Introduction:
Trade fair organizers face a number of ongoing changes and an intensified intra- and inter-industry competition that reshape the structure of their markets and value chains.
Until the 80s, trade fair organizers had a huge market and little competition. They were solely administering their spaces. On this seller's market trade fair organizers could pick the companies they would allow to exhibit at their fairs. Since then, more and more trade fair organizations have entered the market and invested heavily in new venues and hall capacities. The traditional venue owners increased their hall capacities tremendously and new regional venues emerged in the Near East and Asian markets.
The driver of the inter-industrial competition is the increasing number of communication, information, and sales opportunities (such as road shows, in-house exhibitions or virtual information channels like the internet) that constitute alternatives compared to the cost intensive trade fair participation.
These developments have made the market a buyer's market. Consequently, the customer group's requirements towards trade fair efficiency are getting increasingly higher. Trade fair organizers need to face these developments and rethink and reshape their marketing strategies and respective marketing mix to match them to the new environment in order to stay competitive. They need to implement instruments with which they can improve the communication and service offer and thus satisfy the customer's requirements.
Mobile marketing is such an instrument. It is the new trend in the modern direct marketing that offers numerous possibilities for personalized customer communication and the provision of an increased service portfolio via mobile devices. Mobile marketing is the answer to the increasingly mobile society as it allows a location and time independent reach of the customer. The question if and to which extend mobile marketing can be applied in the marketing mix of trade fair organizers is the research objective of this thesis.
The approach to reach this goal is illustrated in figure 3 in the appendix and will be set as follows: chapter two will focus on the theoretical basics of mobile marketing in order to illustrate its potentials, capabilities and limitations. In chapter three the basics about trade fairs, its functions and participants are introduced. The analysis of the goals and needs of the exhibitors and visitors is the focus of this chapter as it serves as a starting point for the application of mobile marketing. The fourth chapter will focus on the traditional marketing mix of trade fair organizers. It will give an overview of each policy, its functions, goals and the commonly applied instruments. Within the framework of this marketing mix the potential of the mobile marketing instruments to create a value added for the customers as well as for the trade fair organizer will be analyzed in chapter five. By the means of examples and supported by the results of a survey that was conducted in the course of this thesis the chapter will present possibilities and evaluate the applicability of the mobile marketing instruments within the marketing mix of trade fair organizers. The final assessment considers the applicability for each policy and each trade fair phase (before, during, and after the event). The chapter ends with a conclusion and outlook for the future development.
The thesis is based on numerous publications, literature, internet sources and a survey about the current use of mobile marketing in the trade fair industry that was conducted in the course of the thesis. In literature and practice mobile marketing is a relatively new topic (especially in the B2B market) and there is little unanimity about definitions or its application in the marketing mix.
Trade fairs are considered in various publications though mostly from the perspective of the exhibitors which use trade fairs as part of their communication strategy. Peters and Taeger have first analyzed the marketing mix of trade fair organizers. Among the basic literature about trade fair organizers are also the Handbuch Messemanagement and the Kölner Kompendium that include short descriptions and developments of the marketing mix of trade fair organizers.
The potentials and applications of mobile marketing in the marketing mix of trade fair organizers have not been researched comprehensively. Until now, only few articles and examples mention its application.
