Richard Rose's List: Bosch Research

Matrex - more background on Chicago based competitor for Bosch

Matrex Exhibits, Inc. does work for bosch

Scheduling. Nailing down the scheduling and logistics for one tour can be a substantial challenge by itself. A multiple-leg tour requires a more complex strategy.
For Bosch Tools’ four-leg Big Blue Tour this year, the company has a three-part scheduling process. Paul Matras, the company’s event marketing coordinator, says the approach is “designed to keep the travel days down so we can maximize the number of events we do per year with the vehicles.” Looking at each leg of the tour separately, the company gets with the sales force to map out the must-hit events, including large accounts. Then, the company plots an initial tour route, showing what stops and what routes are still open for event days. Lastly, working with each sales force, the event team fills in which accounts they can hit with the vehicles.

“Attendees are more likely to stop by your booth if it is open, inviting, and interactive,” says Scott Jameson, manager-trade shows and events for Bosch USA. “Removing barriers in the front and the middle and making attendees feel comfortable [will draw them] into the booth.”

Full Moon Marketing created the National Clean Air Green Tour which Bosch participates in.

Events reach a smaller audience, but give a hands-on experience. Take Bosch Power Tools: popular among professional construction crews (its core market), but low-profile with consumers.

“We'd done business through our distributors, so we never really had a direct influence on the end user,” says Doug Shaffer, manager of marketing events for Broadview, IL-based Bosch. “In our business, tool touches equal sales.”

Bosch's two-year-old Big Blue Launch tour, has three 30-foot “workshops on wheels” that let participants try tools, with stops at industrial accounts, job sites, trade shows, and consumer venues from Home Depot and Lowe's Home Improvement to Motorcross and NASCAR races. Attendance varies from a few hundred to 2,000 people, depending on the location. But in true targeted fashion, it's not the mass that counts.

“We might go to a job site and only get 300 people, but 150 could actually buy something,” says Shaffer. “At Home Depot you'll get a lot of foot traffic, but they might only come in to buy a plant.” Bosch adds five vehicles for 2003 via Pro Motion, St. Louis.

Harmon & Associates is agency of record

Publicis owns at least a small part of the bosch advertising business

Bosch