Trade show: who, what, why

Although trade shows are a major portion of the marketing mix in the industrial marketplace, second only to personal selling and above advertising, very little has been researched on their function in industrial marketing. This paper reports the results of an extensive business survey of trade show usage, presents results, compares results to previous studies, provides analyses of the results, and recommendations to businesses to increase efficiency of trade show performance. Study indicates that few companies engage regularly and extensively in international trade shows, although most see the need. Also reports that the evidence suggests that some international companies generate as much as 70 per cent of their annual sales at trade fairs.