In A Digital World, Exhibitions Never Felt So Alive

In a world going more and more digital, believe it or not, fair trades and exhibitions are still valid and getting stronger.

There I was, after waking up before 4:00 am to get my morning flight, it was time for "Munich calling". Me and a bunch of globetrotters ready to rock, smile and talk for five days in a row. First time for me at what is perhaps the biggest exhibition in our industry.  Uniforms ironed, business cards on pockets and all the possible apps on the phone. 

This is pretty much all what I saw during this visit to Munich

No doubts. As the years pass by, we are moving more and more to digital activities – including booking, selecting, inviting and registering customers. No complains. Who really wants to coordinate postal invitations or even sending the paper replies?

This time the customers and prospects were contacted before the exhibition mainly through the digital channels: invitations, meeting arrangements, and advertising (Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn). However, there at the Messe, the customers were very real.

There is nothing like meeting the customers face-to-face. Call me old fashion. I am not sure if it is because my cultural background or because I am a peoples person but, I really enjoy meeting customers at the exhibitions, and this was not the exception. In addition to catching up with business partners, customers and checking what the industry is offering, it is great to put a face to the sound on the phone. Even better to show our products in a real space, not only you-tube videos or links, here and there. International exhibitions are also amazing to get to know what is happening around the world, what are the trends and what people are looking for. 

On the other hand, I wish I could have had more time to do social media things from there, but you know... limited internet, rush time, a lot of action and especially I was trying to enjoy every possible minute with the customer.s A funny contradiction between my wish to be more social media master and to enjoy more the "here and now".

I confess to be quite a digital person, but events, exhibitions and fair trades are still very valid and important for me, and obviously for many others. No doubt, exhibition is a very strong marketing activity. I have not experienced yet any virtual exhibition, only few broadcast in my previous working life. However, I have participated in about 10 exhibitions in the last couple of years. More and more social media activities are getting there, but the offline activities remain the heroes during the exhibition time. 

Defining Your Visual Identity, Empowering Your Brand.

Your content matters, but the way you present your content can not be forgotten. In fact, the way you present your content might define if your customer reads your newsletter or just decides to delete it. It is not about adding bling-bling or fireworks to the brand or to your content, it is more about making it clear, understandable and consistent.

Investing in your visual identity will open a lot of doors and will help you gaining the respect of your audience. There are more people willing to read things that look organized and clean than people willing to read the messy ones. Making your visual identity consistent will define your company and your brand, too.

Defining Visual Identity:

Visual identity consists of the visible elements which define your brand. We talk about visual identity for example, when we talk about your company colors, the font that you use when writing, the logo, the way you present the slogan, etc. Some companies also have taken visual identity to the next level including other elements such as the way how their buildings look like and how those are decorated as well as the employees’ dress code.  

Visual Identity and your brand:

The visual identity add some meaning to your brand. Among others, you can see the visual identity reflected in your marketing material.

Let say that I am customer and the company X send me their new clothes catalogue. For sure, I will check it out. The first thing to check is if I recognize the brand. Does the catalogue looks familiar? Do I recognize the logo, the style, the colors? If this is something complete new, a catalogue can already tell me about the company, their style and their products.

Visual identity is powerful:

By looking at the catalogue I can answer

Is this a company for me?

Can I find something suitable?

Is this company trustful?

If the visual identity is not consistent, as a customer I might get confused and disappointed. So make sure that all your channels show your company in a similar way.

Visual identity is not just about having nice photos, it is the sum of all the visual elements that define your brand, your values, your style presented consistently in all your channels. All those elements together define your brand and your story.

How to start with your visual identity. Back to basics:

You don’t really need to hire a visual identity expert to work on your visual identity from the very beginning. You can take the first steps by defining the basic elements of your visual identity.

Defining the color of your brand: You need a color for the logo, for the slogan and for the text.

Defining the logo: Define which logo to use for example in printed material and online content. Do you need a clean logo or do you need the logo and the slogan? If you need both, define clearly when to use each one. Make the logo in three or four different sizes and define when to use each size. Make sure that you don’t change the logo size randomly.

