Unit 4 Trade fairs

listening and viewing

Text A

How to prepare a stand at a trade fair

At trade fairs you can meet your potential customers face to face, show or demonstrate the products or services you offer, and present your company to the public. To get maximum results from a trade fair, you have several things to consider:

Attendance: How many people will visit the fair? Ask the organiser what the attendance was over the last few years. They should be able to provide you with fairly accurate numbers.

Space size: How big is the stand?

Location of the stand: Where is the stand? Is it in a corner or centrally placed? If there are seminars at the fair, try to get a stand along the main route to the seminars, so that more people will pass by your stand. To get a good stand location, you will need to reserve your stand as early

as possible.

Restrictions: Can you sell at the trade fair? If you are going to be selling products, make sure you give everyone a receipt. If you are going to let people pay by credit card, you will need a phone line to get each sale authorised.

Setting up your stand: How early can you arrive to set up your stand? Make sure you are set up before the show opens. Before you start unpacking everything, make sure the electrical outlets and phone outlets are working.

Location of the fair: Is the location a good one, e.g. in a large city, or is it in a remote corner of the country?

Tables and chairs: Do they provide tables and chairs? If not, perhaps you can rent these items. But be careful of any extra charges for delivery and set-up of the tables. If you use tablecloths to cover your tables, use cloth ones, not plastic ones. The plastic ones look cheap and damage your image.

Staffing your stand: You need at least two people at the stand at all times. If you have expensive equipment on your stand, you will need at least three people. Two people can talk to the customers and one can watch the stand.

Image and appearance: Make sure you keep the stand clean. Tidy up your displays constantly. Don’t eat, drink or smoke at the stand. You want your stand to look professional at all times.

Handouts: Never hand out anything without the name, address, phone number and website of your company on it.

Overnight security: Make sure you cover everything up at your stand during the night. You can use tablecloths to cover your tables. Don’t leave anything exposed; it’s tempting for someone to steal it. Remove anything of value from the tables and either take it with you or put it out of sight.

如何筹备展销会展位 

在展销会上你可以和潜在客户面对面交流，展示你们的产品或服务，向公众介绍你们的公司。为了让展销会取得最大的效果，你需要考虑几个因素：

参会人数：多少人会参加展销会？向组织者询问过去几年的参会人数。他们应该可以提供相当准确的数字。

展台空间：展位有多大？

展台位置：展台位置在哪里？是在角落里还是中心？如果展销会上有研讨会的话，尽量获取通往研讨会会场的主要通道旁边的展台，这样届时会有更多的人经过你们的展台。为了确保得到一个好的展台位置，应当尽早预订。

限制规定：可以在展销会上销售商品吗？如果要销售商品，务必要给顾客收据。如接受信用卡支付，则需要安装电话线以确保每次支付得到授权。

搭建展台：可以提前多长时间去搭建展台？确保展销会开幕前将展台准备就位。在陈列参展商品之前，务必确认电源或电话插座线路畅通。

展销会位置：展销会所在地位置好吗？比如说是在大城市里，还是在偏远的地方？

桌椅：主办方是否提供桌椅？如果不提供，你可能需要租借，但留意运送和组装桌子是否收取额外费用。如果要用桌布盖在桌子上，尽量用布的，不要用塑料的。塑料桌布看起来很廉价，有损公司形象。

展台人员配置：展台上要随时有至少两人。如果展台上有贵重设备，则需要至少三人，两人与顾客交谈，一人看守设备。

形象和表现：展台要始终保持干净，要随时整理展品。不要在展台上吃喝或吸烟。展台要始终显得很专业。

分发的资料：分发的资料上一定要印有公司的名称、地址、电话号码及网址。

夜间安全：晚上展台上的所有物品都务必要遮盖起来。可以用桌布把桌子盖上。不要把任何物品露出来，否则极易被盗。不要把任何贵重物品留在桌上，可随身带走或收藏起来。）

Text B

The trade fair that is a little bit different

The trade fair is an important marketing tool for many companies. In Europe the largest and most important trade fairs are usually in Germany, including the Hanover trade fair, which focuses on industrial and technical products, the CeBIT computer and electronics fair, the Frankfurt motor show and the GamesCom trade fair that is held annually in the city of Cologne. If you are under 40, you will probably be familiar with GamesCom. It is the world’s greatest fair for anyone who plays computer-based games.

