THE ROLE OF TRADE FAIRS IN BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT: A CASE STUDY OF ENUGU INTERNATIONAL TRADE FAIR

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1     BACKGROUND OF STUDY

Marketing is a fundamental business function which identifies unsatisfied needs of consumers and creates products and services which are geared towards satisfying needs.

          Four major marketing factors are involved; these are known as the marketing mix or the four Ps. Namely product, place, price and promotion, which the firm uses to operate successfully within the marketing environment.

          Products services or business promotion is a vital marketing function because without awareness there will be no demand for products or services.

          In traditional African economics, marketing is simple and mainly centres on buying and selling. Trade exhibitions or trade fairs are a form of promotional device that enables companies to show and demonstrate their products to both middlemen and ultimate consumers. Although order can be taken, exhibitions (trade fairs) are primarily designed to lay the ground work for future sales, promote public relations, provide feedback for advertising relations.

          In modern times, trade fairs have become specialized activities promoted by the chamber of commerce, government, trade groups and large multi-national companies even international and intergovernmental organizations. These organizations sponsors and supports the fair creating a means of promoting business concerns and the needs they serve.

1. PROBLEMS ASSOCIATE WITH THE SUBJECT MATTER

Business development involves a lot of factors such as, growth in the number of products and services produced by new and existing business, introduction of new and improved ways of doing things.

Increased and improved standard of training of human resources and improvement in productivity. Advance technology in business organizations, increased and easier access to business finance.

Trade fairs provides opportunity for the cross fertilization of ideas; business and investors producers and consumers, workers and quality control inspectors, government and development economists, and other economic actors obtain and give out information about business opportunities, product capabilities, need and so on.

In the study, our aim is to evaluate the contribution of trade fairs to business development of business in all respects. There are many well established trade fairs in Nigeria, each of which last at least one week and it take place annually.

Among the best known are the Lagos, Kaduna and Enugu International trade fairs, naturally every state has a trade fair organized annually. It should be possible to trace the development business, if any, to these trade fairs.

1. PROBLEM(S) THAT THE STUDY WILL BE CONCERNED WITH

Trade fairs are an expensive of promotion because of high cost of renting the booth, installing equipments and building the stand as well as the personnel to man the stand.

The maintaining of trade fair is quite expensive, it is therefore important that their contribution to economic development should be established without ambiguity.

There are specialized and general trade fairs. This study should be able to establish the more beneficial form of trade fair for our economic and business development needs.

1.4     THE IMPORTANCE OF STUDYING THE AREA

The different chambers of commerce which organize and run the trade fairs may not have the time to evaluate the contributions of the fairs to the attainment of the declared objectives. This study should be able to make contribution in that direction. It will also contribute to the body knowledge on business promotion.

Business decision based on information obtained from trade fairs needs to be evaluated for adequacy and correctness successful prosecution of this study will contribute to knowledge in the area of business (management) information system.