Ryan DionneSHARE
If reps, retailers and brands were to attend every snowsports trade show on the 2011-12 SIA calendar, they would be away from the office for more than 32 days. Those 32 trade shows along with travel expenses and lodging can rack up an enormous price tag.
But how beneficial are the shows? Does the exposure justify the cost, and are some shows more beneficial than others?
Depending on location and budget, some retailers favor smaller, regional shows.
“I order everything I need from just a few small shows,” said Ben Fhanfelt, owner of Peak-to-Creek Sports Inc. Fhanfelt says it’s beneficial to attend small, regional shows instead of spending money to travel to national shows because it’s more cost effective and requires less time away from the shop.
“There’s too much schmoozing going on at the big shows,” Fhanfelt says. “Plus, at smaller shows I can write my orders there instead of having to go back to the shop to do it.”
Tom Maneggia, owner of Norse House Ski & Sport and Vist distributor concurs.
“Attending a national show can cost up to $60,000 (for a distributor) when you factor in everything,” he says.
Maneggia chose not to attend the SIA show this year because the monetary savings from not attending outweighed the loss of exposure.
Others in the industry disagree. John Pew of Trew Gear and sales representative Dane Stephenson say networking opportunities and brand recognition at national shows are well worth the cost of attendance.
“Big shows add legitimacy to brands,” Pew says. “It’s important to attend the big shows because there’s such a high concentration of buyers in one area.”
A large number of buyers in a single area make it easy for brands to exhibit their merchandise, and it eliminates the need for them to travel across the country promoting their products.
And retailer Carey Foster, owner of Lone Mountain Sports, is one of those buyers.
“I only go to SIA because I can order everything I need there,” she says
Foster’s location in Big Sky, Mont. isolates her from most shows, so going to Denver is her best option to access brands.
While the cost of smaller shows is usually less than national shows, it can be burdensome for independent reps.
Sales rep Tom Blair says regional shows work well for him because he can reach smaller, specialty shops. But because Blair is an independent rep, he must foot the bill for booth space at smaller shows instead of brands paying the bill.
As an alternative, several brands and reps favor the idea of preview shows.
Taking place prior to national shows, preview shows allow buyers to preview products before final production, and gives them a heads-up on what they may want to stock for their stores.
“Preview shows are great because they give us the opportunity to get into the buyers mind and hope they save some of their dollars to buy for our brand later in the season,” Pew says.
Taking it one step further, Stephenson proposes the idea of turning the national shows into preview shows.
“By moving the dates forward, buyers are able to see the products earlier, giving them more time to think about what they want to purchase.”
Buyers can still place orders late in the season, but will have a better idea of how much they can buy, Stephenson says.
However, when SIA attempted the move the show dates up starting next year, many reps and retailers protested, convincing the organization to keep the show at the end of January.
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SIA is for the convience of Western shops. Why dont they have a national show in the East & see how western shops attend? A regional clothing show & Providence show is all that is needed, its a small industry with way too many shows.
I miss vegas.
I can only echo Brian Putnam's sentiments. If it weren't for the Buying Groups Eastern reps would not need to go to Denver.
The buying cycle is to fragmented and too long. One big clothing show and one Hardgoods show, properly timed should do the trick. Throw in a demo - one demo not a demo before the demo and then another demo coinciding with the demo before the demo - and things would make sense. Yet companies and reps alike keep spending and spending. In the end it's the consumer that pays for all this….. God help us!
Whitedot Freeride us a super small nich brand making a higher quality ski for a select group willing to pay more. As the US importers, we have little to no budget. Last year we went to a regional show and spent 2 days watching everyone walk right by us, smile and say “late to an appointment” and never return. We got NOTHING out of it. What to do? For a small company like us, spending $3000 to go to a regional show takes 100 pair of skis to break even. We sold zero. Hard to take the leap as a small guy.
I may be jaded (as a show producer) but I worked as a specialty retail manager and skills instructor for 14 years before working for OR. Regional shows are convenient for initial order writiing to maximize time efficiency for the top 15-25 brands that would otherwise occupy 4 weeks of 2 hour daily rep visits one by one. The national shows offer a different opportunity altogether to see hundreds of emerging brands, trends and products and meet with company principals, organize and initiate cooperative marketing plans and network with other businesses not in your region… Not to mention tee up adjustments to those initial orders now that you have a better glimpse into sell-through. There is room and reason for both kinds of events, IMHO.
Kenji
I am a buyer for a smaller specialty sports retailer in CA and like Kenji was saying before the trade shows save the retailers a lot of time and money. The industries order deadlines are so early in the season I don't have a lot of time to research my sell through numbers as well as predict next seasons numbers with out trade shows. I can only imagine the amount of exposure industry companies would get by attending trade show for the time and money they spend. I'm sorry to hear that the smaller start up companies are getting over looked at the shows but isn't exposure/sales a problem for all small businesses. I MISS LAS VEGAS!