Marketing Through Eugene's Eyes

  

Japan’s love for technology has taken several leaps forward – this time, in the world of vending machines. 

I just wanted to share with you an interesting marketing blog on Japan’s vending machines.

Vending machines that help a customer choose a drink are becoming increasingly popular in the technology-obsessed nation of Japan. Equipped with a touch screen and a camera, the vending machine can help decide your drink based on whether you’re male/female and whether you’re young/old, whilst taking the weather into consideration. Talk about a whole new innovative level of satisfying a customer’s needs and wants…this is just insane! 

Japan has a “fetish” with vending machines. It has the “highest concentration of vending machines in the world”, mainly because of the convenience it offers. Having been to Japan three times, I have first-hand experience of how difficult it may be sometimes to wait in line to purchase a drink, tea/coffee or other items from a grocery store or local convenience store, especially in busy districts such as Shinjuku, when I can just walk to the front of the store or a few metres down the road to a vending machine.

This is especially so given Japan’s mammoth population of more than 127m – there are just so many people going in so many different directions!! Whilst in Japan, I could not help but be intrigued by the merchandise sold in the many, many vending machines located on almost every street, in every shop and in every nook, cranny and corner – they were basically everywhere. I clearly remember my experience of buying a hot chocolate, cappuccino and meal tickets for a restaurant from a vending machine, and I also remember seeing vending machines selling cigarettes, magazines, electronic goods, underwear and even food!   

In fact, fresh bananas are now being dispensed by vending machines. Re-filled three times a week, these vending machine-dispensed fresh fruits may be a direct competitor for vending machine beverages and may have contributed to the 9.2% fall in vending machine beverage sales between 2008 and 2009. These fresh bananas have found a little niche in the extremely-competitive Japanese vending machine industry. It seems like a wise investment given that the Japanese people are more than willing to catch onto any fun, new technology-oriented quirk.

Also, very recently, Hitachi has invented a Biometric Vending Machine that recognises finger vein patterns, which are linked with the person’s credit card stored on file. This basically eliminates the need of using a bank card, cash or even a mobile (yes, you can scan your mobile for some purchases and use it as a train ticket) when buying items from the vending machine. This has literally re-defined convenience. However, Hitachi has not indicated whether it will mass produce these biometric vending machines. For now, they sit in the Hitachi offices…reading and dispensing. 

But who really would have thought that the humble vending machine dispensing an afternoon snack or drink could turn into an artificial person – essentially – with its own mind and that could read (biometrics)?    

I now know what I want to do next when I return back to Japan, hehe.