Question

CASE STUDY Conference Marketing in a Competitive Marketplace One of the main differences between corporate events and association events is the guaranteed attendee base. Typically, in corporate events, there is a set group of people who must attend (such as a sales meeting or corporate training). Association meetings are not required and, therefore, the organization advertises to the relevant professional com-munity at large to secure attendees. Therefore, marketing is extremely important for these types of events. The Engineering Association of America is a nonprofits association of members who are professional engineers. This association is the longest running association focused in engineering, but has recently faced sharp competition over the past decade from conferences focusing on specific segments of engineering (mechanical, electrical, etc.) and niche conferences (Women in Engineering, etc). Due to this competition, conference attendance has decreased by over 35 percent in the past five years. You have just been hired as the new Director of Marketing.

Questions:

1. What is the first thing you would do now that you are hired? 2. What new conference experiences could you integrate onsite to generate excitement and positive word of mouth?

Answer 1

1. What is the first thing you would do now that you are hired?

1. Continue Marketing Yourself

You're obviously at least moderately successful at marketing yourself, otherwise you wouldn't have landed the job. Now is not the time to stop promoting your own personal brand.Why? Because you're first and foremost a sales rep.If you don't come across as someone who knows how to win friends and influence people, you're not likely to be viewed as a success.That's why you should dress the part, learn how to work a room at conferences, stand out in meetings, and never eat alone.If you keep yourself in a marketing state of mind, you'll find that you can do your job much better.

2. Know Your Company

Another way to be successful: know your company, inside and out.First of all, make sure you understand the mission of your company. It's amazing how many people work for a company and don't even understand its mission.Some of those people are in management.Don't be like that. Know your company's mission statement and make sure to define all your initiatives with an eye towards fulfilling that mission.Also, take a look at the company's history. Which of its past marketing strategies have been successful? More importantly, which ones haven't been successful?Capitalize on previous successes. Learn from the mistakes of others as well.Next: get to know the company's sales cycle. How long does it take to close a sale on one customer? How much does that cost? Where do leads generally come from?Also, take a look at the existing marketing channels that the company is using. What are its online and offline strategies? Are there any inefficiencies that need to be addressed? Where is the company lacking in getting out its marketing message?Also, consider the tools that you have available. How can you use those tools to help the company achieve greater success? What tools do you still need to do your job?

3. Know Your Customer

Far more important than knowing your company is knowing your customer. If you don't understand the people in your target market, you're almost guaranteed to fail.Take a look at the existing customer base. Grab all the data you can on the people who've already made purchases.Do the customers share common interests or demographics? What other traits are common?Once you've got that data, it's a great idea to create buyer personas. Those are realistic representations of people who are likely to make a purchase. They're invaluable when it comes to segmenting your market.Pro-tip: if you really want to know your customers, handle support calls for a little while. Jump on a support line and let callers tell you what's right and wrong with your company.It's possible you'll learn more by interacting with customers than with all the market research in the world.Keep in mind that you'll also be able to use the info you glean from your support experience to fine-tune your buyer personas.

4. Know Your Competition

It would be so nice if your company had a monopoly on the product or service it's selling. Unfortunately, that's probably not the case.You're going to have to deal with competitors. One of the smartest things you can do as a marketing manager is to get to know those competitors very well.Why? Because, as Sun Tzu said: "If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles."Start by looking at the marketing strategies of your competitors. Some of that should be easy to find because, after all, your competitors ad campaigns are publicly visible.Are some of those strategies more successful than others? More importantly, are some of those strategies more successful than what your company is currently doing?Learn what you can from your competitor's campaigns. Imitate the best ones as much as possible without running afoul of intellectual property violations.Keep in mind that you should try to understand everything your competitors are doing to close sales. That means their online, offline, and PR strategies.

5. Set Goals and Reach Them

One of the first things you should do as a new marketing manager is set goals. Then, you should reach them.It's very important that you reach your goals. That's going to give you some level of prestige within your own organization.To that end, make sure you set goals that are attainable. If you just reach for the sky and miss, then you're going to be viewed as someone who doesn't deliver.

6. Walk the Tightrope

As marketing manager, you have to strike the right balance between keeping upper management happy and making sure customers are satisfied.That might be challenging at times. That's why you have to work on marketing your own approach to executives while promoting your company's brand to its market.Learn to keep both sides happy and you'll succeed.

