Print in the Mix: Fast Fact – Magazines: Consumers Prefer Print; Hesitant to Embrace E-Reader Advertising
A great article for all wedding professionals trying to make the right marketing decisions. In the wedding world print is not dead! Brides love their wedding magazines and planners.
Integrity Marketing: Dance Floor floor math for bridal show exhibitors
In my new role, as Associate Representative, on the board of BSPI (Bridal Show Producers International), I have a resurgent interest in the relationship between show producers, exhibitors/advertisers, and the bride. One of the prime directives for BSPI is to be an organization for ethical and competent bridal show producers… to promote high standards in the wedding wndustry.
Having exhibited at close to 100 bridal shows, during my life as a DJ, I’ve seen the good, the bad, and the ugly.
In the end, here’s what I believe one should expect from a bridal show producer.
“They should do what they say they are going to do, to promote the show. Their promotion to the bride and to the exhibitor should be ethical, accurate, and not deceptive. The show environment should be easy to navigate, have aisles that are consistent with its expected traffic, have a floor plan (including handouts), clear signage, and have reasonable limits on noise from competitive booths”
Is this an all-inclusive list? No, not really. There are other, lesser issues, but I think these are the big ones.
Ultimately, exhibitors are simply looking for the producer to deliver an audience of brides and their entourage to an event space, filled with booths, for a face-to-face experience.
My perspective on show turnout is that exhibitors focus too much on measuring exactly how many brides attend. One can have too many brides for a time frame or a space, and have a tougher selling situation. This exhibitor angst can psychologically trap bridal show producers into a game of attendance projections.
Bridal Show attendance predictions are an exercise in crystal ball gazing. As is they say in the investment business, ‘Past performance is not necessarily an indication of future performance.’
In my opinion, the accountability is in the marketing and promotion of the show. Did a producer do what they said they would do? Nothing more.
The One Bad Apple Problem: What taints ethical bridal show producers, and creates reasonable skepticism and paranoia among exhibitors is blatant unethical behavior.
During a show earlier this year, a bridal show producer (NOT a BSPI member) tried to mask a lower-than-expected (aka predicted) turnout by playing a shell game with bride badges.
Essentially, the producer had the staff put bride badges on all women in the wedding party… brides, wedding party, friends. Vendors can be fooled for a little time, but it didn’t take them long to figure out they were being bamboozled by the producer.
At a more recent show, the same producer was selling 10′ x 10′ booths. That’s a common configuration. Problem was, when exhibitors arrived for the show, their spaces were only 8′ x 8′.
Dance Floor Math: You don’t have to be a math major to know you’re getting cheated in a big way. As a former DJ, I simply do the small math of multiplying 10 x 10 and 8 x 8. The promised booth layout was 100 square feet. The actual booth space was 64 square feet. That’s a deficiency of 36%.
In the words of Chef Emeril LaGasse, “This is not rocket science, folks!”
Here’s My Logic: As an exhibitor, one can expect a larger turnout or a smaller one. And one can be pleased or disappointed at the actual traffic flow. But that is purely from individual perspective. I can elect not to participate in the next show, if I choose, because I think a promoter has been ineffective in delivering a result, but being ineffective is not being unethical or deceptive.
However, when it comes to delivering a booth space that 36% smaller than offered and agreed to, that’s another story. I would be demanding 36% of booth fee be refunded. And then, I wouldn’t do business with that show producer, again.
In my view, the first scenario about badges is primarily an ethical issue (deception). The second one (booth space) is both a business and ethical issue. Exhibitors who have their act together, arrive with a plan for their 10′ x 10′ space. To suddenly have to function in an 8′ x 8′ is unacceptable at many levels.
The BIG Question: What Would You Do???
- Are these scenarios as clear cut for you as they are for me?
- Are there more issues and other perspectives?
- Under what conditions would you continue to business with this bridal show producer?
Please get involved in the conversation by contributing your comments and perspective.
Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Authority
To Blog, Or Not To Blog?
… is probably the wrong question.I must admit I been infused with a heavy dose of Seth Godin logic. It comes with reading his books and blog, and understanding his perspective. His angle is consistent. Ask different question. Suggest to his readers that they ask different questions.
