• What makes trade fairs different other marketing tools?
• What do fairs contribute that other marketing tools don't?
• Why attend Feria Valencia?
• What services does Feria Valencia offer?
• How do I get more info on Feria Valencia services?
• What are the benefits of exhibiting at Feria Valencia?
• What do brand leaders travel to Feria Valencia?
• How to make the most of showing at Feria Valencia?
• How can I reach my goals as an exhibitor at Feria Valencia?

The main differential features as compared with other marketing tools are:
1. Essential commercial tool: brings together offer and demand in one place and at the same time, facilitating meetings and exchange (quality public)
2. Providing the ideal conditions for personal contacts, making products accessible and allowing us to judge customers' reactions.
3. Perfect backdrop with all players, both exhibitors and trade buyers, in the right frame of mind.
Trade fairs are now BUSINESS CENTRES in terms of commercial transactions and because they are neuralgic centres for forms of relating within an industry. Agreeing on joint ventures and common strategies, international cooperation actions, market research and product testing are just some of the activities that take place during a trade fair.

1. COMMERCIAL EFFECTIVENESS:

Trade fairs are second in the ranking of effectiveness in sales, just behind direct sales force (according to a report from the USA in 1998 by CEIR, Center for Exhibition Industry Research). Given their differentiating features, trade fairs are a marketing tool boosting and accelerating sales.

2. SAVING COSTS:

Taking part at a trade fair can save costs, thanks to two reasons:
The concentration of buyers and suppliers in the one place.
Multiple marketing actions can be implemented at once: sales force, advertising, promotion, public relations and market research.

3. SOURCE OF INFORMATION:

According to a study carried out by the Simmons Market Research Bureau (1997), trade fairs are the most effective way of gathering information:
Trade fairs provide an excellent two-way flow of information (supplier-client and vice versa).
Trade fairs are the ideal forum to debate issues of concern and analyse new trends with other professionals from the industry.

1. Feria Valencia is the veteran exhibition centre in Spain, and has been an international and national leader ever since it was founded.

2. Feria Valencia is the leading exhibition centre in Spain in: exhibition area, services, number of professionals events, number of international events, the biggest and most prestigious professional trade events in Spain, etc.

3. Feria Valencia is a dynamic, innovative institution evolving with the new needs and circumstances of the market: constantly renewing its offer with the creation of new fairs and adapting existing ones to the changing conditions of the industry in question.

4. A participative management model that combines the know-how of the business sector coming from the direct involvement of entrepreneurs from the sector with Feria Valencia's experience in managing and organizing trade events.

5. A privileged location on the axis of greatest development in the Mediterranean. Besides, Valencia has unbeatable modern infrastructures connecting it with the rest of Spain and Europe.

6. After the recent refurbishment and extension plan Feria Valencia is now the biggest and best exhibition centre in Spain: 230,000 m² of exhibition area designed with cutting-edge architectural criteria responding to exhibitor and visitor needs.

7. Feria Valencia is an urban trade fair venue, at just 5 kilometres from the city centre of Valencia, and is making ongoing investments in access to ensure easier and better access for exhibitors and visitors.

8. The ISO 9002 Quality Certificate vouches for the professionalism and the excellence of Feria Valencia, the first exhibition centre in Spain to earn this certificate from AENOR.

 Feria Valencia offers businesses a wide range of services for both exhibitors and visitors: more exhibition space and more services to make doing business that little bit easier.

Click here for more details of available services

Besides the listed services, Feria Valencia also offers other services on order.

• BEFORE THE FAIR: for further information on the services described above or if you have other specific needs, please contact the fair directly. They will be delighted to inform you about the procedures, deadlines and other info of interest.
• DURING THE FAIR: If you need to resolve any issue concerning services you have contracted, please contact our Customer Attention Dept.: 963 861 313. Before the fair begins, you will receive a letter with a list of useful telephone numbers which you can ring to resolve any problems that might arise.
  

