How do you run a marketing campaign with vending machines? | Vending Expert Series Ep. 10
Smartven started a new form of informative series on vending machines titled Vending Expert Series. The series with more or less 2-minutes long will be in the format of asking questions to the vending machine expert, and hopefully can help people understand better about vending machines in a less text-book way. Special for this episode, the 7-minute long video will thoroughly discuss ‘How do you run a marketing campaign with vending machines?’ Let’s take a look.
Branding strategy
In building a brand, it is necessary to do many strategies in order to reach more consumers. First, it is important to do branding, especially for a new brand. Without branding, your product will be left aside. But first, what is branding? Branding is also said as a form of business to create an image to be displayed to the public. Branding can also be interpreted as a way for sellers to communicate their products to potential customers.
A good branding strategy will increase people's trust and will have a positive impression on the brand itself. You will also win from other competitors with similar products. If you already believe in a brand, consumers will certainly buy the brand's products and can even become regular customers.
When the brand is widely known by the public, we also want to expand our business and maintain consumer trust, right? This can be done through the event of marketing campaigns and improving customer experience.
Unique branding ways
When it comes to branding, what immediately comes to our mind is usually the use of the internet. In creating an online presence, various brands are aggressively implementing their strategies. Starting from hiring internet celebrities, content creators, to creating online campaigns. However, a brand or business, especially one that is engaged in retail, usually has an offline store to sell its products. This is where offline presence is needed. The retail business must also have its own way of branding offline.
Today, brands can do this branding with a vending machine only. We get into the term brand activation which means an activity created by a brand to create interaction with consumers or increase brand awareness. Usually, this is done by opening booths at big events. Well, this is where the role of the vending machine will complete this brand activation strategy.
Taking an example from Smartven, here are some reasons why vending machines are the right choice:
Depending on the locations, the vending machine can easily be moved anywhere accordingly.
The design can be customized so that it attracts the attention of visitors.
The system on the machine, for example the Cloud Management System in Smartven, makes it easier to update catalogs or prices remotely.
Interactive features can be added so that will attract passing visitors to come to the machine.
Features to implement on building a brand
Following the journey of Smartven, there have been many brands that have entrusted their branding or brand activation with vending machines. Let's see some stories!
In the Indonesia Open event, Blibli used the vending machine to attract the audience of the match to create a Blibli account using the machine. The machine had an interactive game with prizes to win and specifically for Blibli account owners. These points can be exchanged for rewards in the form of tumbler.
Kopi Kalyan, a well-known coffee brand, wants to always be present near the community, especially to support the Indonesia Basket League (IBL) event. They provide vending machines that sell canned coffee so that it is easier to buy wherever the IBL event is held.
The luxury beauty brand Dior has its own way of getting closer to consumers. They created a campaign by first distributing invitations accompanied by cards to visitors. This card can be exchanged for special packages that Dior has provided for each person. No need to bother writing names or confirming identities because everything is done automatically.
Various features for brand building strategy
Smart vending machines always have a way to be more attractive. With Smartven, there are features that can be added to support branding with brand activation. There is also a feature to carry out a gamification strategy that can be used as a marketing campaign. This strategy is to apply the game concept to marketing. There is also a membership feature where loyal consumers will receive certain rewards when shopping at vending machines.
Not only about marketing, we also have to improve the customer experience so that the consumer shopping experience is maximized. The manual promo feature or flash sale promo could be one solution. There is also a lead capture system. In the process, consumers will enter data in the machine such as email and mobile phone numbers (we can use this data to send information about the brand later). After the data is entered, they will get a reward or other promo. We can also use a membership strategy if we want to give rewards and get closer to consumers.
Most importantly, for business owners, the use of this vending machine can complement the role of branding and marketing with an offline store. The difference is, apart from making it more economical, you can move this offline store anywhere with large foot traffic.
The weekly series will cover more interesting topics about vending machines, so make sure to check the video on Smartven’s YouTube channel, and give it a thumbs up, comment, subscribe and share the video! You can always check our website and Instagram page for more information. Stay healthy and see you in the next episode!
English version written by: Nadhiya Pradhanitasari
