So Many Shows, So Little Time

Winter and summer, the road warriors of the grueling gift show season meet every weekend in cities across the country and swap battle tales: missing samples, flights delayed or diverted, long-suffering spouses waiting at home alone. Vendors promise to get right on that order — as soon as they get back to the office and dig out from under a stack of messages. Retailers struggle to remember where they saw that great product. Reps stare at cryptic notes that made sense weeks ago.

Sooner or later, many of them ask: do we really need this many shows? After all, other industries such as consumer electronics have a national trade show held twice or even just once a year. Michael Hughes, associate publisher and director of research services for Tradeshow Week, explains that the gift industry ranks ninth highest in total number of trade shows, with 253 events in 2006. And seeing that home furnishings and interior design ranked second, with 535, if taken together the total number of shows in the gift and home universe would have topped the chart.

“I would not be surprised if the ratio of number of shows to total market size is higher [in the gift industry] than many others. Most industries have one leading show, a clear winner. What's unique about the gift market is that there are so many major shows,” says Hughes.

With this in mind, in December 2005, the Denver-based Gift and Home Trade Association (GHTA) proposed a national trade show for the gift industry, based on the model of the Canadian Gift and Tableware Association's show in Toronto. But would adding another show help solve the problem, or simply exacerbate it — that is, if there's a problem at all. The question is a sensitive one; so much so that several leading trade show management companies declined to comment when asked by Gifts & Decorative Accessories.

GHTA's president, Trip van Roden, states the basic dilemma: “Every sector of our industry is struggling: vendors, sales agencies, retailers. In the next couple of years, there will be consolidation in every part of our industry. There are fewer and fewer independent retailers, and consumers are changing the way they buy gifts. So the current model is broken, but the blame is not just too many trade shows. Trade shows are a symptom of a bigger question: how is our industry changing, and what do we do about it? I've heard people say we need to train retailers to be better businesspeople. I think we need to be better vendors and sales agencies. If we do that, we'll have a better independent retailer and help solve the trend of retailers going out of business.”

GHTA proposes to strengthen the industry through action groups working on its membership's top priorities: creating training programs for sales agencies and vendors, supporting independent retailers, collecting and sharing industry data so members can better run their businesses and developing one national trade show.

“In virtually every other industry in the United States, there is a trade association whose primary purpose is to put on a show for its members,” says van Roden.

According to Rachelle Crum, senior assistant editor of Tradeshow Week, “The majority of trade shows have some type of involvement by an association. The top five of the most recent Tradeshow Week 200 shows are all association-owned.” However, “gifts isn't the only industry whose largest show isn't run by an association,” says Crum.

There have been very few association-run shows within the gift industry; the Chicago Gift Show was association-run before being sold to show producer George Little Management LLC (GLM), which subsequently cancelled the event. This is due, in part, to the fact that until recently the industry has not had a strong national association seeking such a role. However, professional show managements do have practical advantages. “It takes a lot of capital and financial resources to execute a market, and that's something a show producer is generally in a good position to provide,” says Joan Ulrich, senior vice president of leasing and marketing for gift and home, Merchandise Mart Properties Inc. (MMPI), another major gift show operator.

To manufacturers and sales reps, the GHTA's proposed new event would offer direct input on how the show is organized and run, since it would be designed by the GHTA, whose 400-person membership is composed of one-half vendors and one-half reps. It would also resolve ongoing friction about who gets credit — and payment — for out-of-territory rep sales by mandating that all booth space at the show be taken by exhibitors. Reps would be able to work in the vendors' booths, but multi-line spaces would not exist, something van Roden feels would also make shopping less confusing for retailers.

The GHTA would also collect data on what products sold at the show, developing, over time, a picture of emerging trends — the kind of picture that is currently assembled from after-the-fact market research or anecdotal impressions. “[The show] will provide an environment much like our convention, where we service the retailer in our breakout seminars where we kick around various issues and then create new action groups,” van Roden adds.

