Building Brand Equity

Make your show a household name

By Francis Friedman

What do Folgers coffee, Mercedes-Benz automobiles, the Consumer Electronics Show, Wal-Mart Stores and Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants have in common? Each is a well-known brand and has an image or personality with which we can identify. If questioned, each of us could list images and characteristics that we associate with these brands.

We often think of brands when we shop for ourselves and our businesses. The image of the brand, and its actual features and benefits, lead us to make "branded" purchase decisions.

How many of us wanted a Mont Blanc pen when they became popular? Weren't we sure our handwriting would look more elegant with an ink pen rather than a 29-cent ball point? Didn't the promotion of this brand revitalize the writing instrument business? Didn't it cause competitors Schaeffer and Waterman to sit up and take notice?

Brands take on lives of their own that customers will defend to their deaths. Chevrolet and Ford cars, Bloomingdale's and Neiman Marcus department stores, and the Cowboys and the 49ers football teams. Each is a brand, and each has a passionate following of loyal customers.

So, what do brands have to do with the exposition industry, and why should we care?

Trading on brand equity
Look at the brand Packard Bell. During its heyday, Packard Bell enjoyed considerable success, brand awareness and public acceptance. When its parent company fell on hard times in the early '80s and went out of business, the name Packard Bell was considered an asset of the bankruptcy and was sold to a group of entrepreneurs. By buying this established brand name, the new owners traded upon the brand "equity" that had already been built in customers' minds.

Brand equity is the active and residual value a company builds in its customers' universe, and to some extent the larger society, through the positioning of its product. That product can be anything -- from a computer to an exposition. Both have a position in their respective marketplaces, and both must work to establish and maintain their positions.

In the exposition industry, we have many high-profile brands. Among them are: COMDEX, The Super Show, World of Concrete, Consumer Electronics Show, National Retail Federation, The BOBBIN Show, Food Marketing Institute and American Heart Association. Every show, conference and convention is a brand name product.

The success of a show is dependent on how well you build the event and establish it as a brand in the markets you serve. Its long-term survivability depends on how well you build the equity of that brand in the hearts and minds of the people in your industry.

The deeper and stronger the equity you build and maintain for your brand, the more successful you and your show will become. High levels of equity will enable your show to survive the tough, competitive environment we will all face in the years ahead.

It also means that your promotion and advertising budgets will go further; the pre-existing brand equity will make it more cost-effective to raise your brand awareness levels among your target attendee and exhibitor base than if you were a new-to-market show.

Building brand awareness
The first consideration is to be sure your show is clearly positioned in its market. Can you clearly define the existing and potential exhibitor and attendee population? Can you clearly distinguish your show from the competition? Why should an exhibitor or attendee be at your show? Does your show have a unique selling proposition that is intrinsically meaningful, compelling and different from the competition?

The second consideration is to be sure your show name and logo reflect the positioning of your show. The logo and its colors are key building blocks for long-term success.

Marketing companies spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on designing and researching logo designs and colors. Criteria are developed for what image and message the logo will convey to its intended audience. Extensive research is conducted. No detail is too small.

Recently, Federal Express began a corporate makeover based on its own research. The company changed its name to FedEx and implemented a total graphic redesign with a new FedEx logo because customers viewed the company as FedEx. The Federal Express name and logo was a mismatch with its customers' perception of the company.

Making the right statement
Words have a powerful impact on the perceptions we try to establish with our customers. The correct words let our customers know we understand their needs. The wrong words demonstrate that we haven't got a clue as to who they are or what they need. How many show brochures have you read with copy that does nothing to enhance or clarify a reason to exhibit or to attend?

"All together at one time in one place" is not a good reason to be part of a show in today's competitive marketplace. You need a more compelling argument to competitively position your show and to build its long-term brand equity.

Professionally written copy should answer the question, "Why should I exhibit at or attend your show?" It should articulate the specific details of the show and provide dimension to the heart and soul of the show and its producers. Does the copy make a human connection with real people and what motivates them? Is the copy effective and artful, or is it pedantic, dull and boring? Or worse, is the copy so overly artful that it has no focal point? Words create pictures. Pictures create images. Your brand image is deeply affected by the words you choose and the graphics that bring them to life.

Another major factor impacting your brand awareness and brand equity is the communication programs that you establish for your show. These programs include: exhibitor manuals, exhibitor solicitation materials, attendee direct mail pieces, attendee advertising, press releases, show forms and related printed materials. Each element of these materials contributes to the brand image and long-term brand equity of your show -- from the show logo to the page layout, and from the copy to the consistent use of graphic design elements and colors.

A good case in point. The INTEROP show, almost from its inception, had used a stylized graphic approach to its logo and graphic treatment. It adopted the graphic symbols of a circle, square, diamond and triangle to represent different aspects of the show and the computer technology it featured. It also used stylized renditions of men in hats as part of its graphic design scheme. Finally, it used a dynamic color scheme with a pronounced use of teal. These elements were updated for each show, but the consistent elements built an awareness and brand equity for the INTEROP name and show.

This brand equity was so successful that when Ziff-Davis bought the INTEROP show and later merged it with another property, rather than renaming the combined event, the company took advantage of the show's equity and called the new show Networld+Interop.

Following through on-site
How you execute your show relative to your positioning and your audience will also have a great impact on your brand image and long-term brand equity. If you produce a tabletop show, you create one brand image. If you have a top-of-the-line, fully decorated VIP lounge for key exhibitors and attendees and sponsor extensive cocktail parties, you will build a different type of image.

Your logo, graphic design and on-site elements should be integrated to serve your exhibitors and your attendees. For example, you could have a high-tech logo, but it would probably send the wrong message for a construction show.

Building brand equity in the exposition business means that the show must deliver what is expected each time. Because the exposition industry is live and interactive, the complexity of the factors that must be managed to create and build brand acceptance and long-term brand equity are quite extensive. However, it is the continuing success of the show's management that creates brand equity and builds your customers' long-term positive perception of your show.

Leveraging brand equity
Once a show has developed market acceptance, the opportunity then exists to leverage the brand equity by producing more shows under the same brand name. We are most familiar with this in the form of East Coast/West Coast and spring/fall versions of a show. In many cases, the two shows have different personalities, different areas of focus and different audiences. The industry knows that while the name is the same, the two shows are really two different brand personalities.

In the international marketplace, major domestic trade shows have transplanted their brands into offshore venues and fully leveraged their brand equity in the international marketplace. To succeed internationally in leveraging domestic brand equity, it is necessary for branded shows to deliver all of the features, quality and executional excellence that has been lavished on their primary shows in the United States.

One potential reward from building brand equity is the ability to sell the show or license its name. Companies looking to acquire shows as part of their growth strategies want to reduce their acquisition risks. They do this by buying known entities with verifiable track records. Even more so, they acquire shows that are dominant in their market niches and pay premium prices for the brand equity that has been built.

The building of your show's brand image and long-term brand equity requires a conscious and consistent attention to the details that affect the creation, promotion and execution of your show. We live in a branded world, and we make purchasing decisions based on brand name preferences. Designing your marketing program to include the elements of a successful branding strategy will also build an enduring brand equity relationship between your show and your customers.

Does brand equity work? Again, look at Ziff-Davis. The Ziff family determined that it wanted to dismantle its publishing and trade show properties. They sold the Networld + Interop brand and their other branded show properties -- for a reported premium of $200 million.