Promoting your product or service at an International exhibition can be a great way to get visibility in foreign markets. You may have decided to exhibit at an exhibition abroad in a city such as Barcelona, Rome or Helsinki, and you may be wondering if there is anything you need to do differently from the exhibitions you have exhibited at before. So what things specifically should you take on board as you prepare to exhibit abroad?
- Change or print promotional materials i.e. brochures to ones that can be understood in the native language. Avoid using abbreviations where possible and try to make the message clear across cultural barriers.
- Learn to be patient. If you are exhibiting in Italy for example, people do not like to be rushed and they do not take to the British way of pressure selling.
- Ensure you research and understand the cultural difference of the country you are going to, in terms of marketing. Will your target age group be different for example in Spain?
- Do not forget about the simple things i.e. difference in power sockets etc. If you are doing a presenation using a laptop, you might find yourself embarassed if your battery goes dead and you do not have the correct plug to power the laptop back up.
- Business cards can act as a good tool. Make sure that your company name, position and contact details are clearly understandable to anyone from abroad. You may perhaps want to also them with text printed in the native language of the country you are exhibiting in.
- Ensure that you understand the local customs and thus avoid embarassing problems which could reflect badly on your company. The clothing that you wear for example, will need to be approiate culturally in certain countries.
In addition to the ideas above, if you exhibiting in some countries, then a lot of the business transactions and networking, occurs socially after the event, just as much as it occurs at the exhibition event itself. In South Korea for example, business culture is very different from in a country such as the UK or Ireland. A lot of Korean business takes place over food and then over several drinks of beck-se-je or other Korean favourites. The idea traditionally, similar to Chinese business, is that when you are drunk with someone, you will see their true personality and thus, learn if you can trust them. Korean and Chinese companies sometimes hire professional drinkers and give them professional titles, and these employees then entertain the visitors. If you can drink and you want to exhibit and network for business in Korea, you might have an entertaining time.
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