WEDDING PLANNER SINGAPORE ROADSHOWS
If you are living in our little red dot, you will definitely cross path with wedding roadshows and exhibitions in our shopping malls. The wedding industry has gotten so big to the extent that they might even book a whole expo hall for a roadshow/exhibition. We all know that it is a common business strategy for Bridal Studios and Wedding Planners to hold these events and Singapore couple usually feels that purchasing in these fairs, you will surely get a cheaper or better deal. But is that the case?
ROADSHOWS IN BUSINESS PERSPECTIVE
Wedding Fairs & Roadshows naturally involves more costs incurred due to marketing, flyers, venue rental and manpower name the least. All these add up to more marketing cost en compared to marketing through their usual channel such as walk ins and online platforms. However, in the functioning of a free market, when you put a lot of the same businesses in a similar location, the competition will heat up. Consequently, to stay competitive, wedding vendors have to reduce the price to attract brides to be & grooms. You can argue that this will be beneficial for consumers in terms of pricing, but with additional cost yet diminishing profits, the wedding vendor might remove value added items from the standard packages to indirectly reduce cost. What this creates is potentially lower quality services/products. Unfortunately, some vendors might even resort to charge additional costs at a later date to maintain their profit margin. An example of such costs would be overrun hours. These are items if not explained properly, it will be dreaded hidden costs that cause much unhappiness in a joyous occasion.
SELL SELL SELL
One thing we must understand is that its common practice to hire part time promoter or sales team in wedding roadshows in Singapore. These sales reps are not full time employees of the vendor and might have their compensation tied to the amount of new business they can close. I’m not saying that all of them are out to swindle, there are definitely ethical sales reps, but that they might be incentivized to sell and it is up to you to be discerning in what you purchase. If you signed up because you feel the services that they are providing is good, you may not be able to see the sales rep again and anything they promised are only verbal agreements. Key thing here is to have everything written down in black and white for all the promises they had offered in your invoices. If not you run the risk of not receiving the over promised services in the future.
THIRD PARTY VENDOR’S CREDIBILITY
It is a common misunderstanding that the wedding vendors that provided the packages are the same vendors that deliver the services. It is a norm in the industry to tie up with third party vendors to provide a bundled package to attract more clients. This usually involves a bundle of wedding gowns, pre wedding photo shoot, actual day photo shoot and wedding videography. Some of these services might be provided by freelancers and hence, the quality might be of concern. This is especially more so for wedding videography services. As a wedding videography service provider, we take pride in our works and understand that a video product is very fluid and may have different styles. For couples to protect themselves, always ask for viewing of portfolios before making any decision.
HOW TO MAXIMISE A WEDDING ROADSHOW?
In our opinion, the worst decisions are made when the consumer is uninformed. Therefore, simplest way to ensure that you get a good deal is to do your own research. Never head into a roadshow blind and worst still, commit to a package on impulse. You need to know the standard of a normal package, use it as a point of comparison, thus during the roadshow, you will be able to understand if the wedding packages or wedding videography services are really a better deal. The next step is to do a quick online search for reviews on the vendor. There are numerous review sites such as bridestory.com.sg or WeddingForum.sg.
CONCLUSION
In the paragraphs above, by no means are we bashing the idea of a roadshow or shine a bad light on the practices of the industry. What are trying to do is to make consumers understand the dynamics of the industry and protect themselves. After all, everyone wants to have a successful and memorable wedding!
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