7. Stay Well-Read

Marketing is an art as well as a science. You and your team need to generate creative ideas that will resonate with potential customers.To that end, you need a healthy imagination. That's why you should be constantly reading.Study the great advertising campaigns of ages past. Is there anything in them that you can work into your own campaigns?Learn from the great marketers of today and yesterday. You'll likely find inspiration for some of your own strategies.

2. What new conference experiences could you integrate onsite to generate excitement and positive word of mouth?

Stay in Touch, Provide Them With Specials That They Want to Talk About.The meeting industry has seen significant growth over the last few decades and has now become truly global. As the number of conferences increases and attendees have so many conferences to choose from, understanding how they evaluate the conference experience is more important than ever.

Previous studies have focused on site selection factors, destination perception and image, economic impact, and meeting planner issues, not on the conference experience itself. Annual association conferences are lucrative because of the large number of attendees they bring to the host destination.

In marketing and managing association conferences, host destinations and meeting convention organizers are increasingly interested in how attendees evaluate the conference experience. With the first conceptual model, this study sought to reveal the effect of perceived conference quality dimensions on conference experience quality dimensions.

Academic association conference was taken as the context, and data were collected to validate the proposed models. A self-reported questionnaire was distributed to faculty members from twenty randomly selected universities in the United States who attended an academic association conference at least once within the past year.

The hypotheses included in the conceptual model were examined based on responses from 370 faculty members in the United States.

The proposed relationships were analyzed by using PLS-SEM analysis which involves evaluation of measurement model and structural model.The results indicated significant relationships among all conference specific dimensions (i.e., professional education and professional & social networking) and all conference experience quality dimensions (i.e., learning, self-esteem, and excitement).

Moreover, all destination specific dimensions (i.e., site attractiveness, travelability, and site environment) had a significant relationship with excitement, but site attractiveness did not have a significant relationship with learning. With the second conceptual model, this study sought to verify the relationships among perceived conference value dimensions,satisfaction, and behavioral intentions.

This study found that utilitarian value, hedonic value, and social value had significant effects on satisfaction and behavioral intentions. Given that understanding attendee behavior is critical in the meeting industry, this study benefits meeting planners and host destinations with information that allows them to maximize the conference experience for attendees, and attracting and retaining repeat attendees.

The results indicated significant relationships among all conference specific dimensions (i.e., professional education and professional & social networking) and all conference experience quality dimensions (i.e., learning, self-esteem, and excitement).

Moreover, all destination specific dimensions (i.e., site attractiveness, travelability, and site Environment) had a significant interrelationship with excitement,but site attractiveness did not have a significant To put it most simply, word of mouth marketers and advertisers seek to create something worth talking about and then actively encourage people to talk about it.

As I referenced earlier, people love referrals. They tend to trust the opinions of their friends when making purchasing decisions. Word of mouth advertising is essentially seeking to kickstart an exponential referral chain that drives continuous traffic, leads, and sales for the brand. It’s a powerful eCommerce industry trend that shows no sign of slowing down.

Conclusion:

Marketing directors are responsible for their company’s marketing and communications strategies, as well as overall branding and image. They prepare annual marketing plans, create a calendar of campaigns and events, set the marketing budget and analyse the market and competitors. They guide a marketing department, including the work of marketing managers. Marketing directors are most commonly employed by private sector companies but they can also work for charities and public bodies.

Responsibilities for Director of Marketing

• Develop a yearly budget for the marketing team
• Communicate the brand identity with the team
• Sift through marketing data to find the important trends
• Stay up to date on the latest marketing trends
• Attend conferences to further marketing knowledge
• Oversee social media strategy and implementation
• Develop thought leadership pieces such as an e-book
• Create marketing reports to show to executives
• Plan and execute a marketing strategy for the organisation and for new and existing products or services
• Oversee the implementation of the marketing strategy
• Develop a brand strategy
• Set and administer an annual marketing budget
• Create and manage a calendar of events such as webinars, conferences and thought leadership contributions
• Guide the day-to-day activities of the marketing team and marketing manager
• Continually review changes to the market, consumer trends and the activities of competitors, adjusting the marketing plan if necessary
• Provide tools and materials to enable the sales team to function effectively
• Manage and refine the organisation’s social media presence
• Manage and measure marketing campaign costs
• Report on the effectiveness of marketing campaigns using pre-determined KPIs
• Utilise data for marketing campaigns, interrogating the organisation’s databases and external data
• Identify new business opportunities
• Conduct market research studies
• Negotiate with media agencies and secure agreements on the production of promotional materials.