Abstract

Trade shows have been the focus of recent research as constituting one of the most effective marketing strategies.Related issues have been discussed extensively in the literature. How to achieve better performance is central tothese discussions. Studies on the key factors that influence trade show performance have focused mainly onsubjective opinions from the perspective of the staff at exhibitions. In this study, we explored the key criteria fora business visitor in selecting suppliers at a trade show; that is, what kind of trade show strategies can promoteexhibitors’ performance? Trade show strategies from previous studies were first summarized. They wereclassified into three categories: before, at, and after the show. To address the problem of complexity anduncertainty, a fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) was used to explore the importance of the variousstrategies. The results showed that "follow-up after the exhibition" was the most important factor from theperspective of business visitors. “Active invitation before the exhibition” was considered to be the next mostimportant issue in attracting business visitors at a trade show. Among at-show strategies, the most important wasthat of staff knowledge of the product and trade details. The results of this study could contribute to enhancingtrade show performance.

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