Stone Fair, go left or right?
On July 17, the China International Stone (North) Expo, known as the "Northern Largest Stone Fair", will be held in Qingdao Convention and Exhibition Center. Recently, the reporter visited and found that not many Nan'an stone companies chose to participate in the exhibition. Some companies said that it is too far. For the first time "three exhibitions in one", I don't know what will be the highlight. I will go and see if I participate, and I will decide next year.
In recent years, large and small stone fairs like the Northern Stone Fair have sprung up like bamboo shoots after a rain. In places where stone enterprises are slightly concentrated, similar fairs are almost always held. Some larger second-tier cities have also set up stone exhibition areas at local building materials exhibitions, all claiming to be "international exhibitions." However, more and more exhibition professional visitors are often very few, which makes companies cry out for "chicken ribs."
[Phenomena] There are more stone fairs and fewer exhibitors
Inventory of current domestic stone exhibitions: Xiamen in March, Beijing and Shanghai in April, Inner Mongolia and Chongqing in May, Hezhou in June, Guangzhou, Qingdao and Chengdu in July, Laizhou in September, Yunfu in October, The head of water in November... there were more than 10 games, making Nan'an enterprises overwhelmed. Next year, there will be more such stone fairs. Nantong Stone Industrial Park and Macheng Stone Industrial Park will also be preparing for exhibitions one after another!
There are so many stone fairs, did Nan'an Stone Enterprises participate one by one? In fact, everyone chooses the nearest one according to their needs. Wu Shunmai, general manager of Longtou Stone Industry, told reporters that the company will bring new products and new processes to the Shuitou Stone Fair every year, and it has been more than 10 years. The main reason is that the company is in Shuitou and the cost of participation is low. He usually only chooses to visit exhibitions in Yunfu, Qingdao and other places.
As Wu Shunmai said, the stone fair has obvious regional characteristics. As one of the three major stone production bases in the country, Shuitou has gathered the top ten domestic stone companies, and these top ten stone companies participate in the stone fair every year. Therefore, the annual Shuitou stone fair is almost full of investment. However, such important stone towns as Yunfu and Laizhou with smaller water heads are not as optimistic as water heads.
"I went to the Yunfu Exhibition in October last year and it was much deserted compared to previous years. Not only did the number of exhibitors decrease, but the flow of people was pitiful. On the second day of the opening, only a few people were left in the whole exhibition." Pan Xiaomao, deputy general manager of the industry, said that Yunfu lacks the support of large enterprises, mostly small workshops, and lacks market-oriented operations. The morale of the entire exhibition is slightly low. Of course, this is not just the case at the Yunfu Fair. In fact, the enthusiasm of companies participating in the Verona Fair in Italy is also decreasing, which may be related to the general environment.
There are even more companies in charge who bluntly said that except for the Xiamen Stone Fair, they hardly participated in other exhibitions. Zhang Caiming, brand director of Casvino, a brand of Zongyi Stone, said that the only domestic exhibition that Zongyi still insists on participating in is the Xiamen Stone Fair.
Zhang Caiming said that the reasons for choosing Xiamen Stone Fair are mainly from the following points: first, its great influence; second, the high degree of participation of foreign businessmen and engineering customers; third, the exhibition organizer's unique planning and promotion points; fourth, the exhibition The distance and cost are controllable. At the stone fairs in other regions, there was almost no gain.
But at the Shuitou Stone Fair last year, the reporter saw that Zongyi Stone exhibited its new brand Baishi·Jinggong Marble. Zhang Caiming said that the main reason why he chose to show the new brand at the exhibition is to let people in the industry know it first and increase its popularity. In the future, if you want to open up the visibility of the terminal market, you need to go through other channels.
Throughout the exhibitions, it is not difficult to find that, except for the Xiamen Stone Fair and Shuitou Stone Fair, Nan'an Stone Enterprises' enthusiasm for participating in the exhibition has declined, and other exhibitions have already experienced difficulties in attracting investment and no one to watch the exhibition. Local people in Yunfu once said that the Yunfu Stone Fair is mandatory, and most of them are apportioned in the form of administrative orders. In order to cope with it, enterprises set up the exhibition at will without any thoughts. If things go on like this, the confidence of exhibitors continues to decline, and a vicious circle is formed, making it difficult to attract investment.
[Discussion] The function of the exhibition is weakened and the positioning is not clear
Then, why are all parts of the country scrambling to hold exhibitions first? Industry insiders pointed out that the rise of regional exhibitions can undoubtedly bring prosperity to the local area and increase government performance. Therefore, government-led exhibitions are emerging in endlessly. In addition, with the blooming of stone industry parks, market-oriented stone exhibitions are also increasing.
