Disconnect in trade show staffing: A comparison of exhibitor emphasis and attendee preferences

Christophe Haon (), Trina Sego, Nancy Drapeau and Shikhar Sarin
Additional contact information
Christophe Haon: MKT - Marketing - EESC-GEM Grenoble Ecole de Management
Trina Sego: Waikato Management School - Waikato University
Nancy Drapeau: Center for Exhibition Industry Research, 12700 Park Central Drive, Suite 308, Dallas, TX 75251, USA
Shikhar Sarin: Waikato Management School - Waikato University

Post-Print from HAL

Abstract: This research explores how and whether staffing at trade shows by exhibitors is consistent with attendee preferences for staffing in this channel. Using secondary data from 9215 attendees and 885 exhibitors, we observe that relative to attendee preferences, exhibitors significantly understaff with technical personnel, while overstaffing with executive/upper management and sales/marketing personnel. Additional comparisons between attendees who are decision-makers vs. influencers in the purchase process, between attendees from different kinds of firms (B2B vs. B2C, large vs. small firms) and between attendees to trade shows that differ in geographic scope suggest that substantial inconsistencies persist between preferences of attendees and staffing by exhibitors.

Keywords: Trade shows; Exhibitions; Business-to-business marketing; B2B Marketing; Promotions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Published in Industrial Marketing Management, inPress, ⟨10.1016/j.indmarman.2020.03.016⟩

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02888626

DOI: 10.1016/j.indmarman.2020.03.016

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Post-Print from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().