Veteran Marketer Proves Booth Babes Don't Work

[Paradoxrifts]

The real trick would be to hire booth babes that could do the same work as the professional saleswomen that he hired to 'compete' with them.

 

[Lightknight]

The real trick would be to hire booth babes that could do the same work as the professional saleswomen that he hired to 'compete' with them.

It would be interesting. The issue may not be booth babes, but may be the degree to which they're objectified. What about an attractive girl who is only slightly provacatively dressed (subtle and not too unrealistic) that is well trained on the product? Would that perform better or would that cease to be a booth babe?

 

[teamcharlie]

Hooray! More reasons to stop hiring pretty girls for things! Now instead of filling those jobs with icky ladies we can bring a clearly underrepresented demographic back to the video game industry: men.[/sarcasmfontthattotallyexists]

 

[Sniper Team 4]

I've never been to a convention, but the pictures I've seen of Booth Babes are nice, but I don't think I'd be comfortable approaching them. Maybe if they toned down the sex appeal a lot, and they just appeared as regular fans of the stuff, then okay.
Also, and I may be stepping into a serious trap right here, I think it would be nice if the girls tended to actually know about the game/product they were marketing. Most interviews make them seem like, "Yeah, it's a job and I have no idea what these people are talking about when they come up." That kind of attitude is a bit off putting.

 

[secretkeeper12]

I don't have a broad experience with trade shows, but the one big one that I was at (for a boring, technical industry) I don't recall even a single booth babe. To be sure, if any company had any employee under 40 who worked in the office and was vaguely attractive then she was assigned to staff the booth (my company included), but I don't think there was a single woman there in non-professional attire or who didn't act as a representative of the company with information on hand.

In fact, when I Google image search that trade show's name together with "booth babe" all I get are pictures of fat beardy men in sweater vests and pictures of product. The trade show was pretty boring for me, but then again I was only there for tech support- I'm not actually interested in the product. I imagine for people who wanted to be there, there was enough to occupy their attention without needing boobs in a sling. I prefer my professional environments be professional, radical feminist that I am.

What was the name of that convention? You've made me very curious!

 

[Helmholtz Watson]

Doesn't work? I'd say that they help lighten up the atmosphere quite well.

some heterosexual men might find them insulting, as though they need see a scantily clad woman to be gain interest in something. Which is essentially the purpose of them in the first place.

If such people really exist, then they need to take they need to reevaluate their life. If they want to be offended by something that actually matters, then they can be offended by the probability that their labtops, computers, ipods, and cellphones help fuel violence in Africa because those electronic things use conflict resources.

 

[rbstewart7263]

Veteran Marketer Proves Booth Babes Don't Work

Booth babes are everywhere, but it turns out that they're actually not very good at what they're supposed to do.

Booth babes. A lot of people don't like them, but go to just about any kind of trade show and there they are, drawing your attention to the latest videogame, sports car, big-screen television or machine gun. (Seriously, check this out [http://www.gunsandammo.com/2013/01/21/gas-booth-babes-of-shot-show-2013/].) They're ubiquitous, and they show no sign of going away anytime soon - but do they actually work?

According to veteran marketer Spencer Chen, they do not, and he tells a pretty good tale to prove it. A couple of years ago he stumbled upon an opportunity to test his belief that booth babes are "anchors" by staffing two booths for the same product at the same show very differently: One with "professional booth babe talent" and the other with contractors from the local area who brought more to the table than just physical attractiveness. He was initially alarmed by the reps provided for the second booth - "They weren't just older than your typical booth babe, one was literally a grandmother," he wrote - but the results spoke for themselves.

"The booth that was staffed with the booth babes generated a third of the foot traffic (as measured by conversations or demos with our reps) and less than half the leads (as measured by a badge swipe or a completed contact form) while the other team had a consistently packed booth that ultimately generated over 550 leads, over triple from the previous year," he wrote. "Everyone on the team was genuinely surprised by the results but duly convinced. It was like showing some hardened sales reps a new golf swing."

