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Counter Intelligence @ Trade Shows — Are You Watching Who's Watching You?

When was the last time you took a critical look at your booth? When was the last time you did this from your competitors' perspective?

Most exhibitors take the time to check out the competition at industry events. Your firm probably does this as well and you can bet your competitors are checking you out as well. So what have you done to ensure that your competitors get the same consistent information or misinformation? What have you done to restrict certain information from them? Do you know which competitors are watching you and what they are specifically interested in?

It's OK for your competitors to monitor your company at industry events. The beauty of trade shows is that they are mostly public forums. All information presented here is considered to be in the public domain. Throughout each show I like to know which competitors stopped by my booth and what they wanted to know. This information can be extremely valuable to senior management and can significantly increase the profile of your exhibit-marketing program.

Who's watching you?

You can bet that the Big Five companies in your industry have very comprehensive Competitive Intelligence (CI) programs. Who are the Big Five? They are usually those companies with the largest booths, major sponsorships and a strong presence in the conference program. They have the time, money and resources to monitor their competitors, start-ups and trends at major industry events.

You should also be able to find out from senior management who your other major competitors are. In most cases you can assume they are watching your marketing activities as well.

Where are they watching you?

Before, during and after each show. While the Big Five have resources to monitor most shows in your industry, you can bet they and smaller organizations are definitely at all the major events in your industry and the key show of the year. Every industry has that one show that is a must to participate in.

While you are checking out your booth from your competitor's perspective, be sure to take a look at your Web site, collateral, advertising and overall presence at your industry events.

Fortunately, CI professionals have a code of ethics. It includes always identifying themselves when speaking with competitors and never misrepresenting themselves. Unfortunately, not everyone doing CI is a CI professional. It is highly likely that your Big Five are members of the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP) and adhere to these practices — but not always. And you can't be sure of how other, smaller organizations handle their CI activities. Depending on your industry, many behave like cowboys in the wild, wild West — anything goes!

Take some time and look at your exhibit marketing program from your competitors' perspective. You may be amazed at how easy you make it for them to get a lot of information on your marketing strategies and sales activities without you ever knowing they were there. With a bit of effort you can achieve your marketing and sales objectives and monitor your competitors when they drop by. A simple report summarizing which competitors dropped by, questions they asked, etc., should be part of your show analysis.

Keeping an eye on your competitors will give you timely and informative insight into where your competitors' are focusing their CI activities and what is of interest to them.

Article by Anne Barron, a Certified Manager of Exhibits and President of ABComm Ltd., an exhibit and event management firm specializing in strategic exhibit marketing that focuses on competitive intelligence. She is a co-author of "Conference and Trade Show Intelligence," published by SCIP, www.SCIP.org.

Web site: www.ab-comm.com