So when one of my business friends posted the title, “To Blog, Or Not To Blog” on a private message board, I could help but suggest, “Perhaps that’s the wrong question?”
Just because blogging is almost free, in terms of hard dollars, doesn’t mean it’s easy. If you are not a natural writer, you may spend more time per post or have challenges with subject matter. At a lecture last week, I invoked the quotation: “Anything worth doing well, is worth doing badly at first.” (Ben Franklin, I think).
FACT: A well-crafted, well-maintained WordPress blog, that lives on your website server is perhaps the greatest search engine optimization tool, around, today.
The benefits of engaging customers, prospects, industry peers and media are tangible and incalculable. Actually, not entirely incalculable.
Another FACT: The longer you wait to blog, the more run-up time you give to your competitors.
One of the most important facts of life is: Don’t kid yourself. As my friend likes to say: “It’s a no-brainer.”
The answer to the question: “To blog, or not to blog?” (as part of my wedding marketing plan) is, indeed, a no-brainer. There are other good question to ask, but from where I sit, this isn’t one of them.
Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Authority
What's The Value Of One Business Card?
You know the feeling. You dash out the door, jump in the card, headed for a networking meeting. You arrive on time, just barely, and then it hits you.You forgot to stock up on business cards. It’s too late to go back to your office and retrieve them. You are now going to look like a rank amateur. Not having business cards in your pocket will subconsciously cause you to minimize making new connections. The scary part is that you never know the value of just one business card exchange.
There is a simple bit of preventative wedding marketing maintenance to make certain this never happens. When ordering or reordering business cards, buy an extra 1000 and stash them everywhere. You should never be at any networking event without 25-50 cards.
Stash a reserve 25-50 cards in the following places.
- In your car glove box or center console
- In the glove box or center console of your significant other’s car
- In one pocket of every suit coat or sport coat
- In every purse your own
- … fill in your special place, here
We’re talking about a few hundred extra cards, for back up, We’re not talking about your special business card case. This is back up.
You’ll never have that sick feeling, in the pit of your stomach, again.
Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Authority
Is your pricing and service structure working against you?
Wedding vendors are often frustrated that brides don’t appreciate the value of their services. Ultimately, aside from ‘customer service,’ there are three major factors that come into play.
- Hours of service
- Price for product/service
- The quality of the result
One major problem is the tradition of how pricing is presented. Often, particularly for entertainment, photography, videography, the pricing presented to the prospect is based on ‘time in direct contact with the client.’
That method, while customary in the wedding industry, understates the time directly serving any single client, not to mention their share of overall service and time from your business.
Until I went through the process of being a groom, I never realized how much time a videographer or photographer spent, after the wedding, before presenting the final result. Contracts for services show beginning and end times at the event, but I’ve never seen an informational description of how much time is spent in post-production, for example.
When a prospect doesn’t know how many hours it takes to edit one hour of raw footage from one camera, it’s hard for her to understand why the price is $4000 rather than $1000. Hours are tangible measure of your effort. The result is more subjective.
It is not sufficient to show a prospect samples of your reel or finished photos and expect them to understand the degree of difficulty. A photographer who shoots a sunset wedding has a great degree of difficulty. If one doesn’t explain the situational differences in equipment, lighting, etc., then you are just hoping that the client figures it out. That’s not good enough.
A DJ service or band prices itself for a specific number of hours of performance. Travel and set up are typically not shown, unless the event is outside the local market area.
What effect might it have if proposals and contracts had a simple ‘informational statement’ that indicated a list of additional tasks associated with the event that do not happen during the precise reception time frame? Effective implementation includes discussing the total scope of your service with the client, including a summary of those points, in your proposal, and briefly including it in (or as an attachment) to your agreement.
Maybe this should be an industry-wide standard for wedding marketers? What would change in the process of selling if every prospect understood you total measure of service, and its impact on the final result for the bride?
I know, I’m turning the pricing and selling approach on its ear. Maybe it’s time we do that.
I invite your specific comments, and how you think this might apply within your slice of the wedding industry.
Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Authority
Serving Las Vegas wedding professionals through networking, education, and synergy.
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