VIRTUAL PHARMA EXHIBITION (VPE) EXHIBITORS’ BENEFITS AND ADVANTAGES
The best way to understand benefits and advantages of VPE to the exhibits is by comparison with Annual Pharma Exhibitions as given below:
Available only for 2 to 4 days a year.
Available 24 hours a day and 365 days a year. AVAILABLE 24 X 7
Cost of a stall plus travel and lodging for 2 to 6 persons add upto US$20,000 to US$60,000 for an Annual International Exhibition.
Cost of Exhibiting at VPE is minimal, only 3% to 10% of cost of exhibiting at Annual Exhibitions. Even very extensive exhibits at VPE cost only a small fraction of the cost of exhibiting at an annual exhibition.
Only companies that can afford the cost of US$20,000 to US$60,000, preparation effort and spare 2 to 6 persons to travel and be away from their work.
Cost is so low even the smallest of the small companies (like a small consultancy) can exhibit at VPE.
International exhibition provides exposure to only potential international customers and national or regional annual exhibition provide exposure to the potential customers from your neighborhood only.
Your exhibit at VPE provides exposure to potential customers from your neighborhood as well as to potential customers from rest of the world.
Visitors to the annual exhibition face following INCONVENIENCES and HASSLES that are disruptive, stressful and time consuming like:
- Weeks to Months of advance planning.
- Arranging for air travel, lodging, surface transportation etc.,
- Actual travel, Airport hassles, conveyance to hotel, hotel check-in, hotel check-out, conveyance to Exhibition etc.,
- Very many times a visitor has to adjust his schedule to be at an Annual Exhibition which is available only for 2 to 4 specific days of a year.
- Most (75% or more) of the visitors at international exhibitions are managers or of higher level due to prohibitive cost. So, a whole decision making team cannot go to an Annual Exhibition due to prohibitive cost and be absent from work for 4 to 7 days.
VISITORS TO VPE FACE NO SUCH INCONVENIENCES AND NO SUCH HASSLES.
Because of lack of such inconveniences, visitors are likely
to visit and use VPE much more frequently than any annual exhibition. Whole decision making teams from visitor companies can visit your
exhibit at VPE because of no inconveniences and no cost to visitors.
- Typically, 3 to 4 or more persons work for many days for a cumulative time of 100 to 300 hours to prepare for an Annual Exhibition.
- Typically, 4 to 7 days are required for 2 to 6 persons to travel to an Annual exhibition and man company exhibit. Which means a time allocation of 60 to 300 working hours. Total man hours required to prepare and man an exhibit at an annual exhibition is 160 to 650 working hours.
A one time total effort of 100 to 300 hours is required to prepare and put your exhibit online at VPE. Thereafter, only a very minimal effort is required to update your 24 X 7 exhibit to reflect any changes in the products, services or other changes in your company information.
- At an Annual Exhibition Exhibit, one can display only so much information on the walls or other display panels of a physical exhibit and still keep it readable for a visitor to read it from a distance. Also, a visitor has very limited time in an Annual Exhibition to spend at a particular exhibit as he has only limited hours available to him when he is present during a 2 to 4 day annual exhibition and has lot of ground to cover during these limited hours. So, he simply does not have time to read and absorb lots of information from an exhibit at an annual exhibition.
Also, only limited amount of additional information can be readily made available to a customer through Brochures, Pamphlets etc. considering the limited time available to interact with visitors at an annual exhibition.
There are no such time constraints for a visitor because VPE is open 24 X 365 AND there are no space limitations or constraints for a Virtual Exhibit at VPE.
Information in the exhibits is presented in a systematic and standardized formats for visitor convenience but still allows a lot of freedom to an exhibiting company. An exhibiting company can provide extensive information if they desire to do so. On the other hand, some may be comfortable with providing only basic information in their exhibits.
Our surveys of potential visitors do show that visitors would like sufficient information in a VPE exhibit to proceed with confidence to contact an exhibiting company and explore the possibility of doing business. So, we recommend that ultimately as extensive information should be provided in a VPE exhibit as possible. An exhibiting company can build its starting exhibit quickly and put it online while it can continue to add and refine information in its exhibit on an on-going basis.
At VPE, an exhibiting company can also attach Video, Power Point Presentation and printable Brochure at its exhibit for a visitor’s use. Exhibits at VPE can also have a link for visitors to switch to and visit exhibitor’s website. (Click here to see why you should have an Exhibit at VPE when you have your website).
Lack of comprehensiveness of information at an exhibit at an Annual Exhibition limits the quality and thoroughness of information available to a visitor.
Quality of information also depends upon the knowledge of the exhibitor company persons available at an annual exhibition. These persons may not have appropriate knowledge to answer many questions from visitors as the knowledge of these persons may not match the questions. This results in promising the visitors that the answers will be sent to them later on. Many a times these questions, visitor names, addresses etc., get mixed up or lost which results into a bad image of the exhibiting company.
Quality and comprehensiveness of information at an exhibit at VPE can be as good as an exhibitor wants it to be as there are no visitor time and exhibit space limitations.
Quality of information in a VPE exhibit also benefits from the best expertise available as follows:
- VPE allows much more extensive exhibits which can be prepared by appropriate persons in your company with best relevant expertise for each section / area of your exhibit.
- When a visitor have any questions, then those questions can be answered by the best relevant expertise available in your company without any mix up or losing names, addresses etc.
Just cannot be as good as at VPE.
Record of all the enquiries and follow-ups are kept automatically by your exhibit at VPE and is available to your exhibit in-charge and any one else authorized to follow it and see it. You will be able to see up to 3 years of such records at your exhibit at VPE for your future use of this information.
It does not help with this problem.
Listing of your products, services and your capacities in your exhibit at VPE allows others to consider your presence, your capacities before adding any new capacity for the products and services you provide to the pharma industry. Availability of this information about your products, services and your capacities deter excessive competition and over capacity.