An Innovative Trade Show Concept ! Salon Du Meuble De Paris 2002

Furniture World Magazine

Consumers are now forcing professionals on the market to be more and more efficient and are driving distributors as well as manufacturers to focus on what is important. The best of their know-how must be offered and recognized without delay. The mature and international nature of the market results in ever more demanding requirements. In a context where hyper reactivity and wealth of choice prevail, clarity, simplicity, transparency, rationality, efficiency ... are unparalleled assets. However, the market is also in need of dreams and the dream factor has a powerful effect on our buying urges. Building a world of emotions is a necessity rather than a luxury! Imagination, blossoming, emotions, seduction ... are the other aspects of success! Today, this duality imposes itself upon the new furniture and accessories market, which is what the Salon du Meuble de Paris 2002 will want to express through a profound change in its organizational structure. Within a few years, our western companies have enabled the greatest number of people to go from shortages to abundance and we are no longer merely satisfying basic consumer needs. Moreover, consumers have been able to integrate into their buying behavior the experience acquired and rationale used in the professional world. They know how to put off their purchases in order to benefit from better prices or to optimize their method of supply according to the type of retail outlet. Changes in lifestyles has led them to become professional consumers. Evidently, these circumstances have challenged the traditional trends of marketing policies. At the same time, with the globalization of economies, manufacturers and distributors have to be radical in their choices when searching for qualitative responses to changes in consumer expectations. This is all the more reason they will all have to take into account the progressive arrival of a euroconsumer maintaining national characteristics. With 67% of French foreign trade in 1998, the European market is the primary destination for company exports. Therefore, the division of roles between manufacturing and distribution is most significant. For a manufacturer faced with the development of this new consumer culture constantly demanding greater flexibility, the central issue is to determine how the commercial fabric will evolve in order to decide between the various industrial policies. As for distribution, there is a search for new organizational principles, which increasingly results in relying upon manufacturers to achieve competitiveness. And with a greater emphasis on partnerships, this is particularly necessary in the fields of marketing and logistics. In the world of furniture and accessories, the Salon du Meuble de Paris is indisputably a market development tool. Let us remember that French manufacturers declare that they achieve between 12% and 15% of their annual turnover at the show. In this way, the show generates more than 10 billion Francs in purchases. As a tradeshow, its role is to display Innovation and Performance. Its efficiency lies in its ability to achieve the synthesis between the new expectations of exhibitors and the concerns of international buyers who are pushed by competition towards what is important. This is why in January 2002, the Salon du Meuble de Paris is putting into place a new concept for trade shows. Three aims define this concept: • to give products offered by exhibitors greater accessibility and clarity • to group the same types of offer in accordance with new modes of distribution • to make the visit of buyers and specifiers more comfortable, efficient and structured. This drive of the Salon du Meuble de Paris is to be expressed through the repositioning of certain sectors and the creation of two very large areas: the "Grands Marchés" (Mass markets) and the "Expressions". They formulate the development of manufacturing and distribution behavior in the face of changes in consumer lifestyle and buying habits. The creation of these two large areas must contribute towards: • Optimizing investments by exhibitors • Encouraging meetings between manufacturers and buyers • Highlighting the magnitude and the astonishing variety of products offered by exhibitors of the Salon du Meuble de Paris. • Moreover, the grouping of sectors of a particular type will facilitate circulation around the various buildings of the exhibition centre; as regards companies facing each other in neighboring spaces within sight of their respective product ranges, this should strengthen competition and stimulate innovation.