Designing Your
Trade Show Exhibit Displays

The design of your trade show exhibit displays affects whether you attract the visitors most likely to be interested in what you have to offer. However, there are a lot of options available for every aspect of booth design, which can make the process seem overwhelming. Here some tips for effective booth design:

Think of displays as if they were a traditional advertisement. In advertising, the AIDA (Attract, Interest, Desire, Action) formula has withstood the test of time. Here, you'll simply apply it to your booth design. Here's how:

First, your exhibit needs to attract the attention of your intended customer. Your graphics are a good medium for this job.

Next, the display must interest your audience once you've gotten their attention. How can you do that? You'll need to understand your targeted customer - what motivates them, what their needs and wants are, how to strike an emotional chord within them.

Once you've made this connection, your trade show exhibit should build up a desire in your customers to own your product or use your service. You can create this desire by portraying what you offer as the solution to their problems or the answer to their dreams.

Now it's time to urge the customer to act on this desire. They need to be urged to Buy Now or Act Immediately. You can use fear of loss (a classic motivator). Encouraging an urgency to purchase before they lose the opportunity to own your solution or answer (or before they have a chance to change their minds and decide to keep their wallets in their pockets) will then net the sales you're looking for.

Examine good print advertisements and TV commercials, and pick apart the way they use the AIDA formula. Then when you've got a good grasp on how the best advertisements accomplish the sale this way, try applying the same concepts to your trade show booth.

See how to choose your trade show display concept for three types of booth concepts, and how to use them for a succesful exhibit.

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