Recently updated on January 24th, 2023
Custom Inflatable Furniture: Your Secret to Trade Show Success
You were pretty young the first time your heart sank when the lofty balloon you were dragging around gave up the ghost, but you likely learned the lesson that “what goes up must come down.” For companies exhibiting at trade and consumer shows, this law of physics can work the other way—-especially once you discover the value, benefits, and affordability of custom inflatable furniture.
Not familiar with this unique niche? You should be. Custom inflatable furniture, imprinted with your logo, sales message or anything else you want to convey to people as they pass your exhibit in a crowded hall, has the potential to save you time, money and stress in addition to giving your booth a coordinated look that spells success.
To find out how custom inflatable furniture can work for you, spend a few minutes perusing this post and if you’re not convinced, we’ll send you a new balloon to make up for the one that deflated when you were a kid!
ORDER YOUR CUSTOM INFLATABLE FURNITURE WITH A LIFETIME WARRANTY NOW
Call today to order your custom branded Strike Furniture. (801) 872-4055
What are the benefits of custom inflatable furniture?
Having already mentioned the fact that your coordinated booth interior layout will look inviting and welcoming, custom inflatable furniture serves as a stow-and-go exhibit hall plus. You inflate your furnishings in next to no time (while the guys in the booth next to you drag in heavy furnishings dented by the drayage dudes) so you are ready to put out your product in record time.
“You only have mere seconds to grab the attention of potential prospects, so make it count by keeping the booth design and all components, such as furniture, simple.” – Denise from applerock.com
Click to TweetOnce the show ends and you set about decompressing your furnishings, you can cart them off in a truck rather than an 18-wheeler and stow them out on your landing dock, inside a storage closet or offsite if the room is tight at your facility. Since each piece—-chairs, footrests, tables, and stools–is colorfully embellished with corporate art, nobody could possibly mistake you for a competitor.
Further, whether your booth rental happens to be the smallest one available within the convention center or your company is ready to make a huge splash by occupying an end cap, you simply inflate enough furnishings to fill that space, so your booth never looks too empty or too cluttered.
The psychology of booth design and why furnishings are important.
Are there psychological factors that come into play for business people who show up at trade shows? You bet. Everything about layout, booth size, design, product display, and signage must grab the attention of purposeful strollers enough to make them stop.
Small, sometimes unnoticeable physical barriers are enough to signal “Keep walking” to folks who came to browse and buy. You may be tempted to laugh at this statement if it weren’t true: Even a different color of carpeting you put down that contrasts with aisle flooring is enough to put shoppers off. This is called “the force field effect” by “The New Exhibitor” author Martin P. Smith. Match the aisle carpet color and more people will walk in to browse.
Some trade show novices don’t realize that they literally create a wall around the periphery of their booths when they line up tables and chairs in a way that discourages attendees from walking in. And display pieces that are so tall and unwieldy that nobody can see past them can do more to discourage visitors than empty display shelves.
How custom inflatable furniture stands out.
If you are considering adding inflatable furnishings to your trade show inventory, you may wish to know a little about how this type of product came to be invented. According to Chair Institute historians and marketers (https://chairinstitute.com/types-of-inflatable-chairs/), the idea behind air-filled seating pieces goes back to around 1956 when clever manufacturers of inflatable rafts got the idea to expand their market mix.
The concept proved so popular by the late 1960s, inflatable chairs were popping up everywhere, including the work of designer Quasar Khanh whose chair design attracted the attention of curators at the MoMA in New York City in 1968. By 1970, Khanh’s inflatable chair wound up being exhibited at the Louvre in Paris.
While engineered to follow bean bag chair design, inflatable chairs began to morph into sometimes quirky art forms, leading to the first collection of inflatable room furniture designed by artist Gaetano Pesce whose rooms full of furnishings self-inflated as each piece was removed from its box.
Fast forward to 2019. For business owners on the lookout for innovative new products to take to trade shows and events, the ability to buy furnishings imprinted with corporate sales messages and logos has proven a stroke of genius that is quickly becoming the affordable solution to set up trade show booths quickly and efficiently. And every moment that passes, each piece serves as a silent salesman conveying a company’s identity.
