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FEATURE STORY
Trade show of the future
Let your mouse do the walking
By Maura Keller
How do you learn about the latest and greatest product offerings for your store? Looking through product catalogs? Gathering sales sheets? Talking with sales reps? For many tobacco retailers, attending trade shows provides a great way for them to get a first-hand look at the industry’s newest products. Often set amidst the hustle and bustle of urban convention centers, traditional trade shows provide an expansive shopping experience and information-gathering venue. Of course, traveling to trade shows can be time-consuming, expensive and distracting to your core business. Enter TobaccoTradeshow.com, a virtual trade show providing retailers with a very different way to obtain the merchandise they need to help their retail stores succeed.
The brainchild of Michael Chunko, president and CEO of Csonka Worldwide, TobaccoTradeshow.com is similar to a standard trade show and is complete with booths sponsored by various vendors, allowing trade show attendees to view products, chat with exhibitors and get a good handle on new products being featured—all from the comfort of their office or home.
Csonka has been a tobacco industry products supplier for over a decade. “We are known for our classy and very cool fully accessorized portable travel humidors,” Chunko says. In addition, Csonka is known for their Smoker Cloakers, air purifiers designed to eliminate and control odors from smoke and all other sources. 
So what drove Chunko to create on online trade show for the tobacco industry? “Considering what Csonka really needed at various times of the year, communicating to tobacco retailers and buyers was top on the list,” Chunko says. “Interestingly, it was clear that our needs were the same as all other industry suppliers. We desire to give every buyer the chance to see and learn about, and offer for resale, what they need, namely new retail items—but importantly, on a timely basis.”
In fact, timeliness is paramount for any retailer to stay in the game. Consider this: the fourth quarter, where no traditional trade show exists, represents about 40 percent or more of average annual sales.
“Even if there was a destination trade show (during the fourth quarter), factor in that only a small percentage of retailers could or would travel to attend one in this critically busy season,” Chunko says. “The truth is that only a fraction of buyers attend a trade show at any time of the year. What was needed was much more than a Web site. What was needed was a virtual trade show, for at least the fourth quarter.
“So, our idea of an online tobacco trade show became www.TobaccoTradeshow.com, right along with the mandate to do it right,” Chunko says.
How it works
Virtual trade booths, virtual exhibitors, even keynote speakers are part of the growing trend of online trade shows. Rather than traveling long distances, incurring thousands of dollars in travel expenses, traditional tobacco industry trade show attendees and exhibitors are joining the throngs of people embracing virtual trade shows as “the next best thing to being there.”
Virtual trade shows are unique, for several reasons, Chunko says. First, they break the rules of traditional trade shows, which are considered to be a time to meet people, but a virtual trade show has a different motivation. “Like any good double-edged sword, the benefits to both sides are many and include dramatic time efficiencies, huge cost reductions and better multi-tasking abilities,” Chunko says. “I’m sure there are other industries that may do something similar. But for all of us, none are as important as one that supports the tobacco industry.”
Indeed. According to Jason Ashby, owner of Rio Rancho Cigars and registered site visitor to TobaccoTradeshow.com, the most intriguing feature to an online trade show “is having the ability to review several of the industry’s suppliers and offers in one place instead of having to go to them individually,” Ashby says. “While most industries have trade shows, this is the only Internet-based trade show that I know of. Since several of us find it hard to travel at times, this is a very unique way for both buyers and sellers to meet. I work a full-time job on top of owning my store so this is very convenient. My hope is that this will give some of us smaller operations an equal edge in purchasing from all sorts of suppliers that we would normally not be able to access without running our tails off.”
As Chunko explains, TTS operates exactly as you might expect. “The exhibitors (industry suppliers) show registered visitors (reselling buyers) information about their line(s) which they manufacture or distribute. It’s a trade show, so first things first, consumers are not allowed on the site ‘show floor.’ This is important for industry suppliers, because they can publish wholesale costs if desired without any fears,” Chunko says. TTS is password protected, to ensure attendees are indeed resellers and/or buyers.
