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Follow on Google News | Creative Integration For Your BusinessOne of the country’s leading innovators in the field of experiential branding, Rajiv Kapur, Founder and CEO of the Apopka, Florida-based firm, Configurations, has developed his company into an industry leader over the past 21 years.
By: Configurations Beyond simply producing powerful immersive experiences in a wide variety of face-to-face marketing venues and helping his customers realize the best ROO (Return on Objectives) and ROI (Return on Investment) in the industry, Kapur strives to create transforming experiences for both his clients and employees. He shares his years of expertise creating these experiences in his “Improving Results at Trade Shows” chapter in the new book “ROI Marketing Secrets Revealed,” in which over 30 of today’s top marketing experts share their knowledge with business owners hoping to crack the code and generate revenue beyond their wildest dreams. “I have a statement that I share with all of those hard working people who have helped make Configurations thrive every day,” he says. “I tell them, ‘Come to leave a legacy every day.’ Some people come to work just as a job or just to make a profit, but I want them to come here to leave a legacy. I want them to approach every one of our clients and every problem that comes up as if they are part of that legacy. We affect every person we come in contact with and can transform them with the way we do business with them. This philosophy can apply to the way our clients approach the internal branding of their businesses as well. Our lives should be about creating legacies, not just about making money. You can leave a legacy every day and every moment is important. The question is, ‘What would you want to be remembered as?’” Kapur’s personal answer to that question begins with his successful (and at times, unexpected and happily surprising) evolution from semi-pro tennis player during his college years to successful entrepreneur and founder of two companies, beginning with Visual Resources in the 80s. After being a top-ranked player in his age group in his home country, the Chennai, India native emigrated to the U.S. on a tennis scholarship, attending Anderson Jr. College in South Carolina before transferring to Mercer University in Macon, Georgia and finishing at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. While studying marketing and international business, Kapur played as a semi-pro until an injury forced him off a tour and into coaching. He and several pro athletes he knew in South Florida, including members of the Miami Dolphins, invested in Visual Resources. While still coaching tennis, Kapur decided to check out how things were going with his investment. Realizing the company’s need to develop its marketing division, he decided to go to work for it full-time. Much like Kinko’s does today, Visual Resources provided high-end graphics, design, and production services, focusing on high-end presentations for large Fortune 500 corporations, major advertising agencies, and architectural firms. The company came to specialize in mobile marketing and trade show presentations. Observing the way most companies on the trade show floors would use large scale versions of 8″x11″ ads they already had to capture people’s attention, Kapur had an epiphany. “I realized that trade shows provided the time and place to attract attention by tapping into people’s emotions with key images and words,” he says. “I saw that the messaging was in the wrong place, that emotion was where the eyes go, and the movement of people in these venues necessitated a more striking visceral experience than an enlarged print ad could provide. More innovative campaigns were needed for trade shows because of the sensory overload and intense visual competition, and that would involve creative use of textures and different materials. We needed to improve the imagery to create attention in that environment. It was all about communication at the peripheral level.” Although the work of Visual Resources began attracting strong attention, Kapur felt the interaction between his clients and their potential customers was not complete. So he founded Configurations, a company that is more strategic in its process of creating a programs for clients participating at trade shows. The goal of the new venture was to create strategies that drive creative environments and interactions that produce the desired response—moving a client’s target audience from brand awareness to brand adoption by differentiating the company from its competition. Recognizing that the #1 mistake companies make is failing to create a strategy to show how and why they stand out from the pack, Configurations began to teach clients about doing more than simply making claims. As Kapur says, “It’s about being the difference rather than simply claiming the difference.” Over the years, Configurations has worked with top corporate clients in Technology (Fiserv, Convergys, Knowcross Solutions), Agriculture (Sun Belle, Inc. Sunnyridge Farms), Consumer Products (Colomer USA, Johnson & Johnson), Defense/Military (Northrop Grumman, Harris Corporation, AFAMS, U.S. Navy), Healthcare/Pharmaceutical (Stryker, Liberty Medical) and Travel/Tourism (Norwegian Cruise Lines). In an effort to create an environment that would capitalize more of the use of five senses, the company created its Boothmanship© The key was making each opening presentation relevant to that individual and, during that conversation, using the exhibit and props to develop a multi-sensory experience connected to that. Those who took the Boothmanship course learned not only to how to communicate their company’s products but also the intangible aspects of the company and a sense of its corporate culture. “The overall idea was, ‘I’ll care about you if you care about me,’” says Kapur. “So they were giving off the feeling that not only did they provide a superior product, but also superior service and a budding relationship based on mutual respect. This training resulted in high ROI from day one because of all the newly created opportunities for business that arose from doing more than simply catching someone’s eye with colorful graphics. Our strategies were based on capturing new customers, retaining existing ones, and securing new business from old customers. We work from a five-step process: position, attract, engage, comprehend, and make memorable.” Another aspect to Configurations’ “As we did this, we saw an ability to increase results at trade shows through interaction, and through improved interaction we realized we were communicating a brand promise to the audience we were aiming for,” Kapur says. “We found that pre-show marketing improved results by about 33%.”... to read the entire article please visit: http://www.americaspremierexperts.com/ # # # Configurations is a leader in the design and production of trade show booths and trade show exhibits. For twenty two years we have created trade show exhibits that differentiate our customers from their competition. We cover the range of exhibit possibilities from a simple starter table top disply, pop up displays, to hybrid exhibits and larger very customized island exhibits and environments. End
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