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Table of Contents

Executive Summary............................................................................................................3
1.0 Introduction.................................................................................................................3
2.0 The effectiveness of trade show...................................................................................4
2.1 Singapore as a MICE destination.............................................................................................4
2.2 Low-cost and time-saving.......................................................................................................4
2.3 Possible sales opportunities...................................................................................................5
Conclusion.........................................................................................................................6
Recommendation...............................................................................................................6
References.........................................................................................................................8

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Executive Summary

Today’s markets and commercial partnerships are global. It is important to carry out
a marketing strategy in order to promote Business-to-Business (B2B) products to reach the
target market. For companies that operate in foreign markets, trade shows are considered a
critical communication and promotional tool. This is an ideal opportunity for Cosme as a
Small-Medium Enterprise (SME) company to place a product in front of the target audience.
Trade show Making them a key component of a company’s marketing communication
strategy to launch allows them to do things like offering possibilities for sales, provide both
time and financial savings, potential to reach a wider audience, and maintain good
international business relationships. Moreover, Singapore as the target market also provides
opportunities for Cosme to succeed in trade shows as a marketing strategy. As it offers
many factors that make Singapore attractive such as geographical location that is strategic
and it’s a pro-business environment.

1.0 Introduction
The mission of feeding the globe will get more difficult as the global population
grows and food costs rise, which is just one reason to take advantage of biotechnology’s
benefits (Abdelmula 2005). Food biotechnology is one of several methods available to
farmers and food producers to provide a cheap, safe, convenient, and sustainable food
supply. By lowering the number of crops lost to disease and pests, biotech plants can
produce more food in less area. Therefore, Cosme as a Small-Medium Enterprise company
that working in the biotechnology industry sector for food production provides herbicide-
tolerant corn as the product. Maize is one of the world’s most essential grains as it’s used as
cooking oil and food additives. Herbicide-tolerant corn provides growers greater flexibility
when it comes to applying herbicides to control weeds that can harm crops (Williams et al.
2014). Cosme necessitating working with business partners in Singapore as a supplier. In
order to reach the target market, a trade show is going to be a model and tool to promote
Herbicide-tolerant corn in the Singapore market.
The scope for this business report is to focus on trade shows as a communication
and promotional tool. Besides that, is to analyse why would trade show be an effective

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mode and tool to launch in the target market which Singapore, and what factors support a
trade show as an effective promotional tool in Singapore.

2.0 The effectiveness of trade show

Today, simply developing quality products and releasing them to the market is no
longer sufficient for success or sales. Because, in today’s market, consumers may come
across the same product with varying prices, as well as the option to choose from a few
other options for the product or service they require (Situma 2012). Therefore, as previously
mentioned, a trade show is effective communication and promotional tool to introduce
herbicide-tolerant maize to the market that the company is entering, which Singapore.
There are a number of factors that support trade show is an effective promotional tool to
launch in Singapore: -

2.1 Singapore as a MICE destination

The attractiveness of a location is a vital component contributing to the success of an

exhibition (Sasserath, Wenhart & Daly 2005). Singapore is a contemporary city and
economic hub that connects global businesses to the rapidly changing Asian region and
beyond. This makes Singapore has become one of the world’s top MICE (Meeting, Incentive
Travel, Conference, and Exhibition) destinations (Lew & Chang 1999). As Tan, Hock & Piaw
(2004) writes that Singapore is strategically located in Asia and also serves as an important
district centre for Asia. It has market access to 2.8 billion people within a few hours flight
radius due to its strategic location (Jain & Gupta 2018). All of these elements work together
to provide exhibitors with a big pool of potential customers and quick transaction
processing. Also, the stability of Singapore’s economy and their efficiency and good
communication infrastructure will make Singapore’s MICE industry speedily grow in
business industries (Tan, Hock & Piaw 2004). Singapore’s economic development has been
based on a number of main industries, including the food production industry which
maximizes opportunities to meet potential consumers (Jain & Gupta 2018). Moreover, with
all these reinforcing factors that make Singapore a pro-business environment, it will attract
global people looking for suppliers to work by visiting the trade show. In addition, this will
allow the company to reach a larger and more diverse target group.

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2.2 Low-cost and time-saving

Trade exhibitions can be one of the most cost-effective sources of leads and revenue
if properly researched and planned (Situma 2012). Trade shows are focused on a single
product category. If the product category is biotechnology for food production, for example,
the majority of exhibitors will be selling a product that is related to the food industry sector.
These product-specific exhibits attract the correct audience (Situma 2012). For instance, if
there is an exhibition of generic modified foods, the people who are going there with
companies who are looking for a fertiliser to put in their crops so that they can have more
protected against disease. As a Small Medium Enterprise that has a limited budget to do
promotions, a trade show is an effective promotional tool compared to other huge
marketing campaigns in hopes of finding the target market. Situma (2012) states that in
many organisations’ marketing communication budgets, trade shows came in second
behind advertising. As a result, trade shows have become a key part of many businesses
marketing efforts. By using trade show as a communication and promotional tool, allow the
company to directly meet the target audience than other promotional tools that do not
necessarily directly meet the target audience which the money spent is wasted (Smith et al.
2003). In addition, though exhibiting the product at a trade show may require a higher initial
investment than other advertising or networking strategies, however, the cost of converting
a prospect into a sale is frequently far lower than other options. Apart from saving more
money, a trade show also can potentially help the company save time in reaching the target
market. Individual appointments, whether short and long-distance, take a lot of time and
money to organise. While trade show provides a platform where having all buyers under
one roof allows making speedy purchasing decisions (Situma 2012).

