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Pull Up a Sensible Seat
October 01, 2007
This novel invention upgrades the trade show experience
By Jeremy Cohen
If you had to pick one word to describe the average trade show experience, it's a fairly safe bet that "relaxing" wouldn't be at the top of your list. The simple fact of the matter is, trade shows are crowded, hectic, noisy affairs that most attendees prefer to experience only in small doses.
For the folks manning the booths, things aren't necessarily a whole lot better. After all, how much fun can it be trying to lure in passersby when you're using the same dog-and-pony show as all the other guys?
Just ask Robert Baschnagel, the owner of B&B Sheet Metal in New York City. "When I was at trade shows, trying to get people to watch my presentation was not easy to do," Baschnagel recalls. Soft-spoken by nature, he was uncomfortable having to go into "aggressive salesman mode" to attract the interest of passersby.
And then, inspiration hit: In addition to running his family's 102-year-old business, Baschnagel is an inventor. Among the contraptions he's formulated are a blender system with a single-use, disposable drink container. Making the most of his McGyver-esque tendencies, he devised a means for standing out from other exhibitors. The results of his inspiration is the Video Massage Chair.
As you can see from the photo at left, it resembles your standard massage chair. But upon closer inspection, you'll note the addition of a small flat-screen TV (with built-in DVD player) underneath the headrest.
The beauty of the Video Massage Chair lies in the absolute simplicity of the concept. Here's how it works: Your average show attendee—whose back and feet, incidentally, are probably killing him due to all the walking around he's doing—is lured into your booth by the offer of a relaxing rubdown. ("Most people won't refuse a message," as Baschnagel notes.)
After the attendee sits down, he's given a pair of headphones to put on. While the massage therapist who's been hired for the occasion works out his kinks, the visitor is shown a four-minute DVD of your sales presentation.
So essentially:
1. You've captured the customer's attention without resorting to a hard sell.
2. He's completely relaxed and focused on your message.
Since its creation a year ago, the Video Massage Chair has lived up to its promise, drawing in huge crowds at B&B Sheet Metal's trade show appearances. Realizing he had a hot item on his hands, Baschnagel began producing additional units (25 at press time, with an additional 50 in the works). His new start-up, VMC, now offers daily, weekly and yearly rentals to businesses nationwide.
The unit is shipped in a custom box (with wheels for portability) that includes set-up and return delivery instructions. Having witnessed Baschnagel set up a unit during a recent demonstration at Sales and Marketing Management's editorial offices, we can attest to the speed and painlessness of the process.
A word regarding the four-minute length of the presentation mentioned earlier: It's not a hard-and-fast number, but for the sake of expediting traffic through your booth (and not relaxing participants to the point of falling asleep), Baschnagel generally recommends keeping your video to that length. Should your business lack a preexisting DVD presentation to adapt for the chair's use, VMC's in-house editing department can convert your PowerPoint presentations into the appropriate format.
Lastly, don't worry about finding professionals to handle the actual massage duties; the company will locate someone in your area for you. "We have masseuses in all 50 states," Baschnagel affirms. And if the Video Massage Chair continues to catch on, they're bound to have plenty of work coming their way.
Sales & Marketing Management Magazine
This article is brought to you by Sales & Marketing Management, the leading authority for executives in the sales and marketing field.
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