You brand is your business identity. A successful brand is built around the confidence your customers have in
the quality of your service. The image, phrase, logo or message you choose to represent your brand is what clients identify with and associate with your services. Choosing that image and maintaining a positive customer perception of it is what makes or breaks successful branding.
In many ways your brand is your product and needs to be treated with equal care. In order to maintain positive brand awareness and set your business up for tradeshow success, the delivery of your brand in all of your tradeshow marketing and promotional products must be taken into careful consideration.
Show, Rather Than Tell
First impressions are almost always made visually, and a tradeshow floor is a circus of colors and designs. In this disjointed environment, the visual impact of your booth will be vital in attracting attention, and your brand must be able to convey your message in as short a time as possible.
Stacks of pamphlets or sheet after sheet of written promotional materials may be helpful in fully conveying the details of your business model, but do little to initially draw in potential clients. A successful brand, delivered graphically, indicates your values, represents your company and leaves a positive impression at first sight. Well designed branding is your first link to your customers and a part of your business they will continue to identify with throughout your relationship.
Consistency Is Key
A consistent and unified message goes a long way to ensuring memorable tradeshow marketing. All of your promotional materials should be easily recognizable as coming from the same source – you. Using similar colors, logo locations, typeface and graphical layouts all go into making your materials recognizable and congruous.
Every part of your business is being represented at a show and conveying a unified message will instill confidence in your potential clients. One of the most important tenets of brand awareness is repetition, and the more clearly and consistently you present your company the more likely your guests are to remember it.
Build An Identity By Entertaining
The goal of good marketing is to make your customers recall your brand long after you’ve introduced it to them. As such, it’s your job to create a memorable experience in the time they spend at your booth. Interactive, entertaining, well branded promotions that directly tie your product and your company to positive experiences are the best way to ensure that you leave a lasting impression.
Once again consistency is the key. If a trade show attraction game has a prize, make sure it is appropriately branded. Even the games themselves should display your company logo or slogan to make sure every participant and onlooker knows who you are.
A consistently well branded and entertaining trade show presence is the first step in building a lasting relationship between your company and your clients.
About the author:
Jonathan Edelman provides helpful advice about trade show strategies. With years of experience in the trenches, he is an expert on booth displays, follow up techniques, and using trade show marketing strategies to boost revenue.