“In recent years, the investment effect of stone fairs has been gradually weakening. This is an indisputable fact. The differences between the fairs are getting smaller and smaller, and there are few fairs with their own special attribute labels." Industry insiders said that the reason It can be sustained, mainly because the government is making overall arrangements, and secondly, companies have hope for the potential results of the exhibition, and it seems a pity that they have abandoned it. The expert said frankly that today's exhibition has become a "tasteless exhibition" where "you may not get anything if you go to the exhibition, but you will definitely lose something if you don't participate."
So why did the once-popular stone exhibition become more and more forgotten by the market? "The stone exhibition itself is a media platform and a hub for information exchange in the stone industry. Through the exhibition, major stone companies can display their brands, understand the industry environment, and improve their professionalism. Exposure rate in the media. However, as we enter the information age, industry and enterprise information is more transparent, and enterprises have more access to channel information, and the amount of information obtained from the exhibition is almost negligible." All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce Stone Industry Chamber of Commerce Bai Lijiang, secretary-general of the Composite Board Professional Committee, believes that now is not as closed as in the past, so that dealers often have no way of knowing which brand in the industry has more advantages and which brand is more suitable for their market positioning. Therefore, participation has become their main reason for understanding the company. way. With the advent of the new marketing era, the brilliance of exhibition marketing in the past is gradually fading.
In addition to the weakening of the function of the stone exhibition, the unclear positioning is also the main factor for its dim trend. Zhou Xiaozun, chairman of Zhizun Building Materials, said that the target audience of domestic stone fairs is weaker than other building materials industries such as cabinets. Xiamen Stone Fair is relatively better because it mainly relies on foreign trade, which is extremely beneficial to stone traders and companies that want to explore foreign markets. Other stone fairs mostly wanted to attract engineers and designers and decoration companies. They wanted to push the domestic market and open up the foreign market. Such "grabbing eyebrows and beards" did not catch anything in the end.
Zhou Xiaozun said frankly that, apart from participating in the Xiamen Fair, Zhizun has not considered participating in other stone fairs. But this does not mean that Zhizun will give up the promotion method of participating in the exhibition. In the list of exhibitions he will participate in in the second half of the year he showed to reporters, reporters saw exhibitions on architectural decoration, bathroom facilities, and ceramics. He also stated that the purpose of ZHI's exhibition is to attract more franchisees, so only by participating in the exhibition that recruits agents can you get a higher return.
It is understood that companies like Milosi, Casvino, Schlange and others that go through the channel of home improvement designers tend to leapfrog. They gradually lose interest in traditional stone fairs, but they often appear in ceramics, building materials, home design and other trade fairs. It can be seen that exhibitions that are closer to end consumers may become a platform for standard stone suppliers to go to.
[Voice] Be precise and specialized to achieve greater value
It is undeniable that in the stone fairs, exhibitors and consumers have gradually "shrinked". Does this mean that the stone fair is no longer necessary and will gradually decline
Some exhibition organizers bluntly said that the platform of Stone Fair is not a VCD or film and will not be eliminated, but in the Internet age, it is facing a profound transformation. How to transform can learn from the mode of holding exhibitions in developed countries such as the United States and Italy. For example, exhibitions in the United States are relatively simple in layout, without those fancy decorations, and their purpose is extremely clear, allowing people to quickly obtain information. Most booths use reusable designs, which are environmentally friendly.
Fang Zheng, the person in charge of China International Stone (North) Expo, revealed to reporters that the reason why the three stone fairs of Beijing, Tianjin and Qingdao were combined this year is to combine the forces of all parties to create "the largest stone fair in the North". , To attract more companies in the field of building materials to join. He also found that many stone companies are also involved in trade fairs such as ceramics and sanitary ware, and these sporadic companies can also benefit from non-stone trade fairs. Therefore, he believes that the future stone exhibition will be a mixed form of displaying stone companies and supplemented by other building materials companies, so that consumers can have more choices.
Li Longcai, chairman of the Central Stone Industrial Park, said that the Central Stone Industrial Park is located in Macheng, Hubei and has mining advantages. The next stone exhibition will focus on mining resources. He believes that future exhibitions should be launched based on regional advantages and purposefully displayed, rather than traditional stone exhibitions, which want to exhibit products, culture, and recruit agents.
"Nowadays, many stone fairs have become larger and larger. There are many exhibitors and the economic benefits generated by the fair are also good. However, all stone companies know that more than half of the visitors are industry people, and the exhibitors The company is like a sense of existence. In addition to letting people know that your company has been operating well, and letting colleagues know which new products you have released, you will not get much gain." National Federation of Industry and Commerce Stone Industry Zhuang Xizhao, secretary-general of the Chamber of Commerce and Mines Committee, said frankly that if you want the stone fair to achieve greater value, you may wish to be more specialized and targeted, such as launching a high-end professional stone design exhibition for designers and decoration companies, or for joining The business comes to hold an experience exhibition.
"Only by worrying about what the company wants and thinking about what the company thinks, can such an exhibition be respected by all companies and continue to grow endlessly." Zhuang Xizhao said.