Defining your fonts: There is nothing more annoying that text with many fonts. It looks like a woman with too much make-up. Select one or maximum two which can be used in your printed material, your website and your social media content. Select a font that is suitable for your business and industry. If you are in a graphic designing business your font for sure will be different than if you are in the bank industry. If you select different fonts for the titles and subtitles make sure that those are aligned.

  

Defining your style: This is not an easy one, defining your style means defining what kind of brand do you want to be: what kind of sentiment do you want to show, what kind of people are you trying to attract. You can start by selecting what kind of pictures do you want to have in your material? Remember that when defining your style you need to consider all the previous selections such as font, color, logo, etc.

Make sure that once you have built your visual identity, you train your people on how to use it. You need to communicate this internally and with any third parties working with you e.g. marketing and advertising agencies. The most important about defining your visual identity is applying it consistently among the different channels.  

When Silence Is The Strongest Message

Being silent about work situations or problems in an organization is very common. We all have faced situations in which we have been unable to raise an issue to a supervisor even though we felt the issue was important. Sometimes, we have preferred to remain silent because of the fear of being labeled negatively or just to avoid damaging our colleagues or managers relationships. Other times, we are afraid of being punished for our comments or even worse, based on previous experiences, we know that our comments will be ignored. Sometimes, we prefer using silence as our strongest message.

Whatever the reason for the silence is, the truth is that having employees who are not able to bring the problems to the table and talk about those issues openly is a reflection of the status of the internal communication and the corporate culture. Employees’ silent is not gold…

If there is poor internal communication in place, employees will find their way to communicate: rumors, gossips, mistrust, silence. Open communication between the management and the employees will provide context, support, understanding and opportunities to ask questions and to find solutions to issues.

It is clear that no all the people are ready for feedback. However, promoting open communication among the members of your organization will help creating a healthy organizations with more space for innovation and creativity. We all play a role when developing the communication in the company. Supervisors and managers are essential for creating a workplace where employees feel safe to have an opinion. Their main role is to “convince” and demonstrate to employees that the organization truly wants to hear about their concerns, ideas and aspirations. Actions are more important than words.

It Is All About The (Right) Channel

It is not about being everywhere. It is about being at the right place.

Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Email Marketing, printed ads, digital ads, Instagram, Snapchat, etc, etc, etc... Too many options, too little time. I know, you might feel tempted to open all the possible channels to communicate with the customers. There are so many channels. It is overwhelming. As in many aspects of life, sometimes less is more. Focusing on few channels - the right channels, will help you to reach the correct people. 

Let's assume that you are doing the marketing for a small company with a limited budget and limited personnel, and now, you are experimenting with new social media channels. You know that you need to be there, but you are thinking: where do I need to go, exactly? My best advice is that you try to focus on two or three of those channel at first. Instead of pushing out crazily all the pictures you have, it is better to take the time and think clearly about your steps and invest in a good quality material.  

Step by step: How to select and use the right channel for your marketing:

- Define your goals: What do you want to get from your marketing? Do you want to increase brand awareness, engage with your customer, share your expertise or have fun online?

- Get familiar with your options, both online and offline ones. When getting to know those remember to check if all those options are available in your market or in your customers' markets?

- Check your customers: where your actual customer are at the moment? Which channels are they using to get more information about your products (or similar products). Is your competitor there? 

- Take the time to understand the channel. How does it work? 

- Take the time to understand your audience. Who is there for you? How your customers act and react on this channel? Who could you invite to follow you or join your channel? What time is appropriate to communicate with your audience? How big is your audience or how big is its potential?

- Define the message based on your company strategies and goals. What do you want to achieve with your message. More sales? Creating a stronger brand? Getting more feedback from your customers?

- Measure your resources: do you need a copywriter, a designer, somebody to code? What do you need to prepare for this channel?  Could you do this by yourself or do you need to outsource? Do you have the money and the time? Remember to think about the resources needed to follow up the conversation.

- Measure your results: how are you able to see that your work on this channel is paying off? What are the relevant measurement for your business: more followers, more sales or more subscribers?


Do not forget that different groups of people consume media in different ways, also geographical location and culture might have some implications. Before wasting a great deal of money "putting all your eggs on the same basket" try step by step and evaluate results, especially if your marketing resources are limited. Plan, execute, evaluate and repeat.