Applicability of Mobile Marketing in the Marketing Mix of Trade Fair Organizers

Book excerpt: Inhaltsangabe: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 [...]