Chen said he was able to duplicate the results at other events over the course of the year, a rather important part of his "proof," and also noted that booth babes aren't just ineffectual but can actually be detrimental: Many attendees find their presence intimidating and the ones they do attract "were always the overconfident weirdos." Most objections to booth babes are based on the sexism inherent in the role; perhaps Chen's observations will offer a more practical reason for doing away with them, and be more successful in making it happen.

Source: TechCrunch [http://techcrunch.com/2014/01/13/booth-babes-dont-convert/]


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sounds more like knowledgable talent is better than just good looking talent rather than simply no talent at all but people take from it what they will.

 

[Lt. Rocky]

We've created something that's very difficult to make a feasible solution for. Because of how gender equivalency and moral standard has been attempting to make such a push into the games industry among many others, there's almost no way that this 'issue' could be solved in a way that wouldn't involve someone losing and possibly losing their job. The idea of having a pretty person standing next to a piece of technology as though to say "The power of our intellect will never truly surpass the power of our libido" was always shallow to say the least, and never should have happened to begin with.

Charlie Chaplin's quote "We think too much and feel too little" was powerful and is something we should always live by, but I don't think a good solution to that would be to mix them both together with something cutting-edge and a pretty person standing next to it.

 

[MatsVS]

I think, seeing as "booth babes" are there solely to be sexual objects for men, they should be allowed to judge the men approaching them by exactly the same metric. As in, if a creepy dude who looks pretty much like a bag of testie-sacks someone kicked over, like the dude depicted in the story, they girls should be allowed to make that observation and deride him for not being up to their standards. It'd only be fair, really.

 

[geizr]

This is not too surprising to me. Using distraction as a marketing tactic screams, to me, at least, that the product you are selling is pure crap, and, worse yet, you actually know it to be such and try to sell it anyway; that's just reprehensible. Whereas, those selling products they actually believe in and believe to be good, and worthwhile, will not feel the need to resort to such tactics. That inspires confidence and piques the interest of the consumer.

 

[Souplex]

One with "professional booth babe talent" and the other with contractors from the local area who brought more to the table than just physical attractiveness.

For it to be a good study, he would also have to try a booth with that had both as well.
All this says is that people do indeed want someone who knows what they're talking aboot.

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

2 unofficial tests by a guy does not prove anything. Now if someone did an actual study, I'd be interested.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

No shit. I'd rather have an informed person to give me actual information about the product than a live Barbie doll that serves only as eye candy and may actually distract from the product.

 

[chadachada123]

The real trick would be to hire booth babes that could do the same work as the professional saleswomen that he hired to 'compete' with them.

It would be interesting. The issue may not be booth babes, but may be the degree to which they're objectified. What about an attractive girl who is only slightly provacatively dressed (subtle and not too unrealistic) that is well trained on the product? Would that perform better or would that cease to be a booth babe?

Honestly, I would be less comfortable being sold something from an attractive female than by an average male/female, because I'd be wondering how much her behavior is genuine and how much she's just trying to sell me something.

And that's all booth babes feel like to me: Trying to sell me something by abusing my baser instincts than by the superiority of their product.

 

[sneakypenguin]

Eh Idk that I would consider it proof. "Booth" babes or umbrella girls or W/E can have their place in event marketing. At some road racing events 2 of the teams despite being middlepack runners have quite the merchandising presence of which the Umbrella girl/booth babe operators play quite a role at least in brand recognition. When walking through the paddock who do you stop at Team DHL or Team Flying Lizzard with the smiling chatty boothbabes who's staff you've seen walking around chatting people up and taking pics all day? Judging from the number of people sporting their t shirts after the race I'd say w/e flying lizzard and the muscle milk team did worked pretty well.

I think part of what makes a good BB is an affiliation with the product being sold rather than just "talent" you hired.

 

[orangeapples]

Just out of curiosity (I don't go to conventions), but has anyone actually surveyed how much the booth babes actually know about the stuff they are advertizing? That would also be an interesting study.