Ep. 8 of Exhibitor Insight has arrived! This time, we’re covering Tanita Corporation, a company that’s a world leader in precision electronic scales. With almost 50% of its domestic market share, the name Tanita is a household name in Japan. Enjoy!
Founded in 1944, Tanita’s core business has been the manufacturing of precision scales. Today, Tanita is looking beyond scales to products that enable consumers to monitor their own health. Based on medical evidence linking excess body fat to heart disease, diabetes and certain cancers, Tanita introduced the world’s first integrated body composition analyzer/scale to the professional markets in 1992. Using the same technology used in their professional analyzers, Tanita developed the world’s first scale plus body fat monitor for home use in 1994. Backed by extensive clinical research and an independent medical advisor board, Tanita’s accuracy, innovation and durability are trusted worldwide.
As Keith mentions in his interview, an important part of exhibiting is getting feedback from attendees about your products, display, or performance. Trade shows are a great learning opportunity, and even if you’re a veteran in the game, there’s always something new to pick up on. The bigger question is, what’s the best way to go about getting feedback that’s applicable and helpful to you? Here are some pointers to help you get started.
There are many different things you can get feedback on; it ultimately depends on what area you want to improve the most. If you’re presenting a new product line or service, getting feedback on it will be a great way to test the waters and see how it will fare in the market. By talking with attendees and other exhibiting companies, you’ll be able to gain fresh ideas and be exposed to different perspectives that you would’ve never thought of before. Getting feedback will give you the information you need to know what aspects of your product or service you need to enhance or change in the future. Find out what works, what doesn’t, what can be improved, and what should be scrapped and remade altogether. Trade shows are just as much a learning opportunity as they are a networking event, so use this opportunity to LEARN!
Getting some feedback about your booth or display can also be important. As we’ve mentioned before in previous articles, the appearance, accessibility, and overall atmosphere of your booth are all crucial factors that will dictate the popularity and success of your exhibit. As such, it’s a good idea to gauge what attendees liked or disliked about the setup of your display for future reference.
Feedback is an essential development and improvement tool, but attaining useful submissions can be quite difficult. It’s crucial that you take into account the size of your event when gathering feedback, as this will determine the appropriate sample size. Without enough participation, the feedback won’t be an accurate representation of how all the attendees really feel.
Polls & Surveys
Polls and surveys are great ways to gather attendee feedback both during and after an event. It’s important to figure out what you’re trying to accomplish with each poll or survey so that you can design the questions accordingly and get the exact information you need. The questions can be multiple choice or a rating from one to five about different aspects of your product. If you want a more detailed assessment, include free response questions so that attendees can provide a more in-depth answer and explain their reasoning. Furthermore, the number of questions, the length of the questions, and the detail in each question all have an impact on the quality of the feedback you’re gathering. If the survey is too long, attendees are less likely to complete it, and if there isn’t enough detail in the question, the answers won’t be very helpful. As such, try to keep your surveys short, concise, and straight to the point.
Comment Cards
If you are looking for general feedback but don’t have any specific areas that you want to target, comment cards can be useful and easily placed around your exhibit. Attendees can write down their opinions and thoughts onto a comment card and submit them to a specific place or member of staff. This is a very straightforward and effortless way to gather useful information about your products or services. It might be a good idea to offer some type of prize or incentive to attendees for filling it out so that you can increase the participation rate.
Staff Members
Another great way of acquiring feedback is by having “floating” staff members go around and engage attendees by asking them for their thoughts and opinions directly. These staff members should be very casual and natural when talking to attendees; you don’t want the conversation to feel fake or forced, especially if you’re trying to gather information.
Sticker Method
If you’re showcasing multiple products at a trade show, a fun and interactive way you can gather feedback is by giving attendees stickers and instructing them to place a sticker on the item they liked the most. By the end of the day, you’ll have gathered enough data to see which product was a crowd favorite, and which one could use some more work. This method is quick and more fun for attendees to participate in, making them more willing to contribute.
