{"id":1419,"date":"2010-08-14T10:33:39","date_gmt":"2010-08-14T15:33:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/?p=1419"},"modified":"2010-08-14T10:33:39","modified_gmt":"2010-08-14T15:33:39","slug":"is-the-right-person-staffing-your-booth-guest-post-by-meagan-francis-blogher-marketing-lessons-part-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/2010\/08\/14\/is-the-right-person-staffing-your-booth-guest-post-by-meagan-francis-blogher-marketing-lessons-part-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Is the right person staffing your booth? Guest post by Meagan Francis (BlogHer Marketing Lessons, Part 3)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Today’s guest post — the first ever — is from blogger Meagan Francis. \u00a0I will still have a post about the Responsibility Project trip to Ellis Island for you, but I need to check a few facts. Just because I work over the weekend, I do not expect Liberty Mutual<\/a>‘s PR agency to do so. Instead, I’m changing up the order and running Meagan’s post today. <\/em><\/p>\n

Meagan Francis<\/em><\/a> is a magazine writer, parenting author, and mom blogger. She blogs about life, motherhood, and the pursuit of happiness at <\/em>The Happiest Mom<\/em><\/a>, and her book The Happiest Mom: Ten Secrets To Enjoying Parenthood<\/strong> will be published in 2011. Some of her best friends are marketing professionals.<\/em><\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

This was my fourth BlogHer<\/a> conference, and overall, I had a wonderful time. This year I thought the sponsors were handled in a tasteful way and I commend BlogHer for taking feedback to heart and toning down the \u201cover-sponsored\u201d feel that some experienced in 2009. I think BlogHer, as an organization, did a great job this year and I don\u2019t have any complaints with how they handled the Expo areas.<\/p>\n

Buuut\u2026while most of the companies I encountered seemed to have an appropriate and effective presence on the Expo floor, there were a few experiences that left me shaking my head (and running for the door). Here’s what happened:<\/p>\n

When I approached a booth belonging to a natural baby products company,\u00a0I was already in a bit of a daze. I\u2019d just left another stall in which a young man with all the finesse of a drunken 20-year-old hoping to score on Spring Break had slap-chop-surprised me into spinning a wheel, answering questions about a product I know little about and have never used; accepting some Post-It notes as a prize, and then having my photo taken with said company\u2019s logo–all within a minute\u2019s time. As I collected my photo and staggered away, still not exactly sure what had just happened, he boasted to the young woman sharing his booth: \u201cSee? It\u2019s all in the presentation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Uh-huh.<\/em><\/p>\n

At this point, I had one goal: to get the hell off the BlogHer Expo floor. Free samples, coupons, and chats with company reps can be fantastic and fun, but my experience with this guy had sent me running for the door\u2026if I could just find it. On my way out, though, I decided to make one more stop at this booth. I use natural and organic products whenever possible, and with five kids I figured it was a company I\u2019d like to know a little more about.<\/p>\n

I approached the booth, which was staffed by a man and a woman\u2014the \u201cpitch\u201d man and a female pediatrician acting as a spokesperson. There were already two women standing in front of the man, who was giving a presentation of the company\u2019s uncommonly strong baby wipes.<\/p>\n

\u201cSee?\u201d he said, pulling hard on both sides. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t come apart when you wipe.\u201d He forcefully shoved a finger through the wipe, and it tore slightly. \u201cI worked out today, or else I\u2019d never have been able to rip it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The women responded with enthusiastic murmurs. \u201cOh, my husband would love this,\u201d one exclaimed. \u201cHe always hates changing poopy diapers because the wipes fall apart.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMe, too!\u201d agreed the pitch man. \u201cThat doesn\u2019t happen with these, though. There\u2019s no seepage, either.\u201d They continued to chat, extolling the virtues of the nearly indestructible butt-wipers, for a few more minutes. Finally, he handed the women a package of wipes and they walked away.<\/p>\n

I stood there for a few more minutes, examining a product label, but still very much at<\/em> the booth\u2026maybe two feet away from the man.<\/p>\n

\u201cDid you really work out this morning?\u201d asked the female rep.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d snorted the man. \u201cI don\u2019t even have kids. I\u2019ve never changed a diaper in my life, and I never will.\u201d<\/p>\n

He began to yammer on about his father and how his father had never changed a diaper, and his girlfriend hopes to have kids one day and he plans on carrying on the family tradition of men never changing diapers but he isn\u2019t sure his girlfriend will go for it, and the whole time I\u2019m thinking, \u201cUm, hey, dude. I\u2019m STILL RIGHT HERE.\u201d<\/p>\n

After I walked away from the booth\u2014and made a beeline for the exit\u2014I thought a lot more about the experience. I wasn\u2019t angry, or offended, exactly. Hey, the rep had probably been trained in exactly what to do and say, and it wouldn\u2019t be the first time I\u2019d been underestimated by some smarmy young fella.<\/p>\n

But I was amazed that companies had really put these people in charge of representing their brand\u2014in some cases, maybe as a first impression\u2014to thousands of potential consumers\u2026and that they\u2019d chosen such a corny way to do it, too. Instead of setting up a situation in which I could have a real conversation about the product with somebody educated enough to give me the scoop, I played a silly game at one booth, and got a tutorial on baby wipes with somebody who’s never used one<\/em> at another.<\/p>\n

In the case of the spin-the-wheel game: I\u2019ve been doing that at the county fair for decades, and it wasn\u2019t any more impressive then than it is now. A coupon for a product I don\u2019t know or care anything about? Some Post-Its? Is there any proof that this kind of marketing actually works? I know that a coupon for a product I\u2019ve never used\u2014with no other context or education about the product–is not likely to make me try it. And when you\u2019re being showered with coupons from every company at the expo, it\u2019s certainly not enough to convince me to blog about it, either.<\/p>\n

And at the natural baby products booth\u2026the guy they hired to run the booth doesn\u2019t even have kids? <\/em>Has no real-life experience with the product? And is kind of a jackass, to boot?<\/p>\n

I\u2019m certainly not going to boycott either of these products. I don\u2019t think any less<\/em> of them then I did before. But I\u2019m also not any more<\/em> likely to buy them, which you would think would kind of be the point of renting the space and hiring the help in the first place. Last I knew there were 2,400 attendees at BlogHer. Most of them blog, some on small platforms, some with audiences of hundreds of thousands. Beyond that, there\u2019s Twitter, Facebook, PTA, and the bleachers at the local soccer game. Women talk about the products we use and love, and not just on the Internet, either.<\/p>\n

Can you say \u201cwasted opportunity\u201d?<\/p>\n

It seems to me that they\u2019d have been better off hiring a parent (maybe even a parent blogger?), or an existing, enthusiastic customer to run the booth. Instead of games and trickery, why not just have a conversation? Let me taste or smell or touch the product, or try the service. I don\u2019t need more samples to take home, and for God\u2019s sake, I don\u2019t need a 50-cents-off coupon. Just teach me a little. Tell me why I should try it when I get home.<\/p>\n

Many of the companies on the BlogHer expo floor did a great job of this. But there were a few major, obnoxious flops. And the unfortunate thing for all those companies that got it right? The bad eggs sent me\u2014and I\u2019m sure not just<\/em> me\u2014running for the door.<\/p>\n

And I didn\u2019t return.<\/p>\n

\"Enhanced<\/a>