Our reporter Gao Ruoying in Beijing reported that participating in the exhibition is still a long way off.
For Chen Qiushi, a consumables manufacturer, the China (Beijing) International Photographic Machinery and Imaging Equipment and Technology Exhibition (China P&E), which he had been looking forward to attending since May this year, has been postponed to December.
He had just started to participate in the exhibition in the past two years, and he was very worried: “Zhongshan City held the first imaging equipment exhibition at the end of August, but it caught up with the typhoon and the Shenzhen epidemic. There was almost no liquidity, and the first phase did not get off to a good start.”
This situation is not the worst. Chen Qiushi booked a new energy battery exhibition in Shenzhen last year, and he paid all the money. It was originally held in May this year, but now it has disappeared without a trace. He was looking forward to the Beijing Photography Exhibition, “anyway there is a day to look forward to”.
Emma CNC, a system solution provider for intelligent cutting of flexible materials, was attacked by the epidemic when it participated in the International Shoe Material and Shoe Machine Exhibition, the world’s second and Asia’s first well-known industry exhibition, at the end of May last year.
Chairman Wang Guoquan just set up the booth on May 30, and was informed that afternoon that a 72-hour nucleic acid test certificate is required for the implementation of departure from Guangdong from 10 pm on the 31st.
“We arrived in Guangzhou excitedly early in the morning, but we had to take away the equipment overnight and leave by plane early the next morning.” Wang Guoquan said that as a result, there were basically no visitors at the exhibition, and only exhibitors were left to entertain themselves. He invested more than 500,000 yuan in the exhibition, but also wasted.
The Shenzhen Asia Pet Show and the Chengdu Auto Show, which stepped on thunder this year, are widely circulated among enterprises. Due to the temporary notice to suspend the exhibition due to the epidemic, many exhibitors were caught off guard and abandoned their capital to “flee” overnight. According to rough statistics by a reporter from the Economic Observer, in October 2022 alone, nearly 110 exhibitions nationwide will be postponed or rescheduled.
In the regular survey conducted by Jingguan in the fourth quarter, about 53% of companies said that the number of companies participating in exhibitions this year was “smaller” than last year, and 53% of companies believed that the effect of participating in exhibitions this year was “lower than expected”. The two main reasons for lower than expected are: exhibition delay and insufficient passenger flow.
Time-consuming, money-consuming and labor-intensive to participate in the exhibition, what can it bring to the enterprise? When all kinds of exhibitions are pressed the pause button one after another, what does it mean to enterprises?
Wang Guoquan said that Emma CNC is a case of finding customers through participating in exhibitions in the past 20 years and gradually developing into a leader in the segmented industry. The reason why he attaches great importance to the exhibition is related to the source of customers and the development model of the enterprise. As a solution provider of flexible materials, Emma CNC’s business scenarios cover daily life shoes and clothing, household goods, automotive supplies and some sub-sectors, such as electronic product protective covers, sports protective gear and so on.
The application scenarios of customer products are various, which leads Wang Guoquan to seek potential customers in different categories of professional exhibitions. In addition, the main market of Emma CNC is not limited to China. The areas in the world where the population is concentrated and the manufacturing industry is developed are the focus of the development of Kingdom Power.
“In a normal year, we have to participate in nearly 20 exhibitions at home and abroad, and the budget for this is between 2 million and 3 million.” Wang Guoquan said, but this year’s situation is not very ideal, originally planned to participate in 13 exhibitions , As of the interview, only two have officially participated. Wang Guoquan said that his principle is: go as long as you can.
In Chen Qiushi’s view, each exhibition has its own characteristics. Like the Beijing Photography Exhibition he was looking forward to, when he participated in the exhibition last year, there were various people visiting the exhibition, including directors, officials, college teachers and other photography enthusiasts and groups. At the exhibition, he met a retired veteran cadre of the Machinery Department. He said that drones are prohibited from flying within the Fifth Ring Road in Beijing.
“We envisaged that the high-altitude pole would also need a revolving head, and we just met a suitable supplier at the exhibition, and we connected. The other party is actually in Zhuhai, not far from our factory. After so many years, we only met through the Beijing exhibition.” When he came back from that exhibition, Chen Qiushi worked overtime to develop new products. He wanted to pass this exhibition again this year to launch new products, but he never waited for the opportunity.
Although the current exhibitions have been postponed and cancelled, Wang Guoquan said that relying on the accumulation of customers over the past 20 years is still within his tolerance, but it will not meet expectations when expanding his business; For established small enterprises, the impact of not being able to participate in the exhibition is still very large.
In Wang Guoquan’s view, participating in the exhibition is simply the most effective and direct marketing method for enterprises to obtain orders. The subdivision will find that participating in the exhibition can not only establish and maintain the corporate image and enhance the influence of the industry, but also understand the development trend of the industry, which not only improves the efficiency of visits and negotiations, but also maintains old customers. Companies that do well can also participate in overseas exhibitions. , expand overseas markets.
How to participate in overseas exhibitions with high quality and show brand value is a shortcoming in Wang Guoquan’s eyes that Chinese companies urgently need to make up for. Exhibiting is not a street stall to sell goods, how to show Chinese brands through the exhibition, this is a question that needs to be considered.”