Exhibitions occupy a special place in the marketing and communications strategy of any company. There is no other means of communication which can be approached so individually and nowhere else it is possible to provide face to face negotiation with customers, bringing into play all the five senses (sight, hearing, taste, touch and smell) to make them aware of their need for information or, in some cases, to satisfy an existing need for such information.

A specialized industrial exhibition is a place for bringing all its branches together and offered opportunities are almost limitless. In any successful business getting in touch with customers is a key strategic factor in both international and local markets. Another advantage of taking part in an exhibition is that it affords an opportunity to maintain contacts with existing clients. Researches of the exhibitions prove that "exhibiting goods at a trade fair influences purchasing decisions six times more than any other method and people remember exhibitions longer than adverts". Statistics prove that 57 percent of buyers purchase goods and services at exhibitions and 90 percent of visitors use the information they obtain at exhibitions when making decisions about buying certain goods or services.

Among the advantages of taking part in an exhibition is that a company attracts attention to its goods - and not just the attention of the specific group of people visiting the exhibition, but also of the media and of the state structures. It also offers them quantitatively and qualitatively excellent contacts with the targeted group at a relatively low cost.

Exhibitions afford the most direct form of sales: face to face with potential clients and suppliers. The cost of conducting business through exhibitions is almost half of that (45 percent) of using more traditional direct sales methods. Given the estimated cost of one visitor, the costs of exhibiting are considerably lower than those of any other form of advertising.

To sum up, exhibitions offer participants many advantages, including:

• The cost of contact with one representative of a company’s target audience at an exhibition or trade fair is markedly cheaper than any other means of advertising.
• The unique "extra-territorial" nature of an exhibition makes it much easier to establish contacts; in this environment you, your potential customers and your competitors are all on neutral territory.
• An exhibition is the ideal place to learn about demand for new goods and to conduct research into what your competitors are doing.
• An exhibition is an effective means of helping a firm to penetrate new foreign markets or establish dealership networks.
• An exhibition allows you to show your new goods in action.
• The fact that media representatives attend exhibitions makes it a lot easier to work with them and helps with the creation of PR material.
• Taking part in an exhibition allows you access to a fairly substantial segment of the market in a short period of time.
• For any business an exhibition is a bridge linking customers, wholesale and retail trading companies, suppliers and manufacturers and it offers a competitive environment for making new contacts.
• The very best intellectual and material resources available for you to take advantage of are concentrated in and around an exhibition for the short period of its duration.