In My Opinion - Nov. 09

Once upon a time, at a time long ago in a country far away, there was a belief among show dealers that “It’s the promoter’s job to get ‘em through the door, and my job to sell to ‘em when they’re here.”

Dealers marketing shows
I’m not sure that that was the case even then, but sure as eggs is eggs, it isn’t now. The show business is fundamentally a numbers game: the more people on the floor, the better the chance of having a good show. (Don’t tell me – we all know the show with huge crowds but no buying, but think, is that better than a show with tiny crowds and no buying?) We can all help to get bodies through the door. We can all help in marketing a show, dealers and promoters together. And indeed, there’s some marketing that dealers can do better than promoters.

All the gurus agree that word-of-mouth marketing is the best of all. Word-of-mouth is a message from an individual that you know, like and trust. Now, this is marketing that dealers can do and promoters can’t (or, at least, not as effectively). Your customers do know, like and trust you, don’t they? Then they’ll open and read an e-mail from you: they won’t treat it as spam. And they’ll believe what you say. You do have their e-mail addresses, don’t you? You don’t? Oh dear, then you’ll have to rely on a postal mailing at 47 cents a shot – serves you right for not collecting the e-mail address on every receipt that you write! I’ll bet that 95 percent of your customers have one.

Or else you’ll do nothing. You’ll sit back and let the promoter and your fellow dealers do all the marketing for you. If that’s your attitude, you should be ashamed of yourself – you’re a free rider! If you have a successful show, your success has been earned, in part, by your colleagues, and you’ve done nothing to contribute to theirs. I hope you toss and turn all night. You don’t even have the excuse that you can’t afford it. Internet marketing is free; all it costs is time. And if you’ve done nothing, and you have a bad show, don’t come whining to me, the promoter or anybody except your grandmother. She may put up with it, but the rest of us won’t.

Now let me turn to the more responsible majority: the many dealers who energetically promote the shows they’re attending. While you’re promoting your presence at the show to your customers, spend a little extra time to promote the show itself. Even your most devoted customers are more likely to attend if there’s something else beside your booth to attract them. You may not like to think that, but it’s a fact. Promoters can help here: they can produce an electronic “mailer” for all exhibitors to forward to their customers. It’ll work better from a dealer’s email address than from a promoter’s. And, of course, the more that show mailers are emailed, rather than snail-mailed, the less cash dealers and promoters have to spend.

Get them in the door
Bob James, of Armacost Antiques Shows, gives his dealers unlimited free tickets for their customers. Frank Gaglio offered everyone free admission to his Philadelphia show on a traditionally “quiet” day. Bob James offers free admission to customers after 5 p.m. at his Alexandria Show. I applaud all these efforts and others like them, though personally, I think that free tickets targeted to known buyers are likely to be more effective than free tickets targeted at quiet times. The Vermont Antiques Dealers’ Association and the New Hampshire Antiques’ Dealers’ Association both offer free admission at their shows to “young collectors,” usually defined as ‘under 30.’ Whatever. The point is that if promoters are making efforts like these (which do make a hole in their bottom line), we dealers should do whatever we can to back them up and attract people to the show.

Oh yes, if you’re a promoter who still has “early buying,” SCRAP IT! Why on earth do you want to charge dealers’ best customers a premium? In every other retail environment good customers get a discount. Other promoters let them in for free. Give up “early buying” and instead offer an “early bird special” -- reduced price tickets, two for the price of one -- anything to get eager buyers through the door as soon as possible. Pack the show right at the start, generate buzz and excitement, and hope the momentum carries through the day. Don’t create a class of stay-at-homes who won’t pay the premium, and who won’t attend a show that has been picked over. Don’t create a class of show goers who think they’re getting a second-class show because they wouldn’t pay your inflated admission. If you milk or discourage dealers’ best customers, you can’t expect dealers to co-operate with you in your marketing.

Make it happen on the floor
Promoters and dealers together can produce “happenings” on the show floor that can be marketed as attractions. At the New Hampshire Antiques Show, NHADA asks all exhibitors to keep a special object “under wraps” until the show opens. This generates a lot of excitement and suspense, not to mention goodwill. It gives retail customers the sense that they have first shot at something special. When the doors open, you should see them rush to their favorite dealer to be first in line to witness the unveiling.

Another idea, that I know some promoters are discussing and others have attempted in one form or another, is to ask exhibitors to choose one or more “Great Starters” in their booth. The promoter will provide eye-catching labels that leave plenty of space for dealers to write in detail about what makes this object so special and so suitable for a beginning collector. I say “write” deliberately: talking can come later. Many young collectors are shy about asking basic questions, fearing that they will seem ignorant. They are much more comfortable getting the basic information quietly on their own: then they will be ready for a conversation.

An alternative would be a “Great Starters” booth to which all exhibitors contribute. Here, young customers might feel totally at ease. The disadvantage for the dealers is that the “first encounter” (to coin a phrase) takes place away from the dealer, and thus prevents him or her from initiating the follow-up. But maybe this is no bad thing: follow-up conversations initiated by the customer are more likely to bear fruit.

A related idea is a booth (or labels) for antiques under $500 (or whatever). Some promoters have tried this, but it’s a bad idea: it encourages people to buy on price. That’s not the way to attract new buyers to our business. New collectors will be tempted to buy because of the inherent quality of the object, not because it is one of the cheapest in the show. But of course it goes without saying that the Great Starter must be temptingly priced.

Another idea along similar lines is one that works well in independent bookstores: certain books are tagged “Staff Recommendation” with a short reason why, and the signature of the staff member. This could take one of two forms in an antiques show. A dealer could recommend her or his choice of the most interesting antique in the booth. Or, more daringly, and I suspect more effectively, the recommendation could be by another dealer on the floor – one who was not a specialist in the same area. I would love a top folk art dealer, for instance, to pick the antique in our booth of early English furniture that best sparks his or her imagination. The opinion of a non-specialist with an educated eye might be just what a beginning collector (who is a non-specialist with an educable eye) would like to read.

Dealer lectures or booth chats are staples of many shows. At some shows they seem to work well, at others less well. I’ve done a lot of them, and for what it’s worth here’s my opinion of what works. In shows that attract serious collectors, the booth chat format works well; people like listening to an expert surrounded by the objects that he or she is expert in. In shows with a more general audience, however, I believe it’s better to have a room or a space in which all the talks take place. This gives the impression that each talk is purely educational, not self-promotional, and is not a sales spiel by another name; it also puts the listener in neutral, not specialist, territory. Much more comfortable for the non-specialist.

The value of discussion
None of these ideas can qualify as a silver bullet. But they are all based on the belief that, if we are to bring shows back to what they used to be, promoters and dealers need to collaborate. There can be none of the old separation of functions. Which brings me to one further idea: a meeting at each show for promoters and dealers to discuss the show and how to work together to improve it. The Ellsworth show, to choose one that we do, has such a meeting, and a lot of good ideas are raised in it. Promoters might duck the idea, fearing that disgruntled dealers will gang up on them, but disgruntlement is best defused by open explanation. And most dealers will be most interested in discussing how they and the promoter can work to make the show more successful: they won’t let the grumblers and whiners rule the roost.

And talking about the way that the best ideas come from discussion – I must point out that many of the ideas in this column came from Lisa, my wife and partner, in the many discussions we’ve had about the state of the antiques business and how to improve it. I should also note, thinking of bouquets or brickbats, that the ideas you agree with came from me, and the ones you disagree with from her!