Social Researcher Discovers How Trade Show Capitalize On ECultural Symbols
Lisa Penaloza, an associated Professor of Marketing at the College of Business University of Colorado in Boulder. visited rodeo stock shows n the mid west and studied ways in which rodeo stock show organizers and developers utilized appealing cultural symbols and historical tradition to market beef to outside buyers visiting the rodeo stock show event.
Western cultural symbols which were described in Panazola’s study as being appealing to the outside public included values of freedom, naturalism, competition and family. The researcher further noted how the rodeos juxtapose business with education and entertainment, with frequent references to the western historical tradition.
Professor Panaloza based her study on the National Western Stock Show and Rodeo. As the professor noted in her study, the combination rodeo stock event is essentially a trade show. She emphasized that &LINK1& are the second largest user of the advertising marketing dollar. They are so heavily invested in because they are an effective venue for presenting new products and serves to buyers.
Because most cattle originally came from the European tradition, western cattlemen are challenged to demonstrate the superiority of American bred cattle versus the European strains. Trade show presenters are torn between the need to demonstrate the superiority of modern breeding techniques, animal husbandry and animal handling, and the wish to preserve the values of the western cowboy tradition, which most people are familiar with through TV and the movies.
The author makes her point very effectively and emphatically when she compares modern Great Britain versus mid western cattleman’s show. In the United Kingdom, to this day, stockman don the top coats and bowlers of county squires. Whereas in the American stock shows, the stockman wear typical cowboy attire. Ironically, the culturally clad stockmen are showing beef and dairy cattle from fertile breeding farms in the east and mid-west. Whereas the beef cattle is raised predominantly on farms in the Southwest.
So clearly, the use of historically known images of the cowboy is a calculated marketing technique. Stockman dress in attire, which they known will be most appealing to the buyers. The fact that buyers are attracted by images rich in historical tradition, probably does not indicate a distrust of the present so much as a trust and belief in that which they were exposed to growing up via the television, plus the charm of being able to interface with some semblance of the cowboy tradition in real life.
The conclusion of the study is that historical and cultural symbols are a powerful way to enhance the sales experience at a trade show
Rob Fleming is a Freelance writer with over 10 years experience in Developing unique website content, Website Marketing, and SEO techniques. He has authored hundreds of powerful articles on building site authority and driving traffic to websites. 
Tagged with: advertising • events • marketing • trade show
Filed under: Business Marketing Tips
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