Booth that gets exhibition attendees to stop
leveraging insights from decoration professionals

ーーThank you for participating in the interview today. You’ve placed orders with us for over 10 years since the first contact. Can you please share the original catalyst for contacting us?

Mr.Komatsu:At the time, we had just finished exhibiting at “Sai-no-Kuni Business Arena,” an exhibition organized by Saitama Prefecture.

While we previously had experience exhibiting at private exhibitions held by manufacturers, “Sai-no-Kuni Business Arena” was our first exhibition at a major venue.

President Ikeda:We participated in this exhibition by hanging our explanation panels on the basic decoration arranged by the Secretariat. However, many booths around us worked with a decoration company, and there was clearly a major difference in the look. In fact, exhibition attendees just walked right past our booth, and we realized the limitations of basic decoration in attracting visitors. Even ourselves, we often passed by basic decoration booths without paying much notice when walking around as attendees. The same thing probably happened to our booth.

After this painful experience, we decided to work with professional decorators on future exhibitions. Search results took us to your site.

ーーSo that’s the background. Exhibition attendees might be unconsciously equating the decoration appearance with the resolve of the exhibitor.

However, some companies who lack experience participating in an exhibition are not aware of the presence of booth design specialists. It is fairly easy to find a booth company by conducting a search with key words related to exhibitions, such as exhibition booth, booth design, and booth companies.

President Ikeda:We feel it is important to spend on booth design and demonstrate our commitment to the exhibition to attendees if we are serious about attracting visitors. This is the conclusion. We reached after having both experiences – exhibiting with basic decoration and using your booths.

ーーIt is easier to communicate a concept by putting it into a concrete shape.

President Ikeda:There’s another point I realized at the exhibitions. Distribution of novelty items gets in the way of achieving results. When organizing business cards after exhibitions, I noticed that the business cards received with the exchange of novelty item were tougher to result in business deals and just increased our workload. Ultimately the quality of business cards is more important than increasing the number of leads. Based on this experience, I concluded that allocating expenses to decoration is more effective than spending on novelty items.

ーーWhen I visit venue, there some attendees who have lots of novelty items. These people typically leave the booth without listening to explanations. This shows that there is a difference between people who seek novelty items and those who are interested in products.

ーーI believe you contacted multiple companies. How did our proposal compare to other companies?

Mr.Komatsu:No, we only contacted your company. We looked into multiple decoration firms on the Internet. Your site offered extensive examples and even detailed pricing. Explanations for the individual examples were well written, and the stie covered the information that I wanted to know as the person handling the exhibition. Due to my confidence in placing an order with a company that would prepare this type of web site, I did not contact any others. Furthermore, I did not have a lot of time to pursue inquiries for multiple companies while performing my normal work. Your web site is full of content that reassures people placing an order with a booth company for the first time to proceed with a contact.

ーーThank you for your positive assessment of our web page too. Companies participating in an exhibition for the first time naturally want to ascertain the price range. We also offer extensive booth examples and information on the schedule until the exhibition and request flow. Our web site aims to help people with responsibility for the exhibition proceed confidently without stress.

President Ikeda:You have a high-quality web site as indicated by Mr.Komatsu. We are also satisfied with the actual proposals too.

We have already been placing requests with your company for decoration work for over 10 years. Each time you prepare an optimal booth design for the booth conditions, and we achieve the effect explained by you (Yamaguchi) at the exhibition. Since attendees and existing customers have commented “This is an excellent booth” and asked “Did you hire a consultant,” these booths are not only attractive but also provide functional designs that attract visitors.

ーーThank you. I’m proud to hear that the booths are generating results. We also constantly seek improvements by holding internal seminars to deliver even better booths and not be content with the current level.

President Ikeda:We see this inquisitiveness and are pleased to have you as a partner.

ーーEarlier you mentioned provision of a functional booth that attracts visitors. Specifically how does booth design with focus on product appeal perform at exhibition venue?

President Ikeda:Every time we have new customers who see the booth sign and approach us.

There are usually some attendees who look for products at the venue without researching ahead of time. We hear feedback from people who say they stopped at the booth because the sign wording caught their attention. When walking around myself, I’m surprised at the many booths at which it is difficult to identify the product at first glance. I wonder if the decoration companies did not explain the importance of “communicating a message.” While some people say “just laying out samples is enough,” my view is that this approach does not work in today’s world.

If our booth did not write “prototype casting,” we might be missing opportunities that are right in front of us. If you truly want to attract visitors at exhibitions, it is important to place signs and products in positions that stand out from the pathway and actively appeal to attendees. People who are looking with genuine interest see the sign and stop.

ーーThat’s true. Today’s world emphasizes the sales method. At exhibition venue with participation by rivals, in particular, attendees want to compare the various products. Hence, it is necessary for exhibitors to actively promote products using signage. Since we view booth design as a marketing tool, our proposal offers a booth that effective messaging through effective use of the signs. This is not the case for all decoration companies.

President Ikeda:From this perspective, the choice of a decoration company is an important task that determines whether the exhibit goes well or not. It is essential to thoroughly review content on the web page and ask questions to assess the extent of support that is provided during the inquiry phase. Getting back to the initial discussion, our decision to trust the extensive content on your web site was correct.

ーーThank you very much. We will continue to offer proposals of booths with strong appeal that satisfy your requirements and look forward your ongoing support.

I would like to than you again for cooperating with this interview today.