Buying Versus Renting Tradeshow Exhibits
Posted by Jessica Davis on Mon, May 09, 2011
Many organizations don’t realize they can test the waters when it comes to tradeshow exhibits, renting before they commit to buy. For some companies, however, especially those that know they will be exhibiting multiple times throughout the year, buying might be the best and most cost-efficient option.
Let’s take a look at some of the rationale behind why companies chose to rent over buying and vice versa. There are pros and cons to both approaches.
Why rent?
If your company has never before exhibited at a trade show or are fairly inexperienced with trade shows, you might want to consider renting the first time around. After your first experience, you’ll have a much better idea of what your company’s needs will be for future shows in terms of space, size, design, functionality, etc. You’ll also have a better sense of if participating in trade shows will help your company meet its marketing objectives.
Renting the first time will also give you the opportunity to check out what your competitors are doing as far as exhibits. You don’t want to have the exact same booth as your competitor. Your company needs to stand out amidst the sea of competing exhibits to drive traffic and draw in prospective customers.
Another reason to rent is your company simply cannot afford to buy its own exhibit. Tradeshow booths can cost thousands of dollars, so unless your company has a proven track record of success at trade shows, you might want to rent. Hopefully after a few successful forays into trade shows, your organization will be able to financially justify the purchase of its own trade show booth.
Why buy?
If your company regularly exhibits at trade shows, even if it’s twice a year, then it simply doesn’t make sense not to own your own booth. Rental fees quickly add up, so if your company is committed to participate in multiple trade shows or events throughout the year, purchasing your own booth makes good financial sense.
Experience at past trade shows also means you have a solid understanding of what type of booth your company would require; overall footprint and layout, size of actual booth space your company is reserving for each show, and overall type of design. Chances are you also have checked out your competition’s trade show exhibits and know what your company will need in terms of its own booth to stand out.
Keep in mind that many exhibit companies will allow you to put the money you spend on a booth rental towards the ultimate purchase of a booth. In this way, renting before buying is a great way to experiment with different booth designs and see what works for your company before diving in and making the investment in your own tradeshow booth.