April 2008 Power Shoppers In an industry in which sales are less than stellar, the National Retail Federation’s BIG show has thrived — 40 percent exhibitor growth; 25 percent increase in sponsorship revenue; 10 percent attendance increase; and 30 percent growth in booth space in the last two years. What’s behind the success? By Nancy Mann Jackson
Retail sales may be soft, but don’t tell the staff at the National Retail Federation (NRF, www.nrf.com), an association that represents more than 1.6 million U.S. retail establishments and 24 million employees, with 2006 sales of $4.7 trillion. Despite the turmoil their exhibitors and attendees have endured in recent years, Retail’s BIG Show continually ups the ante, developing new programs, targeting new audiences and consistently creating a can’tmiss event for the industry.
“We really are a staple in our industry,” says Susan Newman, Vice President, Conferences. “The show is 97 years old. We have a great history, and retailers feel like they have to be here — especially when times are tough. That’s when they need every idea we can give them.”
The commitment the NRF staff feels to its constituents is obvious. “Our job is to keep the spirits of our attendees up because our retailers must keep consumers’ spirits up,” says Karen Knobloch, NRF’s Senior Vice President, Member Services. “Our show has to keep them focused on being the best they can be in any market.”
That focus on the customer is working: At this year’s NRF Annual Convention and EXPO, held in January at New York’s Jacob K. Javits Center, there were 18,500 attendees, up from 17,500 in 2007 and 17,000 in 2006. From 2006 to 2008, NRF’s exhibitor base grew from 420 to 586 exhibiting companies, and sponsorship revenue grew about 25 percent. During the same time frame, the show floor grew from 135,000 square feet to 175,000 square feet.
Reconstructing the show floor One of NRF’s key approaches to growing the show has been the creation of special pavilions and concept stores. “We created new pavilions to attract a broader spectrum of exhibitors and appeal to a wider attendee base,” says Tami Sakell, NRF’s Director of Exhibit Sales. “It also keeps the interest level increasing from year to year,” adds Newman.
One of the most popular show floor destinations is X08 — Store of the Future, launched in 2005. In this year’s edition, 25 exhibiting companies came together to create a high-tech store of the future, featuring cutting-edge equipment. For example, Microsoft’s surface technology allows customers to pay for a meal right on their tabletop. A smart dressing room recommends items customers might like based on what they brought in, and allows shoppers to communicate directly with the salesperson. The GP Shopper provides information about the closest retail store to find a particular item, and Motorola’s shopfrom- home technology allows a consumer to order the dress Nicolette Sheridan’s wearing straight from the TV screen. This year, 15,000 people walked through the store of the future, Newman says.
The Global Logistics Supply Chain Pavilion, for exhibitors focused on solutions such as railway congestion, trucking and radio frequency identification (RFID), launched in 2007 with 21 exhibitors. The 2008 version had 37 exhibitors, and already has 40 exhibitors contracted for the January 2009 show.
A new “Green” Pavilion launched this year for exhibitors with eco-friendly products and services, and proved so popular it will double in size next year and feature a green concept store.
The Customer Experience Marketing Pavilion was created through a partnership with Customer Experience magazine. It features storefront technology that enhances the customer experience, such as digital signage and interactive kiosks where customers can custom-make their own products. NRF and Customer Experience share lists and both sell space for the pavilion, which was one of the hottest areas of the 2008 show.
Exhibitors obviously like the new pavilion concept as much as attendees do. “Companies like IBM still have a huge booth in the front of the hall, but also a booth in every pavilion,” says Newman. “The most important thing about creating pavilions is knowing your audience well, and knowing the direction your industry is moving. In addition to increasing the size of our exhibit hall, they give people a real reason to attend.”
