In the world of business, customer engagement is one of the most important aspects that people have to focus on daily. The world is filled with so much “noise” that it’s become difficult to break a customer’s attention away from video games, television and more towards what really matters the most: your business. This is especially true from the perspective of a vending machine manufacturer, as competitors are cropping up all the time.
International vending machines in Japan have adopted a bold new strategy when it comes to attracting attention – not only are they giving away free items, but they’re doing it with the help of social media.
Japanese Vending Machines and Instagram
If you had to make a list of the most significant trends to develop over the last few years, the “selfie” would no doubt be right at the top. For those uninitiated, a selfie is when you aim a camera not away from you but towards you and take advantage of the front-facing camera that most smartphones have to offer. Social media is littered with all kinds of selfies – from pictures of people with celebrities to showing off new hairstyles and more.
Now, Kirin Beverage is leveraging the power of the selfie to their benefit with a new line of international vending machines that they’ve rolled out in Japan. In conjunction with the hugely popular social network Line, the vending machine has not only a camera built into the front but an LCD display.
The premise of this vending machine is simple. When a customer buys a drink from the vending machine, they get the privilege of taking a selfie using the machine’s camera immediately after. The result is a fun social experience that can then be shared directly to Line, Instagram and other popular social media networks across the globe.
Thanks to the popularity of the selfie and the vending machine’s multi-language options, this has seen a huge boost in sales for everyone involved. It is essentially the best of both worlds – vending machine companies and related businesses get to enjoy a boost in revenue and customers get to experience a fun, unique experience that they won’t find anywhere else. Everybody wins.
The Instagram vending machine is just one of the many innovative ways that businesses are using to increase customer engagement today. Getting the right type of attention doesn’t just mean understanding who your customers are and what they like – it’s about learning how to use those elements to your own advantage with each passing day.