a profit from your ads as well. By the time you begin to plan for your trade show, you'll know the phrases that pay.
The Trade Show Booth According to Your Needs
Back to the roll up fabric banner stands or displays, though, and my original comment about what space you have to work with, if you have a small booth, like a 10' x 10' trade show booth, it may be necessary to keep as much floor space open as you can, especially to display your 21st century design ear buds and make a few sales at the show.
However, if you have a 20' x 20' corner location, I would advise not only floor banner stands, but also a couple of retractable or similar table top displays because you have plenty of room to promote your ear buds. So, if you've done your homework, it will be somewhat irrelevant to your success at the trade show as to which type you use. If your message is clear and you know it will attract your target audience, then the rest is a matter of available space and your budget.
Check in here for custom made or personalized retractable banners and trade show displays suitable for trade conventions.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Barry K. Brown has been marketing these products online since 1998, and the company he was general manager of in 1998 was the first sign company to be listed on Yahoo!
