VENDING MACHINES

Vending Machines is one of the more neglected retail formats. Vending machines are automated machines that typically provide items such as cigarettes, snacks and beverages. Recent trends in the use of vending machines have included the sale of coffee and other hot beverages, personal items, lottery tickets, baked goods like cakes!, pizza!, meals, newspapers and postcards, cannabis, and more. It is reported that vending machines, on average, earn $5-$100 per week depending on location, product assortment, and recurring business expenses (How much does the average vending machine earn? Lindsay Kramer, Chron.com, March 29, 2019).

Vending machines have also evolved and are now equipped with technologies to increase consumer interaction and engagement and to accelerate digital payments. Think about how consumers behave when it comes to medical and health safety products (such as personal protective equipment -PPE -like disposable medical face masks, hand sanitizer, disposable gloves and other safety supplies) and then DO vending machine business (comprising at least 3 vending machines) to market PPE to consumers who wish to purchase health-related protective equipment and supplies to safeguard themselves in the midst of the convid-19 pandemic and more generally. To date, we have learned about a variety of consumer behaviour techniques and best practices. Taking into account the previous modules that we have covered in this course, you are to explore key aspects of consumer behaviour and think about how you would launch a company to address the insights you will have developed. You can go beyond the traditional perception of vending machines to much more (the next-generation vending machine).

Consider differentiation from competitors that also offer such services, including recent start-ups. Reflect on positioning and branding.

Question Below:

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

State the objectives to be accomplished. Also, what you have established from the work you have done.

J) SEGMENTATION AND TARGET MARKET

Think about how consumers might have different needs when it comes to PPE and the implications this

has for market segmentati on. Might it be appropriate to segment the market by gender, for example? Are there other aspects of demographic segmentation that might be appropriate based on your considerations earlier in this paper or more generally? can you segment the market by life style or by an aspect of your consideration earlier in this paper? What are the implications for your consideration when it comes to target market selection and your product offer? For example, if you plan to offer PPE goods according to gender, how might you make this distinction in your vending machines? Be as specific as you can.

K) POSITIONING

Positioning answers the question why a consumer should buy from you, and specifically who the consumer is expected to be, what value they are to receive, the reason why this matters, and what the competition is. A positioning statement is often captured by a company with a tagline. For example, McDonald's says "I'm loving it". Nike says "Just do it" and so on.

In this section of your response, answer the question why a consumer should by PPE from your vending machines as opposed to other vending machines and other distribution channels, who specifically who the consumer is expected to be [restate target market from above], what value they are to receive, the reason why this value matters, and what the competition is. Having gone through this consideration, invent a brand name for your vending machine company that is logical and in context, and a tagline that builds upon all the content of your work thus far in this paper.

L) VENDING MACHINES

Now you have developed a brand and tagline for your business but there are other things to consider as you respond to the consumer behaviour you have explored. There are three levels of product: core benefit, physical/actual product and augmented product. What is the core benefit that you are intending to deliver to your target audience? What are the physical elements of the product, in this case vending machines and the contents of the vending machines? Here you might discuss the functionality of the vending machines and the technologies that they are to employ. What PPE products will they carry? What colour will the vending machines be painted in? Consider other aspects of the physical appearance of the vending machines and their contents. Then think about the augmented product which includes the intangible aspects of the vending machines. For example, where do you want your vending machines to be located? It matters a great deal if the vending machines are located where consumers are in a rush -say at the boarding area for flights at the airport as opposed to the retail area within the airport. Consider other intangibles, such as associations of your brand with those of charities or health-related causes. And so on. [This section of your paper does not need to consider price or

marketing communications as these would be components of a marketing plan, which is not the subject of your assessment here but the marketing plan would be a natural outgrowth of this document].

CONCLUDING COMMENTS

Summarize the main learnings you have developed in this paper for a vending machine retailer and more generally for retailers.