Full Speed Ahead

There was a lot of excitement leading up to this year's NAMA OneShow, and having just returned from Las Vegas, I must say that it lived up to the advance publicity. According to NAMA, this year's event featured the largest exhibit area in the six-year history of OneShow, with more than 70,000 square feet and 77 new exhibitors. The show attracted more than 5,000 participants and 250 exhibitors from around the country. And on the heels of the successful Amusement Expo and NBVA Show in March, which also experienced a record upswing (see VT, April), we all have good reason to be encouraged.

According to the Vending Times 2014 Census of the Industry, the economic recovery that began in 2011 is the result of price improvements in the vending industry's strongest categories: cold drinks, snacks/confections and food. New research conducted by Technomic for NAMA and released at OneShow identified "better-for-you" snacks, fresh food, technology and premium coffee as the current drivers of the U.S. vending and refreshment services industry.

As I walked the show, these themes certainly were apparent, especially the continuing advances of technologies that are transforming the industry. Of course, such innovations as remote machine monitoring, the widespread adoption of the Vending Industry Data Transfer Standard (or DEX) and the swift growth of cashless payments are not new, but their adoptions required a good deal of fine-tuning by manufacturers and software developers, experimentation by operators and improvements to the overall telecommunications infrastructure brought about by consumer demand for cheaper and more comprehensive wireless services. We are over those humps now, and operators seem to be embracing the results to streamline their businesses and learn more about their customers. OneShow exhibitors were excited about this new eagerness to innovate, and so am I!

In recent years, one of vending's strategic problems has been the decrease in the average location size. Today's operator must pay close attention to maximizing sales through every machine by adjusting menus to every account's specific population tastes. The days are long gone when very large workforces could yield good profits even if half the people in a location never used the machines. In today's brave new world, operators must analyze sales in unprecedented detail and apply that analysis to ensuring that every machine contains the correct balance of categories and price-points. And modern technology is giving operators that detailed information, thus enabling them to boost route productivity while reducing costs. When these very granular data are coupled with wireless wide-area networking -- not to mention today's ubiquitous mobile devices (why connect the machine when the user is already connected?), operators can increase sales, bring added value to locations and create excitement among consumers.

Patrons today want more from their food and beverages, and it takes something special to provide an experience that will inspire them to come back for more. Your focus may be on vending, office refreshment services, micromarkets, or all of those methods, but gaining a competitive advantage in any of them almost always involves implementing an innovative, efficient and effective technology application. And with manufacturers designing more economical and durable equipment, it is now easier than ever to incorporate fresh food and specialty beverages into customer product offerings.

Clearly, whether you are an operator, supplier, manufacturer -- or trade magazine -- it's a great time to be in the vending business; this industry has so much going for it! With the improvements for operators well under way, some of the most important advances are being used to make the purchasing experience better for consumers by providing more relevant information, more convenient payment and more interactivity through mobile devices. So it's no wonder that the young consumers in "Generation Y" prefer vending machines to many other retail outlets. Why wouldn't they? They have grown up with 24/7 amenities like automated teller machines and self-service gasoline pumps that deliver fast service, without ever displaying attitude.

And this industry is well defined, manageable in terms of size, easily approached through well-established sales networks and a very few respected trade associations and periodicals like Vending Times. An effective sales mechanism and good communications can enable a supplier to introduce a product to away-from-home consumers who, if they like it, will ask for it in the other retail establishments they patronize. It is a matchless medium for obtaining targeted trial at low cost. For best ongoing results, the supplier can integrate promotions in the vending channel with initiatives in other retail channels and through social media. The possibilities are limited only by the imagination.