When I started in the this business, waaaayyyyyy back when folding panel systems and pop ups were duking it out for design supremacy, rentals were an afterthought. Really a non-thought. The Great Recession changed that. Rentals are now HUGE. And CUSTOMIZED. And BEAUTIFUL. At least those from Classic Rental Solutions.
Several years ago, the Classic Rental Solutions Division had a problem. A large percentage of our returns were coming back with significant damage and/or missing components. We weren’t sure what to do, but we knew we had to do something. We couldn’t restock those components since our policy has always been “If it doesn’t look like new, we won’t ship it. Period.”
As a parent, you teach your children to share — share their toys, their candy, their whatever.
At Classic, we’ve seen this rental trend since 2008. At first, it was driven by necessity. Exhibitors were committed to a show and/or committed to trade show marketing and their budgets were slashed. Now, however, that trend has less to do with slashed budgets and more to do with personalization, capacity, ownership, storage, and design.
Recently, what I thought would be a simple, straight-forward conversation left me scratching my head. I was meeting with exhibit industry colleagues, and the topic turned to rentals. Admittedly, rentals shouldn’t be puzzling. Rentals have exploded at a rate 3 to 4 times faster than exhibit purchases since the recession. It’s a hot topic. What surprised me was the perception and the language used to define the exhibit rental landscape.
You would think the sales numbers would prompt a new approach. Yet, many industry professionals are still using assumptions that are — frankly — antiquated. What do I mean by that? Allow me to share the conversation.
This video, produced by NETGEAR, shows their 2015 CES Exhibit. Except for the tables in the hallway in the beginning, it’s entirely a Classic Rental Solutions exhibit. Thanks to Steve Riches at Laguna Displays for sharing and for the order. A pat on the back the the CRS Team. This is a terrific example of how they create customized solutions for Classic Distributors every single day.
In July, Classic Rental Solutions (CRS) launched Rental Rewards, a program designed to reward our distributors for rental returns without damage or missing components.
Since July, we’ve issued 49 Rental Rewards Credits to 32 Classic Distributors. We’re thrilled with the early success of this program!