February 2005
Part of the process

Case Study: ECRM matches buyers and sellers for one-on-one meetings at its category-specific conferences, using its proprietary software to extend the experience before, during and after the event

By Dennis Blank


As far as Mark Thorngren is concerned, the way business is normally done at trade shows has changed forever because of one company based in Warrensville Heights, OH. “ECRM has changed the game,” says Thorngren, who is Director of Industry and Business Development for Unilever Home & Personal Care. “It’s profound.”

Like a traditional trade show, ECRM events bring together buyers and sellers — retailers and manufacturers in specific niche categories. But instead of the traditional show floor, manufacturers are given meeting rooms, and buyers set up 10- to 40-minute highly structured one-on-one meetings. Educational content isn’t the draw for attendees, it’s the ability for retailers to purchase products and plan marketing strategies for the next season.

“It’s convenient because I can see a significant number of customers over a two- or three-day period,” Thorngren explains. “The meetings with buyers are punctual and extremely well run and because of that, we have productive category-focused meetings.”

Over the course of three days at his luxury hotel room, Thorngren may see as many as 70 buyers during a show, which costs him $14,000 to exhibit. While he’s not willing to say how much business Unilever does at a half dozen ECRM conferences every year, Thorngren is obviously pleased with the results.

When buyers come into a relaxed meeting room, they both talk “in general terms” about each other’s business conditions. That quickly leads to a discussion of problems such as shipping, brokers and logistics that need to be resolved. “Then we talk about the category-specific initiatives we have,” Thorngren says. While all this is happening, both he and the buyer are pumping notes into their “loaded” laptops packed with volumes of production information and forms. The laptops are supplied free by ECRM and have wireless connections to the Internet.  If they want, retailers can get email confirmation on preliminary deals they’re cutting with Unilever even before they leave the meeting.

ECRM sees technology as a key ingredient for enhancing the experience before, during and after the show. The company has developed online software to streamline the sales and marketing supply chain. Buyers and sellers use the software year-round to review meeting notes, product information and images, promotional programs, marketing calendars, forms, and much, much more.

In 2005, ECRM will hold more than 40 of these intense business-to-business conferences, which it calls EPPS (Efficient Program Planning Sessions). Find out how this 10-year-old company has developed must-attend events and proprietary online software to become an integral part of the sales process in the industries it serves.

Connecting buyers and sellers
One of the reason’s ECRM’s system has become so popular is that many small manufacturers in niche markets are walking away with signed orders. John O’Maley, National Sales Manager for Westark Pharmaceuticals, introduced a new product, Digenze, to buyers at the ECRM Diet, Vitamins and Sports Nutrition show last year. “One year later, we’re in 18,000 stores, and our success culminated when I closed Wal-Mart corporate for an expanded test this summer and chain-wide distribution this fall,” O’Maley says. “We expect to be in 25,000 stores by the end of the third quarter of this year.”

While ECRM insists that it’s not in competition with trade shows, its system of guaranteeing positive sit down time between manufacturers and buyers, who are flown in at ECRM’s expense, is definitely turning some heads.

As ECRM and other meeting management companies spend more time pre-qualifying their attendees, those who are participating are “getting more bang for their buck,” says Francis Friedman, an industry consultant based in New York City. “The trade show market definitely needs to pay more attention to these trends.” Chief financial officers in several companies are looking at trade shows to see “what they are getting for their time and what they are getting for their money,” he says.

Even though some see him as a competitor to trade shows, Charlie Bowlus, CEO of ECRM, is emphatic that his meeting management company was never started to be a competitor with exhibitors. “What we are doing has nothing to do with trade shows,” he says. “We think trade shows are very important. We only fit 100 or maybe 110 manufacturers in our shows. Trade shows have the flexibility to have hundreds of exhibitors.”

Building the ECRM business model
The idea for the company came about a decade ago when the firm in which Bowlus was working went out of business. Boston Distributors put on small planning and advertising shows, but they had large manufacturers who liked the concept. “Several people, including some of the big discounters, came to me and wanted to know if this wouldn’t work on a larger scale,” says Bowlus, who has spent most of his career in the retail industry. The alternative for manufacturers was going back to knocking on doors every week, traveling from city to city, a time-consuming effort, and they did not relish the prospect, according to Bowles.

That gave him the “germ of the idea,” where he would pay for buyers to come to a conference and have the manufacturers pay a flat fee to show their product line. The fee includes meals, rooms and entertainment.  “The sellers and the buyers all realized they could get better ads and better programs,” Bowlus says, “while the sellers would make more money and do more business and save time and money for travel.”

