“Heidelberg’s multi-stage concept is based on personalised addressing of target groups and dialog between the company and its customers – before, during and after the trade show”, says Dr. Klaus Spiegel, member of the Heidelberg Management Board and responsible for products and marketing.
“The various international measures involve customers, employees, opinion leaders, print-media buyers, journalists and investors and utilise all existing communication channels from dialog and advertising campaigns to electronic and print media, the website and, last but not least, the drupa booth itself. This will all be complemented by targeted marketing measures around the exhibition center”, continues Spiegel.
Heidelberg is expecting around 400,000 visitors from over 170 countries at drupa 2004.
7,800 sq m of high-performance products and solutions
Heidelberg will be presenting what it claims is the world’s largest networked printshop with an end-to-end integrated workflow on an area of 7,800 sq m in halls 1 and 2.
The design of the booth is geared to the individual business models of customers and features integrated solution portfolios for the five market segments commercial print, industrial print, packaging, web offset and digital printing. The entire added-value chain from prepress and press to postpress, including practical print job demonstrations, will also be on show for each particular segment.
The Prinect Center, in which Heidelberg brings together its integrated workflow portfolio, rounds off the exhibition concept by networking all the processes encountered in the printshop. Presentations for the individual solution portfolios have been translated into nine different languages and all brochures are available in four languages.
Integrated customer care concept
Tours of the individual solution offerings are designed to ensure a maximum amount of relevant information is conveyed in the shortest possible time. Every visitor has their own Heidelberg drupa planner to guide them quickly and efficiently through the booth with the help of signposting.
In addition to the drupa planners sent out in advance as part of the dialog program, visitors will also receive full and personalised support at the booth.
Heidelberg’s drupa presence is further complemented by a range of extras which offer customers more detailed information. These include customised tours of the trade show, organised visits to reference customers and the opportunity to visit the Heidelberg site in Wiesloch, the largest printing press manufacturing plant in the world, and the Mönchengladbach site, where sheet punches and folder gluers are produced.
Heidelberg has also set up its own drupa website featuring an interactive map of the halls, a list of exhibits, travel tips, drupa news and lots of other interesting information:
www.drupa.heidelberg.com
Every drupa visitor can also make use of a dedicated hotline (0800-drupa04) free of charge during the trade show to find out what Heidelberg has on offer as well as travel information, events and general information on Dusseldorf.
There is also an ample supply of refreshments both for customer meetings and visitors who just want to sit and relax. To round off the customer care concept, the Print Media Lounge is open all day and offers a “relaxing zone” at the Heidelberg’s drupa booth. In addition to its extensive menu, the International Lounge offers a varied programme of events in the afternoons and evenings. Heidelberg has also arranged a Limousine service in conjunction with Volkswagen AG for VIP customers.
Something for everyone
Heidelberg is offering a special information package tailored to print-media buyers. A tour created specifically for this target group leads visitors through the Heidelberg trade show space and provides information on innovations and trends in the areas of production, services and training in the print media industry. The focus here is on networking the added-value chain from data handling and Internet-based ordering of print products to integrated production and topics such as colour management.
The mailshot: personalised targeting to customers in more than 100 countries
The dialog programme is based on personalised addressing of target groups. The three-stage mailshot, which covers more than 100 countries, is therefore personalised to fit the profile of each addressee, depending on which of the solution offerings at drupa he is interested in.
Even in the first stage of the mailshot campaign, response rates were already around 25 per cent. Thanks to a targeted telephone follow-up campaign and additional mailshots, customers will be fully prepared for their visit to the trade show.
Details of all interested parties will be recorded during the trade show by means of a lead, order & complaint management system. As a result, information requested by customers can be sent out during drupa and a daily success evaluation can be performed and contacts followed up.
The advertising campaign
Since January 2004, Heidelberg has placed 22 different advertisements featuring the drupa slogan “Created with Passion. Made for Success”, mostly in the trade press all over the world.
The testimonial campaign illustrates Heidelberg’s closeness to the customer. It features two motifs next to each other, one showing Heidelberg employees from the company’s many different fields of operation, the other customers who are directly or indirectly connected to these fields of operation. This conveys the message that Heidelberg employees are extremely committed to ensuring their customers’ success.
Almost all of these motifs appear on the external walls of the drupa exhibition halls, as part of the trade show booth and in the dialog campaign.
Training measures and internal communication
In the runup to the training sessions, the drupa team explained the trade show concept to employees at key Heidelberg sites in a series of information roadshows. A regular newsletter also provided all Heidelberg employees with all the relevant information on the progress of the project.
Heidelberg sets great store by its internal training measures. The 2000 international employees who will be on duty at the Heidelberg booth are receiving extensive product training and instruction on handling customers. This takes the form of both web-supported e-learning and face-to-face instruction to prepare staff for visitors to the Heidelberg booth.
“For Heidelberg, the success of our customers is our most important asset. The commitment of our employees is the key to this success. No other company in the print media industry invests as much in this area as Heidelberg,” says Adriana Nuneva, senior vice president and head of Marketing at Heidelberg.
The integrated campaign was produced in cooperation with the international advertising agency Michael Conrad & Leo Burnett, Generators-Communication and Etronixx GmbH. Stengele + Cie. and Born + Strukamp also played an active role in designing and constructing Heidelberg’s drupa booth.
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