The GHTA does not intend its show to be the only one in the gift industry, and Van Roden won't speculate on whether the GHTA show would replace any current markets. “Our intentions are to put this show together five years from now, and the way things are changing, things could look very different in five years,” he says.

However, van Roden cites the sale of the Fort Washington Expo Center in Philadelphia as an indication that the market is moving toward show consolidation, pointing out that it is “the third building in three years that was sold for other use. Two shows this year reduced the number of days they were open: San Francisco and Seattle. And at least one show closed — GLM did leave Atlanta.”

Exhibiting at multiple trade shows inevitably increases the cost of doing business for vendors, who must not only rent booth or showroom space, but also field multiple booths, sets of samples and teams of personnel to handle concurrent shows. The personnel cost is particularly burdensome for smaller companies. As a result, many vendors don't send their own staff to most markets, relying instead on multi-line reps to present their products. If manufacturers had fewer shows to attend, however, they could spend their money on better presentations at the shows they do go to — as well as on providing more value to retailers through travel incentives or retail training, or both, as suggested by Mike Coyne of Coyne's & Company. (see box below)

On the other hand, multiple shows allow manufacturers to get their product in front of more retailers, many of whom — especially smaller stores — are unable or unwilling to travel long distances. Still, some vendors are cutting back their travel schedules, exhibiting only at the markets with the strongest attendance, believing that significant buyers attend those markets no matter where their stores are located.

Donna Territo of Abbiamo Tutto, McLean, VA, is one of those vendors. “I have colleagues that show at all those shows and do well,” she says. “But it's more cost-effective for me to get on the road and have my sales reps call on accounts.”

Edward Vanegas of Henderson, NV-based Suburban Silk advocates that vendors adopt a similar strategy to retailers, who tend to pick and choose their markets. “I don't think there are too many [shows] for exhibitors, I think exhibitors need to do more due diligence about which shows they exhibit at. If you spend a hundred thousand a year in trade shows, and you are in the wrong ones or didn't do your booth presentation correctly, then you just spent your money wrong.”

Of course, a surfeit of shows has advantages for storeowners. Multiple regional gift markets make it cheaper and easier for retailers to attend a show, because they don't have to fly, or stay in a hotel for as many nights (or at all).

“Eighty percent of buyers who attend our Portland show won't attend any other show,” says Stacy Heiss, director of marketing for Western Exhibitors, San Francisco. “They don't want to pay for parking or stay in a hotel. Our Seattle exhibitors ask 'Why do we have a Portland show, it dilutes the Seattle market?' But in reality it doesn't. You can try to force people into a market, but if they don't want to go, they won't. Reps and manufacturers would be missing dollars.”

Ulrich agrees. “The market dictates what is appropriate. Where there's a need and a demand from retailers, a show exists. It's not like we just go into a region and hope people will come,” she says. “Buyers vote by where they buy. Within our own trading area, the Michigan mart in Detroit closed. It's all about the buyer, not what the association, or even the manufacturer, thinks is prudent. [The buyer's] expectation is that the manufacturer will make it easy for them to see and review product.”

The recent creation of the Southern States Gift Show in Memphis, TN, and the Lansing, MI, show demonstrate that these market forces work both ways.

Not only do regional shows take less time to attend — which is helpful to retailers who can only leave their store for a couple of days at a time — they also preserve regional variation in merchandise, increasing product choices for retailers. “In different parts of the country you get different vendors, and I think that's important,” says Carol Quartuccio of the Flying French Hens gift shop, Lambertville, NJ.

“A national show is counter-intuitive for the gift industry. Buyers are looking for things that differentiate themselves from their neighbors, so to think that one national trade show is going to service the diverse needs of our retailers is puzzling,” says Ulrich. “Sales reps are vested into each of the geographic areas because that's their expertise. They're the reason you go to that marketplace: you tap into those people who are experts within that trading area.”

