Whisk visits the Erie Home and Garden Show

This weekend Whisk's creators were required to visit the Erie Home and Garden Show at Family First Sports Park in order to gather ideas for our upcoming trade show. The show was huge and there was a lot to take in. Overall, I'd say we gained a lot of information and picked up some great ideas on how to put together a booth that will get noticed.

Since no one in our group was really in the market for purchasing siding or pots and pans, we were most often drawn to displays for homeware or decorations. These booths were set up with carpeting, furniture and lamps, plus wine glasses, purses and other personal touches one might find in his/her own home. 

Obviously we won't be setting out lamps and furniture at Whisk's booth; however, one booth laid down foam mats in lieu of carpeting, which if we could find in a solid red color, would look great with Whisk's black, white and red theme and would add a nice touch. We also intend to make our booth as homey as possible by using colored tablecloths, placing lace doilies under cupcake displays and maybe incorporating a few red potted Gerber daisies for decoration.We also want to put a cookie scented candle on a candle burner to provide ambiance and make our booth visitors think of freshly baked cupcakes and cookies.

Another important component of the home show's booths was giveaways, free samples and product examples. While the booths couldn't provide free samples of their siding or other housing materials, they created displays for people to touch their products to examine quality, durability, etc. They also set out bowls of candy to encourage people to stop at their booths. Other samples included certificates for money off when products were actually purchased as well as free in-store trials upon presentation of a coupon. While these were valid incentives for visiting the store, they didn't really draw much of a crowd as people couldn't tell what the forms were from a distance. The most common giveaway was a drawing for a flat-screen TV or free windows, siding, etc. 

Whisk will definitely be stocked in the free samples department, as we will have a table featuring all of our products with miniature cupcakes available for visitors to taste. We are also making frequent buyer cards, where customers will have a hole punched in their card after purchasing a cupcake. When the card is filled, the customer will receive a free cupcake. Though these won't really be valid since Whisk is fictional, they are another example of a giveaway or incentive for customers to shop at Whisk in the future. While it certainly is not in Whisk's budget to give away a flat-screen TV, we will be putting together gift baskets that visitors can win at the trade show. We haven't fully developed their contents yet, but we're hoping to include gift certificates to local restaurants and other places in Erie.

The only booth at the home show that included something interactive was the booth for the Erie Art Museum. This booth was directed toward children and featured chopped potatoes dyed a variety of colors. Children were instructed to create a building, person, etc. using toothpicks to connect the potatoes. Their creations would then be added to an Erie potato city skyline, which would be added to each day of the home show. Of course my group participated in the activity, and we built a boat, dog and two people. The activity was fun and definitely made me more interested in visiting the Erie Art Museum, particularly because the people at the booth were friendly and their enthusiasm for their work was apparent. 

Whisk intends to have an interactive activity for visitors, and while we haven't exactly decided what it will be, we're thinking about having a table devoted to decorating your own cupcake. We're also thinking about having a cupcake eating contest. We're not sure how well this would work out as we'd only be able to have one, so we'd have to schedule a time, but we think it would definitely provide entertainment at the trade show.

Lastly, the home show booth operators were not really good at engaging people. In fact, the only person that actually spoke to us without our visiting the booth, prompting them to do so, was a peculiar man who prodded us to accept some candy. However, he did so in an incredibly creepy manner, and his candy looked like it was five years old and had been sitting in a candy dish in a grandmother's house.

 When we are stationed at our booth, we intend to make an effort to speak to passersby, encouraging them to take a cupcake, decorate their own or enter to win a gift basket. This way we'll come across as being friendly, and we will hopefully be successful in engaging visitors.