PEV301 International Events Management: Furniture Show in Barcelona

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the UK Furniture Show's potential expansion into the Spanish market, specifically Barcelona. It includes a SWOT analysis, evaluating the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats associated with the event. A PESTLE analysis assesses the political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental factors influencing the event's success in Spain. The report also incorporates an STP analysis, focusing on segmentation, targeting, and positioning strategies. Furthermore, it examines the relevance of the event to the target audience using socio-demographic data and Hofstede's cultural dimensions. The report details the theme and design of the event, proposes a marketing plan based on the 7P model, and analyzes potential cultural barriers to the event's success. The study concludes by highlighting the importance of comfort and easy makeshift arrangements in furniture choices, emphasizing the need for mutual understanding between different cultures to ensure a successful international event.

Running head: INTERNATIONAL EVENTS MANAGEMENT
International Events Management
Name of the student
University name
Author’s note

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INTERNATIONAL EVENTS MANAGEMENT
Introduction to the event
In the current assignment we have
taken the UK based JANUARY
FURNITURE SHOW (JFS) into
consideration. It brings some of the most
ambitious global home decors business
organizations to discuss regarding the art
of creating a beautiful and comfortable
home. It is one of UK’s largest exhibitions
conducted for print industry with a
heritage of 180 years of experience. It
provides the world class decor and
infrastructure solutions for almost all size
of offices and homes. It provides a global
platform for the manufacturers to show
their unique creations. The JFS is held in
January every year and is a three days
event. The event attracts home decor
solutions from across the world and is
attended by close to 20,000 visitors and
400+ exhibitors
(januaryfurnitureshow.com 2018). The
event covers a display of all types of
furniture starting from coffee table, dining
table, glass table lamp etc.
The event had been a major hit in
UK ever since inception. The event not
only supports business houses but provides
improved infrastructure for homes. The
world class home decor technology and
solutions are offered at nominal prices to
newly set up offices. Recently the
organisers have been attempting to take the
event to a new international market. The
new international marketing domain
selected by the company was Spain
whereas the targeted marketing niche was
Barcelona.
The event is presided by a number
of quality furniture producers such as
ABrito, ACID Llimited, A’ design home
product Inc.(ipex.org 2018). It had also
been supported by a number of media
partners such as the Guardian Media Group,
Chelsea Magazine Company.

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INTERNATIONAL EVENTS MANAGEMENT
SWOT analysis of the event
The SWOT analysis of the event helps in the identification of the strengths, weaknesses,
threats and opportunities. Some of these have been further analysed for better understanding.
Strength Weakness
 Long heritage value associated
with the event
 International reputation
possessed by event
(furniturenews.net 2018)
 Single platform depicting an
array of home decor solutions to
power business and homes
 Poor online presence
 High costs associated with the
three days event often makes
getting sponsorship difficult
(Geldres-Weiss et al. 2016)
Opportunities Threats
 Increased international
distribution (Varadarajan 2014)
 Supports education program
though philanthropic activities
 Increased awareness regarding
workplace ergonomics
 Changing taste of customers
 Protection of the ownership of
the newly conceived ideas
 Security concerns of the
attendees
 Increased environmental
concerns owing to emission of
carbon particles
Therefore, based upon the above points success of the event could be predicted. In this
case, the long heritage value associated with the event can give the event a competitive
advantage (Howells et al. 2016). Based upon the reputation of the event, investors are attracted
from across the world. As mentioned by Oumlil et al. (2015), reputation of an event can be
used to build strategic partnerships. One of the weaknesses associated with the event is its poor
online presence. As mentioned by Geldres-Weiss et al. (2016), the lack of an effective online
presence can result in failure to attract a huge investor base. Integration of the business
objectives with social media can help in attracting more customers. The event is frequented by a
huge number of global leaders which can help in tying up with more number of distribution
channels and partners. The new age home decor technology and solutions can make office work
more comfortable. However as argued by Kalafsky and Sonnichsen (2015), there are threat
concerns owing to the changing taste of customers and increase in the rate of carbon footprint
emissions.

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INTERNATIONAL EVENTS MANAGEMENT
Relevance of the new location for the event
The relevance of the new location of the event
can be analysed with the help of a pestle analysis. The
PESTLE factors could be broken into-political,
economical, social, technological, legal and
environmental factors.
Factors Effect
Political  The changes made by the
local government related
to rate of imposition of
taxes can affect the
success of the event
Economical  The trade and
manufacturing prices
accounts to 16% of the
economy (Tafesse et al.
2016). Hence , there is
much scope for the
business to expand
Social  Spain being a tourist
attraction attends large
number of visitors
annually
(furniturenews.net 2018).
 Hence , providing
comfortable living
options would result in
optimum customer
satisfaction
Technological  The revolutionary
designs can help in space
saving and also are easy
makeshift arrangements
Legal  Breach in protection of
patent rights of the newly
invented home decor
technologies can lead to
legal consequences (Witt
and Rao 2015)
Environmental  The increased carbon
emissions can lead to
environmental concerns
An STP analysis could be conducted
in order to understand the strategic positioning
of the event in the global market. Here, STP
refers to segmentation, targeting and
positioning of the event.
Attributes Factors
Segmentation  Separate supply
chains of furniture for
business and homes.
Targeting  The business
companies who can
afford the new age
designs to be
approached.
 Some of the products
will be pitched across
the start ups at
nominal prices which
will give their
business a boost
(januaryfurnituresho
w.com 2018).
Positioning  Easy to use
 less carbon
emissions