The exhibitors produce “booth” page art, and provide it to TTS for a listing and links to their name and any categories they are in. “With exhibitors providing their booth site art (typically from easily available promo sheets or Web pages), we have kept participation costs amazingly low,” Chunko says. “The fact is, exhibiting is extremely affordable, with most exhibitors paying only a couple hundred dollars for the entire three-month show period.”
In fact, most exhibitors and prospects consider the cost of TTS participation almost negligible. It’s only a tiny fraction of the costs of exhibiting at a traditional trade show, especially when you factor in all costs. “The average frugal exhibitor at a traditional show might spend $15,000 to $20,000 for the booth and a myriad of show fees, plus all transportation, hotels and meals. Remember that does not include opportunity costs when they are not in the office,” Chunko says. With TTS, most exhibitors will pay only a total of $200 for fourth-quarter trade show participation. It is only $100 for the company or brand listing, and $100 per “booth” page, which may be all that is needed for most participants.
One TTS show marketing option is sponsorship, available for a limited number of exhibitors. Sponsors can have a link from their show logo on the main show entrance, direct to their Web site. “For a few hundred dollars, in contrast to several thousand dollars to be a sponsor in traditional trade shows, exhibitors can invite visitors to their company’s Web site or to any location they choose,” Chunko says. For additional line information, for a more “private” meeting, and/or to close that big deal, a live chat is enabled.
For retailers, one of the first significant benefits they are seeing, is they can browse and shop any day they want, morning noon or night, and take advantage of show specials when it’s convenient to them. “Visitors can return to TTS at any time, and ‘walk’ the show and browse by exhibitor name or by category. Attendees can contact TTS show management to ask for further information, make suggestions and provide feedback with a new site feature,” Chunko adds.
TTS is new, yet already its viability is defined based on the positive feedback received from exhibitors, attendees and trade media, he says.
For example, Mickey Falconburg, vice president of sales and marketing at Smoker Friendly International LLC, become a registered site visitor of TobaccoTradeshow.com only to eventually become an exhibitor. “I felt that we could catch some attention from potential cigarette/tobacco store owners who may visit the site,” Falconburg says. “I believe that more and more retailers use the Internet as a tool to run their business and this could be a good test for us to see how well our program is received. I figure that if I can have an interest from five to seven retailers from this Web site, I will consider it money well spent.”
Falconburg is a good example of exhibitors who are enjoying the ability to enable an innovative marketing and promotional program for a minimal cost. “Attendees love the convenience and flexibility that TTS affords them,” Chunko says. “It certainly evens the playing field for retailers as a whole, who quite frankly, need a break. There is nothing easy these days about retailing tobacco products, especially with thinning margins, an attritional smoker market and fears about new smoking legislation.”
Like Falconburg, Cheryl Greenwald, district manager at Cigar Vault & Total Tobacco sees TobaccoTradeshow.com as a one-stop shopping Mecca for the products she needs for her business. “There is a good selection of vendors and good specials, and it’s very easy. I can make purchases from my desk,” Greenwald says. “I also hope to be informed about new products and specials before they are released to other smokeshops.”
What the future holds
While the concept of virtual trade shows will undoubtedly grow in other industries, TTS will continue to focus on streamlining its own efforts.
“Based on requests from exhibitors and attendees, the show will be offered year-round, providing seasonal marketing support to both suppliers and buyers,” Chunko says. “The fourth quarter need is obvious, however each quarter of the year is both valuable and challenging for both sides. TTS offers suppliers the ability to show what’s new, offer selling tips and provide special deals every day. TTS offers buyers the daily ability to source what’s new, re-stock what has sold and, importantly, get fresh marketing ideas when they need it. We will make it easy for existing exhibitors to update and/or add additional booth pages, so there can be true flexibility over the course of any show, or from quarter to quarter.
“It’s a safe bet that Csonka will be there to evaluate the opportunities and to brave any new trails in any industries we touch,” he says. “... It’s always more rewarding to take the next steps, knowing there are defined benefits for all parties.” |
