Assessing the Drivers of Short- and Long-Term Outcomes at Business Trade Shows

Abstract

The trade show industry attracts millions of attendees every year, offering enormous opportunities for buyer–seller interactions and potential revenues for exhibitors. Business-to-business firms invest more than 20 % of their marketing budgets on trade shows, with a heavy emphasis on pre- and at-show marketing efforts to generate booth traffic, as well as post-show marketing efforts to close sales leads. However, a comprehensive overview of the impact and effectiveness of trade show marketing efforts on lead generation and sales conversion is missing. Extant models consider only single stages of the buying process and fail to account for heterogeneous marketing effectiveness across customers. This study therefore addresses the incremental effects of pre-, at-, and post-show marketing efforts on short- and long-term outcomes, with customer type as a potential moderator of marketing effectiveness. Attendee-level data from multiple shows attended by a Fortune 500 corporation provide initial empirical evidence of the joint effects of marketing activities during the three different phases. By documenting the impact of various marketing activities across purchase stages and customer types, this study can help managers assess the effectiveness of their trade show marketing activities.