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INTERNATIONAL EVENTS MANAGEMENT
Relevance to target audience
The relevance of the event to the target
audience to the event could be analysed with the
help of socio-demographic data. The Hofstede’s
cultural dimension could be broken down into a
number of parameters which could be used to
analyse the target market. Some of these are
power distance index (PDI), individualism versus
collectivism (IDV), masculinity versus feminity
(MAS), uncertainty avoidance index (UAI),
pragmatic versus normative, indulgence versus
restraint.
The Spain market has been seen to be
dominated by high PDI where there are mostly
centralized organizations with complex
hierarchies (Fromm et al. 2015). Therefore,
pitching the products across the organizations
would have been difficult owing to huge number
of layers which has to be passed before the
product makes a connection with the business
objectives (Valverde et al. 2015). The Spain home
decor market puts more emphasis upon comfort
living. Therefore, promotion of a product across a
developing segment of the market would result in
high profitability (Weller et al. 2015). In high
UAI, the fear of failure is high, which prevents
one from adopting a more flexible attitude. This
can make the small scale business organizations
apprehensive before purchasing the new designs
olutions.
On the other hand, a pragmatist view
adopted by the business organizations would allow
them to critically analyse the benefits and perks
associated with a new product. As mentioned by
Lyman (2017), the indulgence is further dependent
upon the disposable economy of the country.
Communication styles:
The communication styles adopted are
extremely important for the success of the business
event. From the business perspective the
communication style could be further divided into
three types such as ethos, pathos and logos. The
most adopted mode of communication by the
business organizations is logos, as it will help the
JFS organisers to present the facts and stats to the
audiences (Deresky 2017).

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INTERNATIONAL EVENTS MANAGEMENT
Details of the theme and design of the event
The designing of the theme is very
important to the success of an event which has
to be done with the respect to the location. In
this respect, the JFS organisers want to conduct
a furniture trade show in the Barcelona city of
Spain later in the year during the October-
November sessions. Reports have shown that
74% of the people who visit the trade fair are
looking to buy the new and revolutionised
designs for their homes and office
(januaryfurnitureshow.com 2018).
Additionally, it provides some of the decor
solutions at nominal prices for start ups. For
the event, a memorandum of understanding has
been signed with a number of Spain based
companies.
However, detailing the event is very
important for making the event successful. The
theme chosen for the JFS event for the Spain
based event later in the year is –“World-class
innovation...to make everyday living
comfortable for you”. Since the event is a
grand affair it is going to host companies from
worldwide. Therefore, the JFS organizers
ensure that the guests are given the best of
accommodation facilities. Throughout the day
time in the conferences there will be an
arrangement for snacks as well as beverages.
At night a grand dinner will be hosted in the
Renaissance Barcelona hotel where the event
will be hosted though the day. The catering
will be done by some of the best local chefs
and hotel groups. The event will host
interesting program such as musical nights and
interesting debates on home decor solutions.
The event will display the wide range of new
age design which will occupy comparatively
less office spaces (januaryfurnitureshow.com
2018). This has been undertaken as a move to
preserve the green and reduce the emissions of
carbon in the environment.

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INTERNATIONAL EVENTS MANAGEMENT
Marketing plan for launch of event
The marketing plan for the event
could be designed with the help of a 7p
model. The 7p here stands for product, place,
price and promotion.
Attributes effect
Product Home decor and furniture for
offices
place Spain based home decor and
furniture markets
Price  Starting @ 200 british
pounds
 Offering of services
at cost –effective
prices
Promotion For the promotion objectives
the organizers will be using
print and social media
People The products will be designed
for Spain based industries as
well as small scale offices along
with homes
(januaryfurnitureshow.com
2018).
process The products could be ordered
online as well as dispatched
physically through additional
distribution channels
(januaryfurnitureshow.com
2018)
Physical
evidence
The physical evidence will be
provided in the form of
warranty extension certificates
which will help the business
organizations receive free of
cost services and easy
exchanges in case of faulty
furniture delivered.

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INTERNATIONAL EVENTS MANAGEMENT
Analysis of barriers
Cultural barriers often possess a
huge number of barriers to the success of
a business event. As mentioned by Van
Der Aalst et al. (2016), the cultural
values, beliefs and faiths possessed by an
individual often affects the business
processes. In this respect, the event will be
attended by large number of global leaders
from different countries, cultures and
language (furniturenews.net 2018). Hence,
they may not agree regarding the same
product or services. Additionally, the
cross cultural differences in an
organization can influence the different
degrees of absorption and the utilisation of
the products and services.
Conclusion
It has been seen that 50% of the
furniture choices are done based upon
comfort design rather than creative design.
Globally 75% of the offices have been
seen to pick furniture designs with easy
makeshift arrangements. The beliefs
possessed by an individual further shape
their purchase behaviour (Stark 2015).In
here some countries may focus more upon
the technology whereas few may focus
more upon the cost effective services.
Therefore, coming to mutual terms
regarding the provision of both
technologically advanced and cost
effective services can help in resolving the
difference in cultures.

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INTERNATIONAL EVENTS MANAGEMENT
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