1. Make sales (close sales or pre-sales) and increase market share
2. Make new commercial contacts:
• Capture new clients.
• Contact potential clients difficult to reach through your sales network
• Strengthen bonds with existing clients
3. Establish relational links with existing and potential clients.
4. Discover multiple opportunities to open up new foreign markets. Feria Valencia is a solid platform for implementing internationalization strategy. 
5. Obtain a large quantity of information in a short period of time, making it a crucial tool for market research in the following aspects:
• Analysis of satisfaction of existing potential clients with your products and those of the competition
• Get a clear overview of your competition: your position with respect to them, price policy, their client base, etc.
6. Find out the issues of concern and new tendencies in the industry
7. Identify and capture possible collaborators or partners: suppliers, subcontractors, representatives, importers and distributors.
8. Strengthen the company image and public relations with the media, especially since your participation at the fair is in itself a corporate advertising campaign.
9. Feria Valencia is the ideal platform for launching new introductions:
• Launch and promote new products and services.
• Use this initial contact with the market as a product test.

1. "We've been exhibiting at IBERFLORA for many years and it is an absolutely crucial event in our annual agenda. Given its prestige in the industry, for us IBERFLORA is a tool and a business platform that we could not do without. Taking part in the fair accounts, either directly or indirectly, for a large percentage of our annual turnover, with sales coming from contacts made during the fair"
2. "Until a few years ago, we targeted the domestic market almost exclusively with some incursions into neighbouring countries. When we started to exhibit at MADERALIA a whole new perspective opened up for us. We begun to export to many other countries. Thanks to the international profile of the fair, we gradually opened up emerging markets where we are now enjoying considerable success"
3. "The huge amount of trade buyers who travel to CEVISAMA from all over the world, and not just Spain itself, makes it easy to contact lots of potential clients that would be extremely difficult or costly otherwise"
4. "Because we are a relatively small company we are unable to take on the risk of introducing ourselves in a market as far away and unknown as Taiwan. We would never had imagined exporting to this country if it were not for FIM (International Furniture Fair) where we made contact with a local company with whom we established a commercial agreement."
5. "We go to TEXTILHOGAR every year to show our existing and potential clients our new introductions. TEXTILHOGAR is our main springboard and showcase. For us it is a unique opportunity to check out the competition, make new contacts and show what we are doing"
6. "FIAM is such a representative fair that everybody seriously interested in the industry turns up. This annual contact with the leading brands and manufacturers in the market gives us invaluable information that allows us to get an overview of the competition and it helps us evaluate our own position"

To evaluate your participation at the fair, you need to reflect on the results obtained and adopt corrective measures for future editions if necessary:

1. Participation at a trade fair should not be improvised. Specific objectives must be set and all activities to be carried out must be planned with sufficient time
2. Exhibiting at a trade is an investment which requires sufficient resources (human, material and financial) to achieve targets.
3. The profitability and success of taking part in a trade fair must not be measured solely by volume of sales obtained. Other benefits must also be evaluated, although they may be difficult to quantify in economic terms.
4. The results must not be measured solely in the short term, given that efforts often bear fruit in the medium to long term. In the case of sales, in addition to evaluating the volume realised at the fair itself, you must also bear in mind the sales generated once the fair has concluded as a result of the commercial contacts established during the fair.
5. The results of taking part do not finish when the fair itself closes. Once the fair is over, there must be a personalised commercial follow-up, together with an evaluation of the information gathered.
6. Review the fair marketing strategy:
• Communication:
• Promotion prior to the fair
• The insertion of publicity in the fair catalogue. Once the fair is over, commercial contacts will come from the information in the catalogue.
• Stand:Decoration and size of stand
• Human resources: The stand must be manned by experienced staff
• Commercial planning:
• Prior contact
• Design and use of methods of compiling information on visitors
• Post-fair follow-up