2.3 Possible sales opportunities

One of the most critical challenges that many businesses in many industries face
today is that the physical distance between producers and consumers has grown, resulting
in a limited connection between the two groups. When we consider this issue from this
perspective, the relevance of commercial expertise exhibits for businesses becomes evident.
Because commercial trade shows are one of the communications and promotional tools
that may bring producers and consumers together in today’s market, involve buyers and
sellers, and foster a mutual and face-to-face relationship between these groups (Kirchgeorg,

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Springer & Kastner 2010). Moreover, face-to-face encounters will assist in gaining sales
opportunities while also expanding the customer base. According to research done by
Altrjman, Momani & Magatef (2018), shows that 56% of attendees to a B2B trade exhibition
decided to purchase a product, regardless of whether the transaction took place during the
B2B trade show. This is similar to the findings of (Blythe 2002), who claims that trade B2B
shows are widely regarded as a means of generating sales. Furthermore, a large number of
trade show visitors are decision-makers from businesses of various sizes (Altrjman, Momani
& Magatef 2018). For example, if the trade show is biotechnology for food production-
related, the senior management, the biotechnology team, and the buyers all collaborate to
decide on a large purchase from a new supplier. This proved by Grewal et al. (2015) that
larger transaction volumes in a business-to-business context necessitate input from all
departments within an organisation. This is in line with observations, demonstrating that
the majority of visitors came with the intention of purchase something (Altrjman, Momani &
Magatef 2018). As the audience of the trade shows consists of different departments inside
a company, it means during the trade show, Cosme can get in touch with members of the
buying centre who its salespeople might not have been able to reach previously (Leszczynski
& Zielinski 2011).

Conclusion
It is concluded that trade shows provide a good and efficient means for the company
to reach current and potential customers in the biotechnological industry sector, making
trade exhibitions an important part of Cosme’s marketing strategy. It is important to note
that trade shows are not just for displaying and selling things to customers, they also
provide an opportunity for sellers to interact with decision-makers and other industry
professionals. This analysis highlighted the fact that for an overseas targeted market which
Singapore, trade shows allows Cosme to contact customers at a lower cost than other mass
marketing campaign, they allow the company to test the product while also marketing them
appropriately, and they allow the company to investigate potential distribution channels.

Recommendation

Based on the findings of this report, the trade show focuses on a specific industry
which means many brands and competitors are showcasing the same product category as
Cosme. In order to compete and make trade shows more effective as a marketing strategy,

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Cosme needs to come up with creative exhibition stand ideas to boost the number of
visitors that visit the booth. Moreover, important to note that trade show planning and
preparation will have a direct impact on the success of the exhibit. Therefore, it is advisable
for Cosme to conduct detailed searches on trade shows as a marketing strategy and the
target market.

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References

Abdelmula, AA 2005, ‘Distribution of benefits from agricultural biotechnology’, National

Workshop on Biotechnology and Applications for Sustainable Development, 11-14 April,
viewed 3 June 2021,
<https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265246331_DISTRIBUTION_OF_BENEFITS_FRO
M_AGRICULTURAL_BIOTECHNOLOGY>.

Altrjman G, Momani RA & Magatef SG 2018, ‘The impact of the sales process within the B2B
trade show on the visitors purchasing behaviour’, International Journal of Applied Business
and Economic Research, vol. 16, No. 3, pp. 1-19.

Blythe, J 2002, ‘Using trade fairs in key account management’, Industrial Marketing

Management, vol. 31, no. 7, pp. 627-635.

Grewal R, Lilien GL, Bharadwaj S, Jindal P, Kayande U, Lusch RF, Mantrala M, Palmatier RW,
Rindfleisch A, Scheer LK & Spekman R 2015, ‘Business-to-business buying: Challenges and
opportunities’, Customer needs and Solutions, vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 193-208.

Jain, S & Gupta, V 2018, ‘Singapore Business Oppurtunities’, International Journal for

Advance Research and Development, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 38-42.

Kirchgeorg M, Springer C & Kastner E 2010, ‘Objectives for successfully participating in trade
shows’, Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, vol. 25, no. 1, pp. 63-72.

Leszczyński, G & Zieliński, M 2011, ‘The Role of Trade Fairs in Sales: Trends and Research
Propositions’, Global Sales Science Conference, vol. 60, pp. 61-875.

Lew, AA & Chang, TC 1999, ‘Where the World Meets: Regionalism and Globalization in
Singapore‟s Convention Industry’, Journal of Convention and Exhibition Management, vol. 1,
no. 4, pp. 17-36.

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Sasserath M, Wenhart C & Daly N 2005, ‘The impact of brand management on trade
fairs’, Trade show management: planning, implementing and controlling of trade shows, pp.
445-463.

Situma, SP 2012, ‘The effectiveness of trade shows and exhibitions as organizational

marketing tool (analysis of selected companies in Mombasa)’, International journal of
business and social science, vol. 3, no.22, pp. 219-230.

Smith TM, Hama K & Smith PM 2003, ‘The effect of successful trade show attendance on
future show interest: exploring Japanese attendee perspectives of domestic and offshore
international events’, Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, vol. 18, pp. 403-441.

Tan D, Hock MGK & Piaw, TC 2004, ‘An introspective look at the exhibition industry in
Singapore’, National University of Singapore, vol. 7, no. 6, pp. 1-32.

Williams MK, Heiniger RW, Everman WJ & Jordan DL 2014, ‘Weed control and corn (Zea
mays) response to planting pattern and herbicide program with high seeding rates in North
Carolina’, Advances in Agriculture, 21 August, viewed 3 June 2021
<https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/193451124.pdf>.