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Solving the Pandemic Product Showcasing Dilemma for Construction Equipment

With construction trade shows essentially shut down during the pandemic, manufacturing equipment providers reached out to important prospects directly with custom experiential marketing trailers—a lasting way to expand their trade show presence.
By Mark D. Steele
October 8, 2021
Topics
Equipment
Safety
Markets

Exhibiting construction manufacturing equipment products to prospects without tradeshows during the pandemic has been a challenge. With construction trade shows essentially shut down during the pandemic, construction manufacturing equipment providers are reaching out to important prospects directly with custom experiential marketing trailers.

Experiential marketing campaigns, also known as activations, deliver an immersive brand experience for a smaller but more targeted audience. When executed on a mobile platform, they bring the experience directly to a customer. Manufacturers can focus on specific companies and have their undivided attention to tell their story and demonstrate their solutions.

The mobile showroom not only allows visitors to touch and feel the products—so important when selling construction-related equipment—but they also walk away with a sense of excitement and energy from the benefits of a live demonstration.

Executing a mobile showroom program requires managing the logistics of bringing a trailer to scheduled appointments with customers over an extended period. Some manufacturers plan for a six-month tour across the nation, with some extending it based on the positive response from customers and sales achieved by using the mobile showroom.

Some manufacturers are finding it helpful to select a partner that can manage the logistics of fielding a tour. There are a lot of factors to consider, including calendar management, space requirements in customer parking lots and simply transporting the trailer and the driver between customer locations.

Companies also need to plan for updates to products during a mobile showroom tour. As a result, some manufacturers are putting new parts in their trailers as the tour evolves. Some of these require design changes, and some custom trailer manufacturers can implement these at the last minute for their customers. In one case, one developed a solution literally overnight. They were then able to cut new gussets, put logos on the brackets, have them painted—all within a day or two.

Hosting personalized experiences for targeted customers at their manufacturing facility or office location makes it easier to comply with the ever-changing pandemic health protocols as compared to traditional roadshow events where a manufacturer hosts guests at a restaurant or event space where there are more people involved and they don’t control the environment.

With mobile showrooms, manufacturers can maintain safe distances with customers, limit the number of people in the showroom at a time, clean surfaces constantly, use hand sanitation stations and install a small air filtration system inside. Even with these health factors, companies can still effectively present their products.

Manufacturers have realized a brand benefit from their mobile showrooms too. It can be impactful from a brand awareness perspective as manufacturers visit companies at their office or manufacturing facility. The effort being made to connect with them says a lot about how much they value customer relationships. And because the experience is so unique, it is very memorable.

What began as a creative solution for manufacturers to market products without trade shows has become a way to expand on their trade show presence. They are designing a mobile solution that will also stand out from the competition at trade shows.

by Mark D. Steele
Mark D. Steele, P.E., is the President, CEO & Co-Owner of Craftsmen Industries, Inc., manufacturer of highly engineered and executed specialty industrial fabrication, containerized and mobile solutions since 1982. Steele is recognized as NACD Board Leadership Fellow, is NACD Directorship Certified™ and earned Cyber Security Oversight credentials from the CERT at Carnegie Mellon. He also maintains a Professional Mechanical Engineer license. Steele has taught Business Strategy and Operations Management at three different universities as an adjunct professor.

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