Bowlus has gone with that basic concept and continues it today. ERCM has flourished and is turning away manufacturers because the shows are selling out so quickly. “I have actually had people tell me they’ll be destroyed if they can’t get into our show,” he says. In some cases, he has put smaller manufacturers who are on a waiting list into an Expo Power Hall where they get 10-minute meetings with buyers.

ECRM emphasizes that manufacturers will save time and money as more retail buyers come to their meetings. The buyers are guaranteed a 20-minute meeting, and according to ECRM, sales are improved because the meetings are focused on new lines and seasonal promotion programs. “I thought it was an excellent way to have quality meeting time with current, as well as numerous potential new customers,” says Mike Steichen, Director of Sales for Fannie May and Fanny Farmer Candies. “The one issue I was concerned about was the cost. After factoring in the travel costs involved to meet with customers in attendance at the show and upside potential in new business, it was an easy equation.”

Bowlus adds, “Manufacturers, who have experienced our show and actually do the deals and get commitments for new items, tell us they have saved five to 10 times what it would have cost for (trade) show fees and travel.”

ECRM charges manufacturers $12,000 to $15,000 for 20-minute meetings and up to $30,000, for 30-minute meetings with buyers.

Retailers like seeing a lot of suppliers at one time and have cited sales increases as ad and promotion programs are worked out for specific categories. The conferences involve both high-level retail managers and category buyers. “The ECRM conference gave us an opportunity to deal with almost a hundred vendors, in a setting that permitted us to explain ourself and for the manufacturers to learn and discuss their issues,” says Paul Stembler, Assistant Director at Minnesota Multi-State Contracting Alliance for Pharmacy. “As our volume approaches $900 million or more during the next contract year, the opportunity to reach out and interact with the largest pool of drug manufacturers, suppliers and other vendors is even more critical to our success.”

Technology as key ingredient
Once a manufacturer signs up to participate in the conference, he’s assigned an account manager, who goes through preparation on how to use the ECRM Web site to load color images and product information for the items, displays or promotional plans that manufacturers will be presenting at the conference. The account manager also assists with product reviews, retail schedules, and the agenda. ECRM has 12 full-time account managers, each handles 20-25 manufacturers for multiple events.

Manufacturers and retailers who participate in the conferences have free access to ECRM’s proprietary online software, including:
• Marketgate — contains industry specific articles and manufacturer marketing initiatives that can be used throughout the year.
• Marketing Activity — a customized marketing tool for attendees after the conference. Attendees can view meeting notes, action dates and marketing information.
• Collaborative Planning — integrates planning calendars with custom ad history calendars to improve the planning process for retailers and manufacturers.
• Efficient Ad Comparisons — a database of national and regional retail chain ads so that retailers and manufacturers can check the competition. Used by more than 400 chains and 1,500 manufacturers, the database features more than 4.5 million ads.
• Product Library — database includes products specs and color photos for more than 228,000 products.
• New and Promotional Items — manufacturers can post new items and promotions for retailers before the conference and throughout the year. Used in conjunction with ECRM’s Alert Email, it allows manufacturers to get their message out to the trade quickly.
• Community Directory — search engine that contains more than 6,000 company names and 30,000 contacts, including names, titles, categories, mailing addresses, e-mail addresses, company profiles and links to company Web sites.
 
Room for growth
What ECRM is doing is obviously paying off. While ECRM has specialized in pharmacy, cosmetics, beauty care, office and school suppliers, candy and grocery, it sees potential in other categories. ECRM will increase the number of conferences it produces from 35 in 2004 to 40 in 2005, and conferences are being held for the first time in Europe and China this spring. The new conferences in 2005 will target Hispanic marketing, ethnic foods, holiday foods, marketing services and grocery.

“We get a lot of suggestions from retailers,” says Anita Fonta, Vice President of Marketing for ECRM. “Often we start out with a broad category, then as the conference becomes more popular, we break down the category further, depending on the market.” For example, the company started a grocery event three years ago, and they’ll launch the holiday foods conference next year.

In addition, ECRM is planning to license its software. Bowlus plans to sell the software to associations at a nominal fee to help them be more effective in enhancing relationships between exhibitors and buyers. “They could download the software on their own laptops and be more part of the process,” says Bowlus.

While it may not be quite that easy for other industries, most shows would probably welcome the opportunity to become as ingrained in the buying and selling process as ECRM has.