*DEALER THOUGHTS ON HOME SHOWS AND FAIRS?*

[stuart]

Home shows used to be a great way for us to get out to the general public that would love to own a spa but never took the time to actually see what it would take to have one.

The shows and Fairs came around a couple of times a year and because of the volume created by having a "credible reason to buy now" we were able to move a lot of product.

Lately in our area there seems to be about 8 to 10 shows a year and it is having just the opposite effect. People give themselves a reason to wait because they think they can always go to the next show and see if they get a better deal until they become a permanent shopper, educate themselves to the point that they know as much as most salesmen yet never get to enjoy the benefit of spa ownership (sound like Dazedandconfused?).

The other issue is that Fair and Homeshow costs for the Dealers have skyrocketed in the last several years and have taken away benefit of the volume discount to the point that the customer really doesn't save that much by waiting for the show.

As I set here doing my 2005 budget I'm thinking that we don't want to invest as much time, money and resources to participate in the shows next year....what thoughts do you guys have on this?

[wmccall]

Those kind of shows kept our interest for years, but we ended up going right to the dealers when the time came.  

No doubt your cost as a dealer is going up.  This year the Ohio State Fair gave a 33% increase in booth fees while shortening the run of the fair by 6 days.

[poolboy34]

well......we're lucky in the fact that here in the cuse we have two shows a year.  The Home Show in march, and the Great New York State Fair in late August.  Which happens to be our main event, seeing as around 1 million people go to it annually over it's 11 day run.  The home show is an ok weekend event for us.  We almost have to have a booth there due to all of our competitors having booths there.  For us they are great events, and don't really detract from sales in the showrooms, if anything they help us even more.

[stuart]

well......we're lucky in the fact that here in the cuse we have two shows a year.  The Home Show in march, and the Great New York State Fair in late August.  Which happens to be our main event, seeing as around 1 million people go to it annually over it's 11 day run.  The home show is an ok weekend event for us.  We almost have to have a booth there due to all of our competitors having booths there.  For us they are great events, and don't really detract from sales in the showrooms, if anything they help us even more.

Between February and April we have at least 6 home shows.

Starting in June going through October we have 5 more shows and the state fair.

I don't think it is any longer a matter of picking which ones you want to do but more a matter of that upsetting the market and deciding to reap the rewards of the people that have been sent into shopping mode by seeing our competition at the shows. We might miss a few here and there that bought at the show but I think that the cost savings are worth it.

If they would regulate the sheer number of shows in our area I would probably reconsider as it would bring it back to a "credible reason to buy now" and change the dynamics between cost vs sales volume....

[Chas]

I don't do them any more. The last one I did - run by "Capital Showcase" out of Sacramento, CA - cost me $5500 just to rent the space. It was a three-day show. More realistically it was a two-day show: it opened at 10 am on Friday, but the crowds didn't show up until after work that day. It closed at 6 on Sunday night, but it was empty and many vendors had torn down and blown away by 4.

And it was held in the County Fairgrounds, so I had to pay a few hundred to them to have a power drop in the booth, and then of course were the costs of spas, display materials, staff to move and staff to sell, and then the sheer exhausting effort of the whole thing.

And the first thing everybody asked for was, "What's the show discount?"
 

[wmccall]

And the first thing everybody asked for was, "What's the show discount?"
  

You can blame many fellow dealers for that one!  Most times you see a "Show special " sign long before you make it to the booth.

[stuart]

I don't do them any more. The last one I did - run by "Capital Showcase" out of Sacramento, CA - cost me $5500 just to rent the space. It was a three-day show. More realistically it was a two-day show: it opened at 10 am on Friday, but the crowds didn't show up until after work that day. It closed at 6 on Sunday night, but it was empty and many vendors had torn down and blown away by 4.

And it was held in the County Fairgrounds, so I had to pay a few hundred to them to have a power drop in the booth, and then of course were the costs of spas, display materials, staff to move and staff to sell, and then the sheer exhausting effort of the whole thing.

And the first thing everybody asked for was, "What's the show discount?"
  

I had the same scenario several times last year...

[Chris_H]

One thing that I haven’t heard in this thread is the customers that you gain after the show.  Shows are the only place where you can get 5,000 to 10,000 people to see your product and give them a brochure (better than a newspaper advertisement) or even get a name and address so you can get them on your mailing list (better than any type of advertisement).

Many shows will not produce a “SALE” because many customers need more than the three hours of walking around at a show or fair to make a purchase over $5,000 dollars, but if you get a lead...  Think what you can do with it...

Your Home Show and Off-Site Tent Sales are so unsuccessful because you only look at it as “How many did you write up?” instead of looking at it as “How many leads did you generate?”

[poolboy34]

That's an excelent point Chris H.  We didn't do a lot of advertising when the store i currently manage first opened.  The second year the store was open we themed one of our two booths at the home show for it.  It was GREAT advertising for our second location.  We got MANY customers coming in after the show to buy patio furniture, get there pool water tested, buy their spa and pool chemicals.  You just can;t put a price on that type of advertising.

[Steve]

Personally, I think "special event selling" is critical. There's many alternate ways of doing this as Homeshows and fairs are becoming increasingly more expensive and cutting too deep into dealer’s profits.