As of the close of the 2008 show, 80 percent of exhibitors had rebooked for next year. In addition to the new pavilions, exhibiting companies are wooed with a number of sponsorships, including “the basics you might see at other shows, such as water bottles, banners, happy hours and so on,” Sakell says. “But the key to our success is listening to each sponsor’s individual needs each year and then matching them to the appropriate sponsorship and creating new sponsorship packages as needed.” One sponsor this year wanted to reach all the CIOs at the show. The NRF staff worked with them to identify all preregistered CIOs, and arrange for a car pickup at the airport. Inside each car was a gift package and an invitation to dinner with the exhibitor.
Targeting new attendee groups Strategically recruiting new attendee groups has broadened the traditional attendee base of retail operations professionals. As an example, NRF planners realized that many attendees were interested in store design and how it relates to their marketing efforts, so the association began offering sessions on the topic more than a decade ago.
“As design titles on registration forms began to increase, we decided to make a bigger splash in the area of store design and actually target store design professionals as a new attendee group,” Knobloch says. In 2005, NRF launched its DESiGN STUDiO, which offers a designated area for sessions and exhibits focused on store design. This year, the 100,000-square-foot DESiGN STUDiO covered the fourth level of the Javits Center and included 16 exhibiting companies.
In the last five years, NRF has also actively recruited supermarket professionals, another new constituent for the show. While the BIG Show had not traditionally targeted food retailers, such as supermarkets or quick-serve restaurants, “there are no pure retail segments anymore,” Knobloch says. “The pharmacy no longer just sells drugs, and supermarkets no longer just sell food; they also sell cards and sometimes even tires.”
Because food stores also sell many other items, there’s great interest among the segment in the education offered at the BIG Show. And NRF has capitalized on the overlap. The National Conference of Quick Serve Restaurants holds its board meeting during the NRF meeting, so members of that group have also begun attending the NRF show.
Marketing the show Aggressive marketing is an important component of bringing in new groups. “The show is marketed year-round; we don’t have an official start date,” says Libby Landen, Vice President, Marketing. “The next year’s Web site is live the day the current convention ends, and we continue to grow and build that Web site as the year goes on.”
For its 2008 show, the NRF marketing team increased the frequency of contact with potential attendees, segmented the audiences more than in the past, and advertised in a number of trade publications, e-newsletters and on Web sites of other organizations and associations.
“We constantly look for ways to make our marketing more effective and efficient,” Landen says. “That means studying what we’re currently doing to tweak or update for the next piece or even the next year. We review our e-mails to see if they’re opened, clicked on and forwarded; we note which registration forms are used to determine which marketing pieces drove the registration; and we track activity on the convention Web site. The relationship between direct mail and Web activity is dramatic; the activity increases dramatically once a mail piece hits.”
Landen’s team also targets different audiences with different messages, a strategy that has proven successful. Pavilions have their own marketing campaign. “For the DESiGN STUDiO, we went after retail store designers and store design professionals,” she says. “We drove traffic to the expo floor and DESiGN STUDiO by mailing NYC retailers and surrounding northeast corridor retailers free expo hall passes. For previous attendees who only attended last year’s expo hall, we try to entice them to register for the entire show by highlighting the big-name speakers and networking opportunities that aren’t available to expo hall-only attendees.”
Creating relevant content While bringing in entirely new industries and designing educational experiences for them may seem challenging, Knobloch says it’s not as difficult as it sounds. “Most retailers have very similar issues or concerns no matter what they’re selling,” she says. “They’re all interested in real estate, favorable tax practices and similar issues. You may not source your product in the same way, but there are best practices across the board for good retail technology and other topics.”
Although the same topics may interest retailers across various market segments, NRF recognizes that each attendee group likes to hear from speakers who are like them. For that reason, the NRF program will never consist of all department store retailers at the podium. “We always try to choose retailers that include different segments,” Knobloch says. “That way every attendee can find somebody on the program that they can identify with.”
In some cases it’s necessary to create something completely new for particular groups — such as when there was a need to create new content focused on store design. “We reach out always to our members first,” Knobloch says. “We have members who work at store design firms, so we reached out to them to find out what topics were important to them. The whole idea of a studio crafted by our members who are designers came from our members, and one member, Watt Design, took the lead in creating the DESiGN STUDiO.”
