Tradeshow Giveaways 101

Having spent approximately 21.25 hours at a tradeshow last week and making only 34 contacts I was in a perfect position to study attendee behavior with regards to giveaways. You tell me if I have enough to write a full thesis!

I grouped the attendee into 9 classifications to make the analysis easier.

1. The "Snatch n' Grabbers": The goal of these attendees (maybe most of them fellow exhibitors who are not interested in what you're selling) is to make the pass so quickly it is impossible for someone in the booth to make eye contact. I saw a guy make off with a whole handful for ball-point pens using this method. In fact I don't think he even looked down at the pens as he passed. He had spotted them from afar and planned his attack. As far as I could tell it was a success, no one in the booth was able to make contact and he is now the proud owner of a bunch of cheap pens. It is a good thing he got so many because my experience with the freebie pens are than they don't write for very long!

2. The Grandmas: "I have three grandchildren. I couldn't possibly take just one." This implies that it would be the booth person's fault if two out of three grandchildren are disappointed. Every time I see this behavior I have a great picture in my mind of Mom coming to the booth. "I have 29 grandchildren--is it OK if I clean you out?!?!?!"

3. The Ponderer: This type pauses in front of the booth and considers the give away. It appears that their main hope is the the person inside the booth will see them and offer the give away so that they don't actually have to ask for it.

4. The Greedy: It is to protect yourself against these types that I have learned that you NEVER take more than one give away. (We learned this the hard way the year we took four different kinds of ducks to IFT--the very bold felt that they were entitled to one of each kind.) The booth across from me didn't know this. The had a bowl of candy, mini-screwdrivers, post-it pads, and pens. I saw a number of people stop and take one of everything (now, the booth personnel had no sales training so the only outcome was to encourage people to take their freebies.) Sometimes I refer to these guys as the "trick or treaters". You can tell who they are because they have a bag on each arm and both are bulging.

5. The Sneak (very similar to the "SNG"): They do a careful analysis of the booth to make sure no one is looking, and then they make off with the goods. If no one is around they get very bold and take as much as they can hold with the grabbing hand.

6. The Chatterbox: This person must justify to you that they are worthy of your give away. The booth next to me was from Australia and they were giving out very cute stuffed Koala bears. These were a great draw to the booth and admittedly they did a great job of using the bears to start sales conversations. But some of the people would say things like "I've always wanted to go to Australia, can I please have a Koala?" "I went to the zoo yesterday (we were in San Diego) and I thought the Koalas were the cutest animal in the zoo, can I please have a Koala?"

7. The Desperate: I wonder if there might be something pathological about this type. It's like they are programmed to take whatever they determine to be free without thinking about any other consideration. My best example of this was not at this show but I have never forgotten it. We had taken the DA7200 which has a large sample dish maybe 6" in diameter. It is our instantaneous water activity instrument. We put some kernels of corn in the dish as part of our demonstration. Then one of our guys in the booth thought it would be really funny to throw a few popped kernels in the dish. This was very funny and we have been laughing ever since because some desperate soul reached into the sample dish, grabbed one of the popped kernels and popped it in their mouth! Here at AAPS, a guy we buy advertising from stopped by and the Koala lady had given him 2 Koalas (for his grandchildren, of course!) and I had given him a Nalgene bottle (our give away for people who brought in their postcards.) He set his books down with his treasure on top. His back was to the aisle and I had to stop more than one person from grabbing his stuff--unbelievable!

8. The Well Mannered" These people will very politely step up and just simply say, "May I have one of these?" How can you say no to that? All you can say is you are welcome.

9. The Possessor: You may have heard possession is 9/10 of the law. Perhaps the thought process of this type is "If it's in my hand, how likely are they to make me put it back." I think this works rather well actually. I won't make them put it back.

Of course there was the guy this last summer who actually got irate with me when I would only give him one hat. He berated my for probably 5 minutes. Funny thing is the longer he went at it, the more determined I got that I would not give in. He came back the next day and started in again but I am happy to say he went home with only one hat.