Last year nearly 560 exhibitors, 300,000 visitors, including 5,000 journalists attended the fair. Paul, a 19-year-old games enthusiast, also turned up to check out games and game systems. Paul’s father, Mike, insisted on going with him, although Paul assured him that this was not the fair for him. However, Mike wouldn’t take “no” for an answer. He wanted to see what the appeal of GamesCom was, and this is what they saw.

When Paul and his father got there, the halls were packed with visitors of all nationalities, with everybody trying to catch a glimpse of the latest high-tech gadgets and games.

Mike soon realised that his son was right. Everywhere there were long queues of young players, eager to try their skills at the new games on offer. Mike couldn’t even get near enough to see exactly what it was these kids were playing. And the noise coming from the computers was deafening.

Mike discovered that this trade fair was somewhat different from other trade fairs he had been to. The visitors did not come to the fair to inspect new products, negotiate the best possible delivery terms or the highest discount rate available. Visitors mostly just came to the fair to play. Most companies use the fair as a showcase for new products, many of which are top

secret until they are launched at the fair.

Another reason is that every company’s R&D department wants to see what their competitors have developed in the last year. “This may be ‘only’ a games industry that is aimed at young people spending their time and pocket money on the products, but the games market is worth billions,” explained one young salesman to Mike. Mike looked around and had to agree with the salesman. He realised that if you think about all those youngsters who have the latest smartphones and other gadgets these days, then you can understand how big the potential market is.

However, when Paul and his father looked for many of the better-known companies such as Microsoft and Nintendo, they discovered that these companies had decided not to exhibit. The marketing strategies of these market leaders appear to be changing, so perhaps soon the trade fair will disappear and will be replaced by some sort of online event. The advantage for the companies would be in saving the enormous costs of a stand, the transport of staff and equipment, and hotel accommodation, which is always extremely expensive whenever a trade fair is held. The money the companies save could be invested in things like online game events.

与众不同的展销会 

展销会对很多公司来说是一种重要的营销工具。欧洲最大最重要的展销会通常在德国举办，如以工业和技术产品为主的汉诺威展销会、汉诺威计算机及电子产品展销会，法兰克福汽车展和每年在科隆举行的国际游戏展。四十岁以下的人士可能熟悉科隆国际游戏展，这是电脑游戏玩家眼中全世界最棒的展览会。

去年有近560家参展商、30万参观者（包括5000名记者）参加了科隆国际游戏展。19岁的游戏迷保罗也去尝试了各种游戏和游戏系统。保罗的父亲迈克坚持要跟他一起去。尽管保罗告诉父亲这个展销会并不适合他，可是迈克听不进去，他想看看科隆国际游戏展的魅力究竟在哪里。下面就是他们看见的情景。

当他们到那儿的时候，展览会的大厅已经挤满了各国参观者，每个人都争着目睹最新的高科技产品与游戏。

迈克很快意识到儿子是对的。到处都是急于在待售的游戏里一展身手的年轻玩家排起的长队，迈克甚至都没法挤到前面去看看那些孩子们到底都在玩些什么。而且电脑发出的噪音震耳欲聋。

迈克发现这个游戏展跟他以前参加的其他展销会有所不同。参观者来游戏展不是为了查看新的产品，商谈最优惠的交货条件或最高的折扣。他们大多数都是来玩儿的。大多数公司把游戏展作为展示新产品的一个窗口，其中大多数新产品在游戏展上推出之前都是最高机密。

另一个原因是每个公司的研发部门都想看看他们的竞争对手在过去一年里都开发了什么新产品。“或许这‘仅仅’是一个瞄准年轻人的时间和零花钱的游戏产业，但游戏市场价值数十亿。”一位年轻销售员对迈克解释道。迈克环顾四周，不得不同意他的说法。他意识到，只要想想如今那些拿着最新款智能手机和其他电子产品的年轻人，就能明白这个市场的潜力有多大。

然而，当保罗和父亲寻找微软和任天堂等著名公司时，他们发现这些公司决定放弃参展。这些市场领导者的营销策略似乎正在发生改变。或许很快游戏展就会消失，被某种网上活动取代。对公司来说，这样做的优势在于可以省下一大笔用于展位、员工交通、设备运输以及酒店住宿方面的费用（会展期间酒店住宿费通常都很贵）。由此省下的费用可以投到其他地方，例如网络游戏赛事。