Moving forward As NRF looks to 2009 and beyond, the organization plans to continue innovating and being flexible — much as it encourages its members to be as they face uncertain times. “We have to stay ahead of the trends and inform attendees of what they need to know,” Newman says. “That’s especially important in a downturn, because we need to figure it out and help them get it back together.”
Ongoing communication with constituents is one of NRF’s most important strategies, as it keeps the organization informed about attendees’ needs and concerns. Armed with that information, NRF also incorporates a willingness to alter plans as needed in order to produce the most timely, relevant event possible.
“Early identification of economic trends that can affect the show are critical,” Sakell says. “Subsequent revisions of our strategies have enabled the continued growth. Moving forward, it’s more important than ever for exhibitors to be seen and heard by retail industry decision makers who are critically evaluating spending decisions, and the NRF convention continues to provide this opportunity.”
Nancy Mann Jackson, a freelance writer and editor, writes for a number of associations and corporations. She has worked on the editorial staff of Convene and is a college writing teacher and marketing communications consultant. Contact her at: nancy@writeshoponline.com. Fostering Year-Round Relationships Content is crucial for growing a show, especially in an industry facing tough economic times, but according to National Retail Federation (NRF) executives, that content can’t be created in a vacuum. “Content is a very important part of show growth, but it’s also important to have relationships with constituents that are ongoing, not just at a show,” says Karen Knobloch, NRF’s Senior Vice President, Member Services.
NRF stays in touch with its members through an intricate committee system that includes about 2,600 members. “We try to stay in touch by devising communities that help retailers connect in the ways they want to connect,” Knobloch says. “For example, our Loss Prevention Community includes 40 different subcommittees with a total of probably 1,700 professionals in the community. We build relationships with these committee members throughout the year so that when it comes time to build a conference, we already know what the hot issues are.”
Each of NRF’s 70 different committees hold a couple of face-to-face meetings and several conference calls throughout the year. When Knobloch and her team begin planning content for the upcoming meeting, each NRF staffer responsible for a committee provides a list of topics that are important to his or her committee. These suggestions, based on conversations maintained throughout the year, help keep content decisions relevant for the intended audience.
Show at a Glance Name: Retail’s BIG Show, The National Retail Federation’s 97th Annual Convention and EXPO
Web site: www.nrf.com
Show dates and location: Jan. 13-16, 2008, at Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, New York
Attendance: 18,500
Number of exhibiting companies: 586
Exhibit space: 175,000 square feet
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Wooing International Attendees In a normal year, the NRF show attracts 10 percent of its attendees from international locations. But this year, 21 percent of attendees were international, representing 68 countries.
“The value of the dollar helped a lot,” says Susan Newman, NRF’s Vice President, Conferences. “But we also do a lot from the international lounge. For instance, we offer store tours, where we take them out in the city to see the latest and greatest.”
And for many international groups, a longstanding relationship with NRF has been nurtured over time. “When we look back at the people who brought international groups, a lot of those organizations have been bringing groups for a long time,” says Karen Knobloch, NRF’s Senior Vice President, Member Services. “For several years, they may have brought only five people, and now they’re bringing 25. We’ve built a relationship with them over time, we’ve given them advice for ways they can make the most of their visit. We’re not just communicating with them 90 days out.”
That same ongoing communication works both for maintaining relationships with past international delegates and for marketing to potential new international delegates. “In addition to working with past delegations and encouraging their participation, we reach out to our international audience earlier and earlier each year,” says Libby Landen, NRF’s Vice President, Marketing. “We recognize they have traveling and scheduling challenges and constraints that our domestic attendees don’t, and the earlier we can reach them, the earlier they can apply for visas and prepare to attend our show.”
In addition to contacting international NRF members and encouraging them to bring teams or associates, the NRF marketing team also purchases international lists and tries to leverage relationships with other international associations and organizations for promotional purposes. Along with sending the standard emails, postcards and brochures, NRF also sends personal letters from the organization’s president highlighting elements of the convention that are geared toward international attendees.
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