Establishing market potential for current or new attendee segments is the foundation for making sound, fact-based decisions when developing a targeted strategy for growing your attendance, launching a new event, valuing a potential show acquisition or selecting the best location for your event. Some events have a specifically-defined and directly accessible universe of attendees. If the event has multiple market segments or the potential to add new segments, then being able to identify these segments and define their size and value is the first step in determining potential for growth and prioritising attendee targets for prospect marketing.
Attendee growth is a necessary part of any sound show strategy, if only to compensate for attrition.
But what kind of growth, and where will it come from? And how can organisers best construct a growth strategy to position their event as a visionary leader to their industry?
Identifying potential growth market segments
In fact, visionary long-term show strategy will address the question of whether a show can credibly lead its basic industry by preemptively capturing and showcasing emerging dynamics and markets within that industry, and do so in a working synthesis that brings old and new constituencies into a beneficial and purposeful harmony. Such a show – that can successfully become the flagship of its industry – can secure a level of prestige that it is seen and respected as a driver and pilot of the entire industry itself, something integral rather that supplemental; a must-see event.
The key words in the above growth strategy are ‘preemptively’ and ‘emerging.’’ Newly emerging markets within an industry often tend to be diffuse and smaller in scope. There won’t be any standing databases, no dedicated trade press, and no association-like structures serving the market. To identify and reach these emerging-sector attendee prospects before the competition does, or before they take form as a new, vertical sub-event requires a preemptive effort by show strategists.
Most, or at least many, events instead follow their industry. That is, new attendee market segments are pursued only after they have obtained clear visibility and channels of access and thus have become fair game for competition. The difference between leading one’s industry and following it is essentially one of timing and initiative.
How do you begin identifying attendee growth segments? Begin with the basics. Assess the fit between current exhibitors and attendees – the alignment between exhibitor preferences for attendee segments and the show’s current audience profile. As part of this process, exhibitors can be queried formally or informally about their highest-value attendees. A formal or informal advisory council of select, progressive industry enterprises and known industry visionaries and leaders can also be a valuable source for feedback as to attendee segments important to attract.
It is necessary to understand the trends in the marketplace, including product or service innovations directly and indirectly related to your core audience, and how these may impact the types of attendees you need to attract to satisfy current and future exhibitor expectations. From the show’s registration data it should be possible to sort out any current attendees that match the high valued attendee segments identified to determine both the quantity currently delivered by the show, and their profile in terms of their discrete industry roles and professional makeup.
The question then becomes: ‘Who else in the world is out there that looks like this, and how many are there?’
Evaluating growth segments – viability of pursuing
Bearing in mind that these new industry sectors for the event will be narrow and very specifically defined, the chances are no explicit sources exist as databases. The process necessary to discover who and where these high value potential attendees are can be described as reverse prospecting. Reverse prospecting is a process that applies specialised methodology against standing data sources and industry classification data, such as NAICS in the US, plus any other useful standing data sources to ferret out and quantify those high-value individuals that match the show’s targeted profiling.
Concurrent with reverse attendee prospecting, the viability of the targeted subsectors will need to be examined and confirmed that they are both valuable and positioned for growth.
Targeted industrial and commercial market sectors can be profiled according to business type (NAICS), location or region, size, financial health (growth and anticipated growth, current and expected profitability, capital spending history and projections by category, purchasing history and projections, etc). If the sector is a key part of an umbrella industry, that larger industry classification will also need to be examined.
B2B market/industry trends and changes can be explored and verified in the light of anticipated consumer dynamics as well. Consumer consumption represents 70 per cent of US GDP, and it cascades down to the producers of those consumable goods and the technology and equipment necessary to produce them. For any capital equipment show this is critical.
Prioritising growth segments – viability in pursuing
Ideally the event will have multiple potential segment opportunities to pursue, but resources may limit the number of segments feasible to pursue at any one time. It is not just the investment in targeted attendance promotion required, but also the investment in the event programming elements (type exhibitors of interest, education sessions, networking etc, specific to each segment) that will be a required part of the value proposition if the event is to succeed in the long run in delivering value. Prioritising the segments is necessary to determine the relative value, ease of pursuing, and synergy of integrating with the existing event.
Once all the data is in place prioritisation screening begins with a sensitivity analysis: how much credibility can be applied to any of the preliminary analyses conducted thus far? Have the subsectors been appropriately and confidently defined within their economic contexts?
Finally, have the targeted attendee profiles been realistically constructed? To confirm this question, non-attendee research can be undertaken to measure proclivities of the target attendee clusters to be solicited. From this research it can be determined if they are in reality well-suited to the event and if they would have a reasonable business draw for attendance.
Together with the sensitivity analysis, the prioritisation process can then conduct what can be called a ‘hurdle’ assessment to examine possible barriers to entry into the target sector market.
The primary issue here is to find effective means of accessibility to target sector populations to deliver promotional messaging. Accessibility channels may be through traditional media channels like the trade press, whether traditional or web-based, through databases that have been compiled through reverse prospecting efforts and any social media opportunities.
Integrating new sectors into your event
Other possible barriers to entry regarding prospective attendee constituencies are examined for such issues as are they already fully served by standing events and are high-level programming needs for them obtainable. The current exhibitor base needs to provide sufficient value to not only attract but also retain them for at least the short term, until additional target-sector exhibitor representation is fleshed out.
Prioritisation should look at the ease of integration factor: will these new sectors of emphasis compete or disrupt within the present makeup of the event and the established base of exhibitors loyal to the event? Simply put, is there ‘room’ within the event to effectively broaden its reach and integrate these new sectors into a symbiotic whole? The whole process then turns into a risk-reward equation.
To conclude, introducing new attendee segments to an event or enriching existing segments begins by identifying and leveraging high-value, highly specified group profiles. Typically the characteristics of such small groups are that they are as yet amorphous, and diffuse as to their location, and nonindigenous to any professional or business landscape. They have not yet been singled out as discrete, identifiable groups which would allow ease of access by conventional means.
Targeted industry sectors can then be evaluated in terms of market growth, trends, and projectable financial viability. Methodologies and resources for evaluation of sectors are comprised of a ‘recipe’ of tools and standing data sources depending on the audiences and business in play. After careful prioritisation of targeted sectors and careful review of barriers to market entry, final risk-reward analyses can lead to objective, reasonable, and actionable decisions.
This was first published in issue 3/2013 of EW. Any comments? E-mail
exhibitionworld@mashmedia.net