While many retailers do feel that there are more gift shows than are needed, they have the luxury of choosing which ones they attend; the excess of shows is not a great concern to the majority of the storeowners G&DA interviewed. Stephanie Roe of Mima & Co., a retailer in Doylestown, PA, says, “I can't keep up with all of them. It's good to be able to choose the ones that you like, and to have them in different locations.”

Indeed, among retailers' biggest concerns was the occurrence of multiple gift shows competing for the same weekend. “I don't think the majors are too much, though I wish they were more spread out in time,” says Debbie Dusenberry, owner of Curious Sofa in Prairie Village, KS.

The increasing homogenization of gift shows is another often-cited concern; retailers are willing to travel to more than one market, but only if they can find unique product. “This was the first year that we thought, with the way the economy is, do we really have to go that far away? We saw an awful lot of the same vendors,” says Shari Van Dyke of Bayberrie Tree in Grand Haven, MI.

Another major concern is lack of target marketing or decision-making data. Both retailers and manufacturers have noted that there isn't enough information available about what distinguishes one show from another, especially outside major markets. The lack of such data leaves retailers to make important decisions through trial and error — a costly proposition.

Cathy Walls of Atlanta-based retailer Bella Italia says, “It's difficult to judge the difference [between shows] and what they have to offer, so I go to the one that's most convenient for me.”

Another concern retailers have expressed about multiple markets is the ease with which they help competing stores get around exclusivity agreements with local sales reps. By going to an out-of-state rep who doesn't know what deals the vendor has made, a store can get a line that a competitor is supposed to have exclusively.

Outside of the GHTA, there seems to be little support for the launch of an association-run national gift show, even among those who favor a streamlined show calendar. Industry members even question whether adding another show could worsen the problems the GHTA is attempting to solve. Cindy Morris, chief operating officer of Dallas Market Center, says, “We hold the position that adding yet another trade event should be carefully considered before the marketplace is further diluted.”

“I think it would be awful,” says Lester Childres of The Pretty Penny, Houston. “The parking, the hotels. I'm already at market for a full 10 days. If it was one show, I don't see how anybody would be able to get it done.”

Manufacturer Angela Smith of Madeira Beach, FL-based Elisa is also cautious. “There are more and more trade shows; it's fragmenting the industry when we're just coming out of a period that's been pretty slow. I don't think there's one location that could handle everybody all at once. There's a reason to have different shows, but I don't know how many more we need. It's pretty saturated.”

While manufacturers are open to the one national show idea, most appear inclined to stick to Darwinian principles, trusting that the market will bring the trade show landscape into line with current industry needs.

“The gift industry is going through consolidation right now, so there's going to be changes,” notes David Harrison from Heritage Classic Wovens, Forest City, NC.

Les Mendelbaum, president of Buffalo, NY-based Umbra also sees consolidation taking hold. “When we first went into the business 26 years ago, it was more regionalized. The industry has already become more consolidated, so there's less reason to have all these regional gift fairs.”

At the same time, Mendelbaum points out, international shows are gaining in strength. “The big retailers are traveling, so foreign competition is a major component. We're doing shows at least twice a month, we have five booths zigzagging all over the world. It's a little out of control.” Nonetheless, he's not enthusiastic about the GHTA's proposed remedy. “Starting a new national show strikes me as an uphill climb. I'm not going to be the first to sign up. I'm looking to rationalize these shows and concentrate on the ones where we're strong.”

“When the GHTA brought up the national show approach, we all gasped. But the more you think about it, the more some aspects make sense,” notes Melissa Haberstroh of The Burlap Horse, Boerne, TX, past winner of G&DA's Retailer Excellence Award and current member of the GHTA retail advisory board. “If everyone was represented [at a national show], there'd be two times of year that you'd know this show was where you're going. You'd have ease of scheduling and a good expectation of what you'd find there.

“But,” Haberstroh continues, “All these little shows have come up for a reason. Right now, we're all waiting to see the details before we say 'I wouldn't go.'”

Meanwhile, the GHTA vision has already proved valuable: show managements, vendors, reps and retailers are stepping up dialogue about what's working and what's broken in the trade show arrangement of an evolving industry.