Bringing the show to the customer is one thing, but bringing the customer to the show is another.
Many companies supplement or replace their trade show programs with internal marketing centers or demo rooms. Recently, I had the opportunity to tour the Hewlett-Packard (formerly EDS) marketing center in Plano, Texas. My host was Susie Tobin.
This is one great marketing/customer center. Formally know as the HP Experience, the center is one of 33 around the world. It gives clients, prospective clients and industry influencers and overview of the company’s capabilities. Because of security rules, I was unable to take and publish photos of the center. However, I’ll do my best to give you a word tour of the facility.
As a guest, once you are brought in through security and badged, you are greeted by a company employee who guides you through the major stops. Like a docent in a museum, these guides are veteran employees from all over the world who apply and meet stringent guidelines to be accepted into the program. Our guide this day was from The Philippines.
The theme of the center is built around these five “P’s” (concepts) of the combined companies’ histories and culture: people, processes, partners, patents and proof. Each major stop emphasizes one of these points.
The first major stop is at the foot of a long stairway leading to the heart of the center. Here, the guide explains that the large (at least 30 inches square), black-framed, black-and-white) photos depict the people of the company around the world.
Traversing the stairway, we entered a modern lobby and were greeted by two other hosts and our names and company name featured on a large video monitor. Taken into a coffee bar area, the tour overview video is shown here. There are several videos available, with each one highlighting a special employee and their committment to their client. The video relates a story of success in a 2- to 3-minute format.
From here we moved to the next “P”: process. We are seated in comfortable chairs in what appears to be a carpeted theatre fronted by a dark, heavy drape. Once comfortable, our host draws back the drape to reveal floor-to-ceiling windows that overlook a NASA-like control room. The rows of computer monitors below us are bright and the operators blended into the darkness surrounding them. At eye level, well above the floor are at least seven large video monitors which relate key points to us as the guide/host rolls them out to us. Included in the cneter video screen is a posting of our company website rotated with antoehr personalized greeting.
From here we move down a hallway and pass a glass wall emblazoned with vinyl logos of key partners of HP. Behind the glass are examples of products that the partners provide or work with HP on to serve common clients.
Ushered into another simple theatre room (about 15 feet deep by 30 feet long), we are shown historical relics of patented products and processes from ATMs to radio-like devices from the combined companies’ past: this is the patent room.
Lastly, we move to a large industrial-like room with metal fixtures and monitors as furnishings. Here we stop at a large (40-inch plus) monitor and hear a video testimonial from the company rep working with the Royal Air Force in the UK. This is the “proof” area of the tour.
That concludes the tour. We leave back through the lobby we entered and are each handed a gift. The whole experience takes less than an hour. From here, if we were customers, we would probably head for lunch and more meetings on our specific project.
Centers like this are not new. But the complexity and how they are included in the sales and marketing process of companies continues to evolve. While HP’s Plano facility is a fabulous example, a company need not be this elaborate to add to the story they need to relate to their customers.
TTSG
