Research On The Professional Exhibition Visitors’ Decision-making Influencing Factors

The exhibition industry has greatly promoted the social and economic development in China. The exhibition industry as a vibrant sunrise industry increasingly gets the concern of our government. Along with China exhibition industry’s rapid development, the exhibition enterprises compete fiercely. Meanwhile, the Cross-border Exhibition Groups get into the Chinese market, which makes the gaps in marketing management between the domestic exhibition enterprises and the Cross-border Exhibition Groups exposed. Among them, the limited knowledge for the professional exhibition visitors and the weak organization for the professional exhibition visitors are the main problem constraints of the sound development of China’s exhibition industry. At present, the development of the exhibition gets into a "visitors-oriented "era. So, domestic and international academic research has gradually transition from a focus on exhibitors to attach importance to the professional exhibition audiences. The professional exhibition visitors’ behavior indirectly relates to the exhibition’s size and value, so grasping the professional visitors’decision-making influencing factors is the basic work of a successful exhibition for the exhibition organizers. How to understand and grasp the professional exhibition visitors’decision-making influencing factors is a great practical problem. If the exhibition organizers or the host city wants to maintain a strong competitive advantage in exhibition market, they should analyze the professional exhibition visitors’ decision-making influencing factors, grasp the professional visitors’psychological motivation and changes in demand when they visit the exhibitions, and strengthen the marketing strategy’s relevance and difference. This study aimed at analyzing the decision-making influence factors of the professional exhibition visitors and providing recommendations on the marketing strategy for the exhibition organizer’s visitor promotion.On the basis of related domestic and foreign literatures, this study initially formatted the ideas and assumptions, built the system model of the decision-making influence factors of the professional exhibition visitors include internal needs influences and external stimuli influences, took an empirical research on decision-making influence factors of294professional visitors’of7exhibitions which held in SNIEC on July2011. Took the SPSS18.0statistical software for data processing and analysis, used the methods of reliability analysis and factor analysis, finally extracted the eight Impact Factor: Previous exhibitions, Costs of visiting the exhibition, Publicity efforts to invite the visitors, Procurement and to seek cooperation with exhibitors, Host city’s situation, Expectation to get information, Exhibition visibility and exhibits’relevance with the professional visitors’products, Expectation to learn technologies. In addition, this study has identified the influences’ contribution weighting, from high to low, they are Exhibition visibility and exhibits’relevance with the professional visitors’ products, Expectation to get information, Previous exhibitions, Expectation to learn technologies, Procurement and to seek cooperation with exhibitors, Host city’s situation, Publicity efforts to invite the visitors, Costs of visiting the exhibition.The empirical research combination of the before system model of the decision-making influence factors of the professional exhibition visitors found that the professional exhibition visitors mostly consider in two aspects when they decide whether to visit an exhibition:one aspect is Exhibition visibility and exhibits’ relevance with the professional visitors’products, Previous exhibitions and so on; the other aspect is whether professional visitors can get industry information through the exhibition and whether professional visitors can learn industry’s latest technology and to seek cooperation with exhibitors. So, professional visitors visit the exhibition mainly trying to interact and communicate with sufficient and high-quality exhibitors, learn industry information and latest technology. The study also showed that professional visitors are looking forward to establish cooperation with the exhibitors in the exhibition, which needs sufficient and high-quality professional visitors came to the exhibition site.Finally, this paper made recommendations on the marketing strategy for the exhibition organizer’s visitor promotion and hoped can help them in the positioning of the professional visitors and marketing.