‘Just Like The High Street?’ The Data You Need – And The Data You Don’t

It’s been vending’s mantra since the explosion of coffee culture in the UK: ‘we can recreate the High Street retail experience’. However, do vending operators really need to copy the Costas of this world by offering apps and loyalty cards? Planet Vending Editor Ian Reynolds-Young discusses the data you need – and the data you don’t – in the context of the new GDPR legislation.

 

Data
Ian Reynolds-Young

I’m not one for confrontation, me. So, when I was giving a talk to the members of a vending buying group recently, only to be (really) rudely interrupted by a little fella whom I took to be the personification of ‘arrogance’, I didn’t take him on. In fact, I turned the other cheek.

Back story: I’d been preceded, as a speaker, by a representative of a rather well-known search engine and for the best part of an hour, she’d regaled her audience with information that was, frankly, about as much use to vending operators as, well… find your own analogy. (But think ‘ashtrays on motor bikes’, or ‘chocolate fire guards’, that sort of thing).

And yet, my loud and vexatious heckler would have had us all believe that his business – sorry, let me re-phrase that – the firm he works for, needs to know as much as possible about the consumers who use its vending machines.

He thought there was commercial advantage to be had by building an app, which every consumer would download when they were using ‘his’ machines; that it was a good idea to get them to input their name, address; their shoe size, their inside leg measurement…

Really?

‘We all want to know our consumer’, he sneered. But the real question is at what level? Do we truly need to understand consumers individually as people ,or collectively as a group, to help us decide which products to sell them? And how is a vending operator going to use all that information? How does it help that an operator knows that Joe Bloggs bought a Kit-Kat from machine X, at 11:42 on 18 May? What valuable commercial advantage does that snippet of information give him?

With GDPR, collecting data can put your entire operation at risk.

Maybe you’re thinking, ‘well, with the benefit of all that knowledge, we can target Mr Bloggs with promotions’? Well, nice; but have you heard about something called GDPR, which comes into force next week and brings the storage of data under strict new regulation? What are you going to do to protect all that juicy data from hackers? If you get hacked – correct me if I’m wrong – don’t you run the risk of being fined around 10% of your revenue?

DataIt’s a pipedream, folks. Collecting all that data does nothing to increase your sales and, faced with the measures incumbent in GDPR, it can put your entire operation at risk.

You’re a vending company. What you really need to know is: ‘have my Kit-Kat sales stayed the same, or have they fallen? If they’re falling, where are they falling and why, and what can you do about it? What’s the difference in the performance of a particular coffee machine in, say, B&I, as compared to a hotel? This is the kind of data that’s going to help you deploy your resources to maximum effect.

Data: the very last thing you need to be worrying about is the consumer

Frankly, given the scale of (almost) every vending company in the UK, the very last thing you need to be worrying about is the consumer as an individual, if all you want to do is understand the trends which are likely to have most impact on your sales.

There’s no benefit to be had by making it too personal, and that’s because you’re not a consumer facing company. You’re not a brand; you’re a business that sells other people’s brands to consumers and isn’t it their responsibility to ensure that the products they supply have the consumer insight that resulted in their creation?

Again, there may be one or two exceptions but by and large, I’m not convinced that a loyalty app in vending is ever going to work. In a closed environment where the consumers are largely the same, day in, day out, how can a loyalty app have a positive influence on sales?

I understand why some vending operators want to do it. If you’re Broderick’s, for instance, with a branded business in busy airports, (where there’s stiff competition around every corner, 24/7), it makes sense. And since Broderick’s is such a success story, it’s hardly surprising that their strategy is being copied by other companies shouting, ‘me too, me too!’, without really thinking about their own specific circumstances.

Data: the idea of an app is great, if you’re Costa Express.

The idea of an app is great, if you’re Costa Express supported by the Costa consumer brand. But creating and maintaining an app if you’re working in a closed environment is actually giving value away. If a consumer in that situation wants something, they’ll buy it. Maybe your app will get you one extra sale a day? Well, wuppy-doo. How long, at that rate, will it take you to get a return on the investment you made creating the bloody thing in the first place? Not to mention maintaining the app; maybe having a dedicated member of staff to do all the promotions and make them bespoke? An app has to have an entire engine chugging away behind it for it to have any discernible effect…

For the same investment, you could probably put an extra sales person on the road!Data

When push comes to shove, it’s all about having the right technology in place, for the right reasons. Copying the High Street, should begin – and end – with matching the quality of the product experience it delivers. Shouldn’t it?

Data: you’re a vending operator, not a brand.

I say it again: if you’re a vending operator, you’re not a brand. You’re never going to be advertising on TV, are you? You’re in business to do one thing, and that’s to sell as much product as you can, at the best price you can, to make as much money as you can. End of.

Keep Calm, and Remember the KISS Rule: ‘Keep It Simple, Stupid!’

 

More from Ian Reynolds-Young, Here
Need to know more about GDPR? Here

About the author

The Editor

Planet Vending’s Editor is Ian Reynolds-Young and it’s Ian’s unique writing talent that has made PV what it is today – the best read (red) vending blog in the world, and vending’s best read (reed). Ian ‘tripped and fell into vending’, in the capacity of PR executive, before launching a specialist agency, ‘reynoldscopy’, dedicated to the UK Vending business. The company continues to represent the interests of many of the sector’s leading brands.

‘It’s all about telling stories’, he says. ‘We want to make every visit to PV a rewarding experience. By celebrating the achievements of the UK’s operating companies, we’re on a mission to debunk the idea that vending is retailing’s poor relation.’

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