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Market Your Food Products Using Innovative Trade Show Exhibits

By January 1, 2011August 21st, 2017Trade Show Marketing

Using trade show exhibits to market food products has never been easy. It can be difficult to coordinate and keep your food samples fresh and attractive throughout the day, but with more food and wine events every year drawing record crowds, you can’t afford to miss an opportunity. New technologies and improved designs mean today’s food product producers can now set up San Antonio trade show exhibits that will stimulate new interest and draw chefs to your booth for increased sales.

Are Trade Show Exhibits Important For Food Products?

The answer is, quite simply, YES. Trade show exhibits should be an integral part of the marketing plan for your food products. Conventions give you the freedom to make an in-person first impression followed up with an excellent demonstration or food tasting that will pique the interest of visitors. San Antonio trade show displays with a strong visual appeal will draw potential customers to your trade show exhibit, and your food samples or product demonstrations can seal the deal for you.

Preparing signature cuisine at your booth is a sure-fire way to attract more visitors, including intrigued chefs and restaurant owners. Take advantage of their interest by using your booth as a place to not only demonstrate, but educate visitors and get them to follow through with an order while they are still at your trade show display.

Wine Tasting Started It All

Vintners and wine and spirits shop owners were the first segment of the food and beverage industry to fully take advantage of the benefits of trade show exhibits. Many would set up trade show displays at culinary and wine tasting events around the country, offering free samples of their wines and reinforcing their brand by prominently displaying their labels.

The food industry became interested in trade show exhibits more recently, due in part to the difficulty of displaying or cooking food all day long in a setting that wasn’t conducive to serving foods at the best temperature. Recent developments now make it feasible to do so, and food products companies are quickly jumping on the trade show display band wagon. The current interest in international and ethnic foods has spurred the growth of trade show displays featuring food products.

Food Samples And Your Trade Show Display

San Antonio food buffs will tell you, if you aren’t offering food samples at your trade show display, you need to rethink your strategy. Chefs, restaurant owners, and cooking enthusiasts visit food and wine shows hoping to taste a variety of foods and be introduced to some new and exciting dishes. For maximum effect, choose foods that are simple to prepare and easy to replace as visitors to your trade show exhibit deplete your samples.

You’ll quickly realize that a counter type trade show display offers just what you need to display your food samples attractively. Be sure to have servers available to stand behind the counter and serve samples. They should also be able to answer questions about the product, so be sure they’re knowledgeable about your product. Keep food samples close to the serving area of your trade show display, but tucked out of sight until they are needed to replenish the displays on top of the counter.

Display Your Food Products Properly

Don’t get overly fancy with your food products. Your trade show exhibit should be attractive and simple. You don’t want a background or set up that distracts from the real star of your trade show display – the food! Label all samples clearly and be sure to note any possible restrictions, such as peanuts or shellfish; both of these can cause allergic reactions in unsuspecting convention visitors, so do take the time to post a caution at your trade show display if needed.

Be willing to edit your trade show display; if a particular food item is wilting under the hot lights or melting, shift to a product that can hold up better under the lights. If your trade show display offers samples of various dips or sauces, be sure to have an appropriate medium for tasting them, such as crackers, tortillas or small chunks of bread.

Be sure that the staff members who are manning your trade show exhibit are familiar with your product so they can answer questions and pitch the many advantages of your produce. Visitors at food or wine shows are devoted “foodies,” and they will have high standards. They will quiz the staff at your booth about anything from the proper temperature for serving the dish to what organic farm raised the tomatoes. Play up the advantages of the foods at your trade show display, including local production or organic status.

If it’s possible, stock your trade show display with food products that can be purchased on the spot so that you can cater to the impulse shoppers who want to take home that fabulous food they just sampled. Also have brochures ready with ordering information at your trade show display so people can re-order your products easily from home.