Release the Hounds

This past weekend I helped my sister with her Trade Show booth. I think Trade Shows have there place. They can be wonderful venues for marketing or enlightening. However, after spending 15 hours behind her booth I have made a few observations.s

1. Couples who attend without children do not buy anything remotely feminine. For two very important reasons. Men don't buy make-up or beauty products of any type, they may buy lingerie from time to time, but that is really for them no for their wife. Secondly, women do not spend money in front of them. A women who normally would drop a couple hundred bucks on a beauty product or treatment, will never purchase such a thing with her husband present. To many questions. Too much shuffling of feet and pointing to watches. And definitely too many, 'you look fine' comments in a brazen attempt to get back into their lazy boys before the game starts.
   
   
2. Couples with children are only interested in booths that serve food. Fudge. Gelato. Cappuccino. If you can blenderize ice and pour a syrupy substance on it, you will be rich by the end of the weekend. But if your product can't be ingested you might as well do as Lemmings do.
   
   
3. Women over a certain age, who dye their hair outrageous, absolutely unnatural colours and have make-up as think as an oil slick on their faces, are more likely to gnaw off their own hands then part with their money. They are still using the Mary-Kay that they bought in 1973.
   
   
4. Never. Ever. Have a draw. Seriously. There are people who only come to Trade Shows to enter draws. Do you really think they are interested in your product? They probably already forgot they entered a form.
   
   
5. Multilevel Marketing is alive and well, and has undergone a makeover to make it more palatable. It is now called Network Marketing. Amway is Amway even if it is wearing a pretty pink tutu.