We might piss off more than one person with this one: You should never buy a trade show booth. In fact, we generally recommend renting an exhibition stand.
Okay, okay, maybe “never” isn’t the right word. But it definitely shouldn’t be the first step in your trade show journey. It just doesn’t make sense to the majority of our clients.
Our golden rules for buying a stand
Here are some golden rules to follow when purchasing a stand:
- You will use this stand at least 4 times a year
- You know the trade fairs you will be attending
- Your audience will be present at the trade fairs
- You have already proven yourself at these trade fairs
(Psst: If you need help understanding what a successful trade show really looks like, check out our blog here: “Exhibiting Your Best Self”)
This may seem like a very specific set of rules, but in reality, we’re just looking out for you. Exhibiting is not a small marketing expense; it involves a huge budget, which can generate an even greater return on investment, but only if it’s done right. Otherwise, you run the risk of wasting money.
Don’t make this mistake
We have seen this before with a company that had never exhibited before and wanted to buy a stand. They were so sure of their choice and concept that they refused our advice and suggestions. They refused to rent and did not want to deviate from the concept they had in mind, but they had a huge problem: the theme was untested and they only had one show planned.
The result? The show was a total failure. The audience didn’t show up, the concept didn’t work, and they spent $250,000 + logistics + show services + storage + disposal fees. That’s a high price to pay for a mistake.
Why is buying such a risk?
Booths can get old and outdated over time, so if you’ve purchased one and aren’t updating it, you’re diminishing your customer experience because you’re not providing them with a path to grow with you, instead you’re just a stick in the mud, another booth on the show floor that showed up without a plan and isn’t getting much interaction.
Renting an exhibition stand is a cost-effective option for most exhibitors.
Renting a booth is a better option in many ways, but most importantly because it reduces your financial commitment, especially when you’re trying to redefine your trade show strategy. If you’re not having success at shows or want to try a lot of options, it makes more financial sense to have a modular, reconfigurable booth to take with you and test out than one massive booth that could be a huge failure.
Additionally, owning a booth requires upkeep, storage, and maintenance costs that your business is probably not equipped to handle and, let’s be honest, probably doesn’t want to figure out the logistics of it.
But maybe you find it hard to justify or the numbers still don’t make sense, don’t worry, here is the example of what could have been for the “big flop” company.
If they rented:
Remember the original price was $250,000.
For $125,000, they could have rented a booth. They could have gone to their one planned trade show, tested it, realized it didn’t work, changed their mind, and had $175,000 left over to use for other ideas.
Don’t let this happen! We want to help our clients succeed, which is why we focus on our 5-part framework.
And also, why we maintain that renting an exhibition stand is (almost) ALWAYS better.