Abstract
Globalization has made the whole world a common market for businesses by removing the commercial borders between countries. Increased competition in the global market has pushed businesses that want to operate in this arena to implement new strategies. As a promotion activity, fairs have been the most important assistant of the companies that want to internationalize over the years. Although the concept of fair organizations has changed with the effect of digitalization in the historical process, fairs still continue their main function of bringing buyers and sellers together. The subject of this chapter is how virtual fairs, which have increased their importance in marketing activities with the pandemic, will affect the future of trade fairs. In this context, the history of the fairs, their place and importance in international marketing, virtual fairs, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the future of international fairs will be discussed.
TopIntroduction
It is clear from the marketing literature that trade fairs are one of the significant marketing communication tools. Marketing communications are all promotional elements of the marketing mix including communication between its target audiences and an organization on all matters affecting marketing performance (Broderick and Pickton, 2005: 4). Marketing communication is a component of a business's marketing mix, and the tools it uses can be divided into five categories: direct marketing, advertising, personal selling, sales promotion and public relations (Kotler, 1999: 272). Each category contains specific promotional tools used to communicate with consumers. Of these primary tools; other communication methods are derived, such as lobbying, product placement, sponsorship, facility visits, events, in-store and merchandising activities, conferences, websites and trade shows, customer magazines (Kimmel, 2005: 156). According to Broderick and Pickton (2005: 675), Kotler (1999: 272), Smith et al. (2004: 61), trade fairs are included in promotional tools such as sales promotion and personal selling. Gopalakrishna and Lillien (2012: 226), expressed fairs as a tool to improve the sales of various products and differentiated them from personal selling by bringing current and potential customers to the seller rather than bringing the seller to the consumer.
Trade shows are ideal for introducing a company's range of products to potential distributors and new customers and have long been widely used by both incumbent firms and newcomers. The changing nature of the Business to Business (B2B) landscape for both supplier and buyer is altering the nature of the traditional trade fair environment, largely driven by the technological revolution (Gopalakrishna ve Lillien, 2012: 240). As a new trend in the field of trade fairs, virtual fairs offer a new environment where users can communicate and interact anywhere at anytime. A virtual trade fair is a type of virtual event where exhibitors and visitors connect to interact and exchange information through the virtual environment, irrespective of geographical location (Gottlieb and Bianchi, 2017: 17). The Covid-19 pandemic has deeply affected the fair industry, just as education, tourism and many other fields. According to UFI, The Global Association of the Exhibition Industry, revenues of the global industry dropped by 68% in 2020 comparing with 2019 (UFI Media Release, 2021). According to the results of the research conducted by 450 fair organizers from 24 countries in 2020, the rate of those who said that virtual fairs will replace physical fairs after the pandemic remained at 14%, while the rate of those who stated that there would be a shift to hybrid events with more digital elements was 80% (UFI 26 th Baramoter, 2021: 17). Similar to the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on e-commerce, distance education and flexible working, it is likely that it will accelerate the digital transformation of fair organizations.
The research topic of this section is how the Covid-19 Pandemic will affect the future of virtual fairs, whose history goes back much further. In this context, the concepts of trade and fair and virtual trade fair, the history of fairs, the place and importance of fairs in international marketing, the advantages and disadvantages of physical and virtual fairs, and the impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on the future of international fairs will be discussed.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Cluster: It is the sustainable organized activities of companies and supporting institutions in a certain geographical region, in a certain sector, in order to achieve the goals they have determined with a common mind.
Gross Domestic Product (GDP): GDP is the total market value of all the finished goods and services produced within a country's borders in a specific time.
Marketing Mix: Marketing mix is the use of product, place, promotion, and price concepts to carry out marketing activities in the best way.
Digitalization: Digitalization is the process of transferring accessible information into a digital environment that can be read by a computer.
COVID-19: Covid-19 is an infectious disease caused by a newly discovered coronavirus.
Consumer Relationship Management (CRM): It is a marketing approach that provides long-term relationships with customers by taking into account their wishes and needs.
Hybrid Events: Events that offer both face-to-face and virtual experiences simultaneously.