Why personalization matters.
Your mom told you often enough that first impressions matter. The same thing can be said about the way you personalize furnishings that go into your trade show booth. Stipulate imprinting that is so confusing and illogically arranged it defeats your goal of establishing your brand, or go to the other extreme by leaving so much blank space, you could have saved your money and not imprinted at all.
Relying upon a company that makes you look good and saves you money is the key to your trade show and exhibit success. When you choose a company like Strike Visuals for your furnishings and other needs, you get into business with a company that prioritizes your best interests and your bottom line.
Strike Visuals offers an expanded line of custom inflatable furniture that’s tasteful, practical and guaranteed for life. Build an inventory of chairs, sofas, bistro tables, bistro stools, ottomans and small tables that give your brand a distinct look and you will see the result in your show sales recap.
How your company’s art is transferred to custom inflatable furniture.
- Custom inflatable furniture design begins in the same way a piece of standard furniture does: Artisans use a CAD computer program to create the design, using standard measurements gleaned from authorities like the furniture industry to determine the size of the piece. A pattern is made to be used for mass production.
- A textile created exclusively for manufacturing custom inflatable furniture is selected. The client provides a graphic artist with the company logo and sales copy. In concert, the client and designer determine what colors will be used and where each component is to be placed on furnishings so tables, chairs and other pieces coordinate.
- A process called “dye-sublimation technology” is used to imprint sheets of textile made just for promotional items like inflatable chairs. Once imprinted, a staffer uses cutting devices to follow pattern piece configurations, at which point a heavy-duty sewing machine is used to join pieces and finish hems. A valve is installed in a discreet place to be used as a portal for inflating furnishings. The item is then boxed for delivery.
Marketing ideas built on your custom inflatable furniture.
Just because you invest in custom inflatable furniture to make your presence known at trade shows, that doesn’t mean attendees will pay attention to what you have to say as they breeze down the show floor being distracted by vendors on both sides of the aisle. You’re going to need some tricks of the trade to justify your expenditure and we offer a few you may wish to try.
- After enticing a potential customer into your booth and inviting him to sit down on one of your chairs, restrain yourself from pitching your product or service before the seat is warm. It’s okay to ask about how the show is working for them from a sales perspective and your ability to read body language can be your guide.
- Use your new customized pieces as hospitality tools. Invite attendees over for a “house warming” to show off your booth configuration and signature furnishings. Hand out magnets that say, “Have a seat” beside your logo and talk up your desire to make visitors feel right at home.
- Use your customized chairs to your advantage. By the time attendees get half-way through a large exhibit hall, they’re going to be tired as a result of concrete floors beneath the industrial carpet and the stash of premiums they’ve collected that run the gamut from cloth bags to imprinted calendars and those ‘fridge magnets. A sign that reads, “Be our guest; rest your feet” facing the aisle sends a friendly message—-especially for attendees who don’t wear comfy shoes.
- Take photos of booth visitors sitting in your chairs and offer to forward the image to their email accounts. Yes, this is a sneaky way to build a mailing list, but sometimes you have to think outside the table and chair to come up with a reason to lure folks into your booth. One of the best ideas we heard came from a company that decided to bring some funny hats to the convention center and invite “posers” to wear one while you snap the photo. The marketing genius who came up with this idea received a bottle of wine from the CEO.
- Keep tabs on the reactions of show visitors when you invite them to sit down. This can be especially valuable if your former conference or trade show presence consisted of display shelves and perhaps a counter on which to write orders if electronic devices aren’t capturing this data. Conduct a post-event evaluation to measure the effectiveness of adding custom inflatable furniture to your booth inventory. You wouldn’t be the first to realize that it paid for itself after just one show.
Promote Your Brand At Your Next Trade Show With STRIKE Visuals Custom Inflatable Furniture
A lifetime warranty comes with all Strike products! Free design help is offered to make sure you’re confident in the look and quality of your custom inflatable furniture. Strike offers many options and great customer service to help you find the right product for your needs.
Get Noticed – Strike Now! Call today to order your custom branded Strike Furniture. (801) 872-4055
