AL I MA F


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How to get ahead in advertising


Many companies spend a small fortune on stands at trade shows and advertising campaigns but don’t take advantage of they opportunities they present, writes Ali Mafi .


you could still get into E1 car park, which fi ve years ago would have been fi lled by 6am.


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But it was good fair, there were customers and they were willing and able to place orders. We did really well. The reality is that most companies who exhibit at trade fairs go on about them being the launch pad for their new ranges, spend a great deal of money on being there, but when the doors open just sit there like a bunch of turnips.


Apart from being badly run, which I constantly bitch about, most businesses have absolutely no idea how to market and project themselves. They honestly believe that just being there and word of mouth will do it. It is just unbelievably naive, pathetic and a lost opportunity. They just employ a bunch of agents and sit back and think this is it.


There is a really interesting situation in our particular niche where the same bunch of agents carry the bag for almost all our competitors as well as a few other product ranges that, in turn, compete with each other.


I have never fi gured out how this works or could possibly be an effective way of selling your product. How can the same person be knowledgeable, let alone enthusiastic, about a range when he has all the competing ones in his bag? Fortunately - and extremely


fl atteringly - some of our competitors are so concerned about our return to the UK domestic market that they have warned the said agents that if they also carry ours they will lose the agency with them. I am actually delighted that this particular door is shut to us as I would far prefer


12 gifts today


The art of success is convincing someone to buy something they are, at fi rst, reluctant to buy


am somewhat bewildered as to what has happened to trade fairs. Autumn Fair, for example, was a mere shadow of what it was in its heyday, half of Hall 5, traditionally the most popular, was cordoned off and empty and at 11am


representatives who are willing to take the time to understand what we are about, get enthusiastic about our range and the potential that it has and go and earn both of us some real money instead of just creaming off what comes easily through simple order taking.


In every company a certain amount of business comes just because some customers simply want the product and selling to these is just order taking. The art of success is convincing someone to buy something they are, at fi rst, reluctant to buy.


This neatly brings me to some people’s attitude towards advertising. What I fi nd astonishing is those who claim that advertising does not work and that thereby and by implication all the money spent on advertising by major international businesses is a total waste of time and money.


Why is it that the one stand selling a remote control wand in Birmingham was totally swamped, despite being a three square metre stand, just because they had been on Dragons’ Den?


Familiarity does bring contempt but also brings recognition and you can get recognition if you don’t go out introducing yourself.


I hear people say they advertised and did not get a single response, well what do you expect? Do you ever pick up the phone as soon as you see an advert? No. But does it register in your subconscious that this company exists? Absolutely. I have to say that most advertising in the trade press is a demonstration of exactly how not to do it. Plastering a page full of writing and cramming the page with hundreds of pictures is just a waste of time.


Buy a copy of Cosmo or GQ and see how the brands advertise. A great picture and their name - that’s it.


It is absolute nonsense that trade advertising is or should be any different - you are still advertising to the same people who read the above publications but in a


different capacity. What is needed is to establish, in the


buyer’s mind, is who you are, what you do and how you do it. If the impression is favourable you are more likely to get an appointment when you call, but sitting there expecting for the calls to fl ood in is just naive.


Advertising is only a small single step in a long process, as is having a booth at a trade fair, if all you want to do is sit there reading a paper, talk utter bollocks to fellow exhibitors, munch on your sandwich, moan and bitch about the footfall, complain about the weather etc then you really have totally missed the point.


Going to a trade fair is not an opportunity for bosses to bring the best looking girl from the offi ce along, regardless of what her position in the company is, or employing a bunch of models and spending your time trying to get into their knickers, nor is it an excuses for bar crawling. It is the one time, which most seem to be oblivious to, for creating business opportunities.


I really liked a comment made by a very senior buying manager to his buyers. He said: “You see all these people falling over themselves to buy you lavish dinners, ply you with copious amounts of alcohol and even buy you an odd gift, well, trust me - not one of them will send you a Christmas card if you leave or change to a job on the other side of the divide.” You know what? If you don’t believe him or me then ask the few buyers who have. It makes me laugh when I see companies with massive stands and the bosses blowing masses of money on entertainment and booze when they don’t actually have a pot to piss in and are struggling to pay their rent and salaries. I think a little effective marketing would achieve a far better result at a much lower cost.


Please email your comments to: ali@mint-concepts.com


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