On March 24, the 10-day "2012 Guangzhou Craft Fair and 2012 China Tea Expo" closed at Guangzhou Jinhan Exhibition Center. Most of the exhibitors said that the exhibition is not popular, not to achieve the expected results. According to some tea merchants, tea-related exhibitions are too many, too miscellaneous, affecting the quality of the exhibition. The reporter learned that the rising cost of participation, so that tea merchants have lamented difficult to earn a living.
In the past few years, tea exhibitions have sprung up all over the world. These are of different sizes, different grades of the exhibition for many tea enterprises to promote both provide a platform for display, but the tea show more and more mixed also let many tea merchants feel overwhelmed.
Exhibitors complained about the high cost and low popularity
It is reported that the "2012 Guangzhou Craft Fair and 2012 China Tea Expo" is a "mix and match" type of exhibition, the first floor to display handicrafts, mahogany furniture, painting and calligraphy, sculpture, porcelain and jade, jewelry and other products. Sculpture, porcelain and jade, jewelry, etc., the second floor shows tea, tea packaging, tea culture. Reporters to the exhibition site for many days, see the exhibition of sparse traffic, especially the second floor of the tea industry exhibition hall, even on weekends has not improved much. According to the exhibitors of the tea business reflected that until the closing of the first two days, the popularity is only a little strong. Some exhibitors complained that their sales were not even enough to cover their participation fees due to the lack of popularity, which was not conducive to publicity and promotion.
According to Mr. Li, who operates a black tea business, the overall charges of the show were higher than last year's, and the organizers said 100 yuan/square meter/per day when they were attracting business, but they encountered a number of hidden charges after entering the show, and the costs of lighting, cleaning, and setting up the exhibition were all beyond their expectations. Mr. Li's booth nearly 10 square meters, 10 days of venue costs nearly 20,000 yuan, plus rising workers' wages, he said "pear" is very big, a little regret to participate in this exhibition.
The rising costs and poor foot traffic are giving exhibitors a headache. Exhibitors and the organizers have their own versions of these problems. Exhibitors generally complained that the organizers did not do enough in advertising and the layout of the show. They think the organizers should have staggered the timing of the crafts show and the tea show, with booths arranged on the first floor, so that the flow of people would be more prosperous, in addition to improving the show's media publicity.
The organizer's staff had a different story to tell, arguing that the situation may have arisen because the tea show was held earlier this year, and the spring teas were not yet on the market, so the attention of tea consumers had not yet been attracted to the show.
Of course, this does not rule out the fact that the purpose of some businesses to participate in the exhibition is not for sales, but for the further expansion of future sales channels to find potential customers.
"We are not purely for the sale of tea, as a brand enterprise, we participate in the Tea Expo is more focused on it to bring us a stage to display and some of the intention of the merchants. And product sales should be the 'incidental goods' in the fair." Xiao Qiang, general manager of Xiao Hong Tea Industry, said. In the opinion of many exhibitors, the importance of developing marketing channels through the fair is much more than the sales profit that the tea fair brings to enterprises. "Like our participation in this exhibition, we have the largest exhibition hall area in the whole venue, and we have added tea performances, tea songs and other programs, which cost us a lot of money. One is to increase the popularity of black tea, and the other is to let more customers recognize Xiao Hong Tea, channel first, sales second."