Hiatus in Writing
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Hello All-
My apologies for the extended hiatus in writing. Busy times here at Mariner and unfortunately my time management skills leave little to be desired.
Since the inner workings of a software company is the focus of this blog, I wanted to share a particular predicament we have upon the horizon. Macworld Expo 2007 is approaching (early January) fast and there is always the internal debate this time of year over whether we should exhibit or not. In the Apple sandbox that we, Mariner, currently play in, Macworld is _the_ tradeshow to attend if you want exposure. But what is exposure worth? We have been exhibiting at the show the last few years and each year grows more and more expensive to attend. How expensive? Let’s break it down...
-Booth space - 10 x 20 = $10,000
-Creating materials for the show - $5,000
-Tchatkies (I never remember how to spell this word!) - $500
-Shipping materials - $800
-Hotel - $3,000
-Airfare - $1,500
-Miscellaneous (taxi, food, stuff) - $1,000
Almost $22,000.
Now, as you can probably guess, we aren’t the biggest company in the world and our annual marketing budget would probably equate to an hour’s worth at Microsoft, so you can probably see why we wrestle with this every year. Sure we can sell product off the show floor and recoup some of the cost, but the reality is that that only covers a small portion of the overall expense.
How about the intangibles?
-Having a booth at Macworld gives a company credibility and reinforces the brand to those that attend.
Well, yeah, but how do you put a price tag on that?
-Having a booth at Macworld gives a company the opportunity to meet up with existing partners and even network with potential partners.
True. Meeting face-to-face with partners is always better than via email or over the phone.
-Having a booth at Macworld lets a company “put their finger on the pulse“ of what customers are wanting.
Absolutely. Of all the intangibles, this would be the most important.
I suspect we’ll end up going but I have to admit, I’m looking forward to the day when Macworld becomes a virtual show!
Mike
My apologies for the extended hiatus in writing. Busy times here at Mariner and unfortunately my time management skills leave little to be desired.
Since the inner workings of a software company is the focus of this blog, I wanted to share a particular predicament we have upon the horizon. Macworld Expo 2007 is approaching (early January) fast and there is always the internal debate this time of year over whether we should exhibit or not. In the Apple sandbox that we, Mariner, currently play in, Macworld is _the_ tradeshow to attend if you want exposure. But what is exposure worth? We have been exhibiting at the show the last few years and each year grows more and more expensive to attend. How expensive? Let’s break it down...
-Booth space - 10 x 20 = $10,000
-Creating materials for the show - $5,000
-Tchatkies (I never remember how to spell this word!) - $500
-Shipping materials - $800
-Hotel - $3,000
-Airfare - $1,500
-Miscellaneous (taxi, food, stuff) - $1,000
Almost $22,000.
Now, as you can probably guess, we aren’t the biggest company in the world and our annual marketing budget would probably equate to an hour’s worth at Microsoft, so you can probably see why we wrestle with this every year. Sure we can sell product off the show floor and recoup some of the cost, but the reality is that that only covers a small portion of the overall expense.
How about the intangibles?
-Having a booth at Macworld gives a company credibility and reinforces the brand to those that attend.
Well, yeah, but how do you put a price tag on that?
-Having a booth at Macworld gives a company the opportunity to meet up with existing partners and even network with potential partners.
True. Meeting face-to-face with partners is always better than via email or over the phone.
-Having a booth at Macworld lets a company “put their finger on the pulse“ of what customers are wanting.
Absolutely. Of all the intangibles, this would be the most important.
I suspect we’ll end up going but I have to admit, I’m looking forward to the day when Macworld becomes a virtual show!
Mike
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posted by
Michael Wray
at
2:24 PM
