The vending machine industry seems to be taking a cue from Web commerce— finding opportunity in mitigating fuel costs, offering an array of new, weird products, and taking credit cards.
A piece in the Wall Street Journal this morning profiles a group of entrepreneurs who are building a new vending industry by outfitting machines with high-tech features, and filling them with prescription drugs, electronics, art and even live bait.
In Morgantown, Pennsylvania, a city that has several of these “live bait” machines, customers were skeptical at first, but now appreciate that the machine saves them a 20-mile trip to the nearest bait shop. The live night crawlers (sandwiched between the minnows and the mealworms) cost $3.50 a dozen or $6 for 24.
In other places, InstyMeds Corp. machines are popping up to dispense prescription medicine with similar ease. The meds are electronically linked to a doctor’s computer system and use a unique patient code to validate each patient’s identity and prescription. InstyMeds has 200 machines in 24 states and has dispensed 1.5 million prescriptions since the machines began operating in 2007. Walgreens created a similar innovation a few years ago: in-store kiosks that let customers quickly refill prescriptions (See our essay about it in the Game Changers report).
Whether they realize it or not, these services are taking a tip from the Web’s playbook: Usefulness is best achieved by thinking about everything as user experience.
Food and fuel costs have increased, traditional snacks are under assault for being unhealthy, and with offices downsized people take fewer breaks and eat at their desks. They also carry less cash on them. #Useful: The troupe of vending machine entrepreneurs are levering these factors to guide new user experiences.
For the last couple years, we’ve been traveling the globe talking to leaders at some of the world’s best companies and trying to learn exactly what separates the best from the merely good. Today, we’ve published our analysis of what we’ve learned, in a report called Game Changers.
A key takeaway was that even though companies today recognize the important factors required to generate long-term growth, many are not investing resources and energy into them.
Recently, Wolff Olins CEO Karl Heiselman sat down with Co.Design to talk about exactly what we found and how it applies to businesses aiming to grow faster and do better.
Read Co.Design’s story behind the report and check out Game Changers for yourself. And most importantly, let us know what you think! We’ll publish and respond to your feedback.
You can see the trend in supermarkets everywhere—moms in aisles probing deeper and deeper into product labels. Knowing where something comes from and what it’s about is increasingly important to consumers. And a new survey says people are now more than willing to do the detective work to figure it all out.
Weber Shandwick recently surveyed consumers and business execs in the U.S., U.K., China, and Brazil and found that 70% of respondents stay away from a product if they don’t like its parent company. What’s more, transparency has become a necessity. 56% hesitate to buy a product if they can’t find information about the corporation behind it.
Though consumers and executives both agree that social and environmental responsibility are important talking points, consumers are also becoming quicker to point out the cognitive dissonances between what a brand says and what their parent corporation does.
A Fast Company story on the research singles out Kashi’s problems relating to its parent Kellogg: “One of the ingredients in Kellogg’s FiberPlus Berry Yogurt Crunch—the preservative BHT—gets a thumbs-down from Kashi’s Ingredient Decoder tool.” Can’t you just see your mom’s disapproving nod?
As customers, communities, and shareholders use new criteria to make their judgements, companies that are seen as irresponsible or creating products without purpose will get punished. And companies that get it right will get rewarded. Havas media documented that more than half of all consumers worldwide are prepared to reward responsible companies by choosing to buy their products—and that percentage keeps rising.
Of course, this reveals a huge opportunity for brands to distinguish themselves. Only 28% of consumers worldwide think that today’s companies are working hard enough to solve our social and environmental challenges.
How and where will businesses find responsible growth? Game Changers, an upcoming Wolff Olins report, looks at this issue from companies’ perspectives and highlights the key behaviors that are now shaping the future of business.
Which high-growth companies are stepping up to distinguish themselves by being both commercially and socially minded?
What will happen to brands that don’t innovate to create new value?
More to come. Stay tuned for Game Changers, coming soon to WolffOlins.com.
Last Thursday night, I was invited by Tim Murray, Target’s Creative Director, to join him at an AIGA event. The theme was “Collaboration: Target’s New Target” and I had the privilege of sharing the stage with Michael Ian Kaye from Mother, and Joe Stewart from Huge.
Tim reviewed work from all three agencies. Mother’s never-been-done-before marketing extravaganzas. Huge’s guest-centric e-commerce experience that deftly balances the love of shopping and satisfaction of buying. Wolff Olins’ creation of up&up, a blockbuster owned brand that boldly delivers Target-ness without saying Target.
In addition to the fact these were all collaborations with Target, what else did each of these projects have in common? They are each game changing.
What are the conditions for game changing work? It starts with an ambitious leader who has a clear vision and a desire to make a difference – both for the business and in people’s lives.
From there, game changing work requires a keen understanding of the cultural zeitgeist – tapping into what matters most to people and making a credible connection between that spirit and the business.
And lastly, game changing work must make a positive impact – change for good. Each of the examples that Tim shared certainly had a positive financial impact for Target, ranging from the most successful store opening ever to double-digit growth for one of their biggest owned brands. And as importantly, each example also made a positive impact in people’s lives. A celebration of community and creativity for Target’s Harlem store opening. The ability to get basic products, from diapers to shampoo to garbage bags, that provide both amazing value and awesome design. An online shopping experience that re-writes the e-commerce rules and reflects everything you love about wandering the aisles at Target.
What sets Target apart from the crowd is their ability to consistently expect, recognize and enable game changing work from and with their creative agencies. And that commitment benefits us all.
