A promotional model is a model hired to drive consumer demand for a product, service, brand, or concept by directly interacting with potential customers. A majority of promotional models typically tend to be conventionally attractive in physical appearance. They serve to make a product or service more appealing and can provide information to journalists and consumers at trade show and convention events.
Practice
This form of marketing touches fewer consumers for the cost than traditional advertising media, but the consumer's perception of a brand, product, service, or company, is often more affected by a live person-to-person experience. While each model may not be directly employed by the company they represent, they can be trained to answer questions and provide customer feedback regarding products, services and brand appeal. The responsibilities of the promotional model depend on the particular marketing campaign being carried out, and may include: increasing product awareness; providing product information; creating an association in the consumer's mind between the product or brand and a particular idea; handing items to consumers, such as a sample of the product itself, a small gift, or printed information. Marketing campaigns that make use of promotional models may take place in retail stores or shopping malls, at trade shows, special promotional events, clubs, or even at outdoor public spaces. They are often planned at high traffic locations to reach as many consumers as possible, or at venues at which a particular type of target consumer is expected to be present.
The motorsports scene refers to promo models as race queens. In Japan, they are known as image models and are being hired even by government agencies.
Spokesmodel
"Spokesmodel" is a term used for a model who is employed to be associated with a specific brand or product in advertisements. A spokesmodel may be a celebrity used only in advertisements (in contrast to a "brand ambassador", who is also expected to represent the company at various events), but often the term refers to a model who is not a celebrity in their own right. A classic example of such spokesmodels are the models engaged to be the Marlboro Man between 1954 and 1999, and the Clarion Girl since 1975. Contrary to what the term suggests, a spokesmodel is normally not expected to verbally promote the brand.
Trade show model
A trade show model (also known as a convention model, trade show hostess, booth companion, or booth professional) is an assistant that works with a company's sales representatives at a trade show exhibit, working at floorspace or booth and representing a company to attendees. Such models are used to draw in attendees and can provide them with basic information about product or services, and may be used to distribute marketing materials or gather customer information for future promotions. Attire varies and depends on the nature of the show and on the image the company would like to portray, and they sometimes wear wardrobe that is particular to the company, product, or service represented.
Trade show models are typically not regular employees of the company, but are hired as they make a company's booth more visibly distinguishable from other booths with which it competes for attendee attention. If needed, they can explain or disseminate information on the company and its product and service, and can assist a company in handling a large number of attendees which the company might otherwise not have enough employees to accommodate, therefore increasing the number of sales or leads resulting from participation in the show. The models can be skilled at drawing attendees into the booth, engaging them in conversation, and at spurring interest in the product, service, or company.
Controversies
The slang term "booth babe", coined in 1986, is widely used to refer to any female trade show model. The models are typically asked to pose for photographs with convention goers, but inappropriate attendee conduct sometimes occurs, such as in case of Electronic Arts' 2009 "Sin to Win" campaign to promote Dante's Inferno. Since the late 1990s and increasingly so, the practice of employing them has been, controversially, strongly criticized by some journalists and segments of video game industry and consumer electronics communities. Critics of "booth babes" declared it a sexist problem, describing the practice as "outdated", sexually objectifying and demeaning, as well as insulting to and alienating other women, in particular those in the information technology industry. In turn, some others argue that the models and companies are being unfairly targeted, accusing the critics of finger-pointing sensationalism, displaying "extreme" political correctness, being prude and pro-censorship, and spreading a Puritan-like moral panic.
The moniker "booth babe" is also controversial itself as it is considered offensive and degrading by some, including trade show models themselves. The term nevertheless continues to be often used by journalists and by the people opposed to the presence of the models they define as "booth babes".
Changing social and business standards have resulted in a decrease in the use of promotional models in trade shows, especially in the United States. The largest video gaming business convention, Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), attempted to ban "conduct that is sexually explicit and/or sexually provocative" in 2006 following Agetec's 2005 "Anti Booth Babe" protest, but reversed on this stance in 2009, after complaints regarding this and other policy changes. GameSpot's Greg Kasavin commented that, with this attempt, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) was "trying to put a definition to what constitutes scantily clad and what's borderline offensive" as it was "under a lot of pressure these days to clean up the image of games and to at least demonstrate that the video-game industry is responsible in regulating itself" in the aftermath of Hot Coffee mod controversy.
China Digital Entertainment Expo & Conference (China Joy) introduced and strictly enforced a dress code in 2012, saying they did not want "to send the wrong message" to their adolescent primary audience, and San Diego Comic-Con International banned the SuicideGirls erotic models from having a booth in 2010. Video game convention Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) adopted a dress codes for both male and female models in what they call a "no booth babes" policy guideline, where "booth babes are defined as staff of ANY gender used by exhibitors to promote their products at PAX by using overtly sexual or suggestive methods. Partial nudity, the aggressive display of cleavage and the navel, and shorts/skirts higher than 4†above the knee are not allowed." Eurogamer Expo did not allow them completely in 2012, saying they wanted to make a more "friendly" show and all visitors "to feel comfortable," with a formal guideline saying "Booth babes are Not OK."
The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), including its president and CEO Gary Shapiro and senior vice-president Karen Chupka, initially defended the use of female models who were deemed not dressed enough by critics but discouraged the practice in 2014 after a Change.org petition started by a Forbes technology journalist Connie Guglielmo demanded a ban on them and reached 250 signatures. The campaigners' proposal to "ban booth babes" was rejected as the CEA refused to "create and impose arbitrary or unenforceable rules, or worse, inch our event towards a Talibanesque ban on exposure of skin," but the new Consumer Electronics Show (CES) exhibitor guidelines stated, "recent news articles show that ‘booth babes’ can reflect poorly on your exhibit, so we ask that you give this thoughtful consideration, to avoid alienating or offending various audience segments."
See also
- Celebrity branding
- Cheerleading
- Cosplay
- Gravure idol
- Maid café
- Podium girl
- Pseudo-model
- Ring girl
- Video vixen
References
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