I'm a HUGE advocate of parking lot sales at the store location as well as taking event selling into local shopping center parking lots. The cost to do so is very inexpensive and can be very profitable when done correctly. The problem here isn't lack of commitment from consumers, it's dealers not preparing themselves properly for upcoming events.

I train my dealers that every lead should be recorded and properly maintained. There's a strategic method to event selling and when it's not done correctly, the response will be poor. There is an execution that needs to do be implemented by the dealer to properly plan for this. It's low hanging fruit that all dealers have to harvest properly.

My opinion Stuart is that you give the impression that you're having a sale every second weekend so if I miss this one, they'll be another soon enough. There's a balance here to give real value and creating urgency.

When I was with the largest volume dealer for Beachcomber, we did almost half of our sales "out of store". There's a proper way to create demand and close sales without high pressure while giving consumers good value. At Home Shows, 80%+ of the people that purchase hot tubs had no intension of buying a hot tub. These are also the people that always came back telling us how much they love it and are glad they finally decided to buy. As shows became more expensive, we cut back on the home Shows and did more parking lots sales with the same result.

Chris_H is 100% right on. Often, we base the success on any given show on the total number of sales. I'm sure we've all had people come into our stores and purchase a hot tub saying that they first saw us at the spring show 2 years ago. It's very difficult to give accurate opinions on any one show as the results can trickle in years down the road.

To summarize, as dealers, we need to get out of our stores! Waiting for Joe consumer to come and buy is financial suicide IMO. Get your manufacturers to help build value by giving price breaks on options for these shows. Learn how to properly prepare for events and the execution needed to hold a successful event.

Steve

[wetone]

Steve is right, off site events need to be planed well in advance to be successful. Then executed with precision, some thing we are working on for 2006.

This is the first year we have not done mall shows or the 10 day fair. The results, sold more at the store during the fair then the year before at the fair and store combined. Overall we have had a very healthy increase in sales this year.

For 2005 we will do 2 large parking lot events at the store and the 2 largest home shows in our area and that's it. We are also on radio every week of the year. Did TV last Dec good results and again this Dec good results so far.

We actual tracked the after show sales for 3 years in a row from home shows and the fair and the results were not that good.

[stuart]

Believe me, I will never stop doing off site events! We spend over $200K a year in advertising and branding for our store in addition to having a great location dead center of town right on the interstate.

We also donate a spa or pool table every year to the American Cancer benefit and display it for the public to see.

In addition we usually set up 6 or 7 Parade homes with our products and signage. Most of the people that attend are looking for ideas for their homes and are not always new home buyers.

I'm a huge advocate of getting out where the people are, including things like setting up a mall store during the holiday season. I just think we need to curb some of the greed of the show and fair promoters, I don't know of any other venue that has increased their margins by 30 to 50% in the last 3 years!

[Steve]

Believe me, I will never stop doing off site events! We spend over $200K a year in advertising and branding for our store in addition to having a great location dead center of town right on the interstate.

I'm a huge advocate of getting out where the people are, including things like setting up a mall store during the holiday season. I just think we need to curb some of the greed of the show and fair promoters, I don't know of any other venue that has increased their margins by 30 to 50% in the last 3 years!

I agree Stuart. Only when we stop handing the ridiculous amounts of money over to these people will they get it. They've priced themselves right out of future shows for many retailers and I believe they'll be a thing of the past very soon. It's interesting that this phenomenon is North America wide and not just Can/US. I do know that people are tired of spending $8.00 to park and almost $10.00 each just to get into the building just to realize that there's fewer displays than in years previous. That's not even including the $5.00 hot dog, $5.00 in mini donuts ( a MUST have ) and $3.00 each for a Coke.

It's not like you needed me to tell ya what to do! You seem have done pretty well on your own without me so far my friend!!   I know you get it.

I am amazed at the pure number of dealers that don't get it though.  :-/

Steve

[HotTubMan]

I agree the shows are fast becoming a waste of time due to cost. There is a 2 week fair in Toronto (1/2 hour drive away) that many big players attend, dealers cant really afford it unless they pool resources. I have had people tell me they are waiting for this event for the big deal. I ask "how much is a slice of pizza or a bottle of evian there and at your local vendor?" Ofcorse it is 2.5 times as much at the "EX". "Why do you think you are going to get such a good deal on a tub? Volume? Pizza Pizza is doing major volume, they are charging more." When you buy a spa at a homeshow / fair, you are not saving money. If there is a large discount, it is availible everyday or is inflated for the show. The booth cost big $.

[stuart]

I agree the shows are fast becoming a waste of time due to cost. There is a 2 week fair in Toronto (1/2 hour drive away) that many big players attend, dealers cant really afford it unless they pool resources. I have had people tell me they are waiting for this event for the big deal. I ask "how much is a slice of pizza or a bottle of evian there and at your local vendor?" Ofcorse it is 2.5 times as much at the "EX". "Why do you think you are going to get such a good deal on a tub? Volume? Pizza Pizza is doing major volume, they are charging more." When you buy a spa at a homeshow / fair, you are not saving money. If there is a large discount, it is availible everyday or is inflated for the show. The booth cost big $.

PREACH IT BROTHER HTM! AMEN!