February 4, 2012

Posts Comments

You are here: Home / Archives for Successful vending

The Crush It Report – Volume 9

December 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Note From The Founders

“Crush It” BIG Time With Your Family & Friends

Whereas we’d usually say “yo yo yo” to yah, today it gives me great pleasure to say “ho ho ho” instead.  Can you believe that Christmas is already here?  Wow…with all of the uncertainties of life, one thing is for certain…time only speeds up!

Holiday Season

Be your best!

Not only is the clock of life constantly ticking down, the RATE at which time evaporates is constantly increasing.  If this alone isn’t a good enough reason to crush it NOW, I don’t know what is.  Time is only spent, never gained, so don’t waste it.  Each moment we have is so darn precious…my only hope is that I’ll fully realize this statement before it’s too late.  Today is the day, this second is the second…no better time than now to make the most of our incredible existence.

Family & Friends First

In the 1st edition of the Crush It Report, we defined what it means to “crush it.”  Crushing it involves many things.  Why?  Because it’s a mind-set, it’s an approach, it’s a way to live life.  Therefore, “crushing it” touches everything in your life.  And whereas business and success are important components of life, they’re not as important as family, friendship and faith.  When compared to these things, business is secondary.  Because without friends & family to share your successes with, and without faith and belief in a larger vision than yourself, “crushing it” doesn’t mean a thing.

Holiday Cranberries

Enjoy the Holidays

So my only wish & hope for you this week is to go and “Crush It” BIG time with your family & friends.  Be the best family member and the most enjoyable friend this Christmas…be the life of the party and the person in the room improving everyone else’s experience.

Relax & Recharge

Allow your thoughts of business and success to take a backseat for a bit, and if you do, you’ll not only have an amazing time with the most important people in your life, you’ll also naturally put yourself in a position to absolutely dominate the New Year by way of the most optimal mindset.

Next week we’ll talk about New Year’s resolutions that actually work, and the most important thing you can do NOW to set-up 2011 as your best year ever.  But for now, go and crush it with your family and enjoy the wonderful gift of life that we’re so fortunate to enjoy.  Merry Christmas to you!

Yours in festive crushing,

Sean & Andy

Founders, Human Healthy Vending

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Double Your Productivity Overnight

You know those days when you pop out of bed feeling alert, alive, and ready for anything?  Heading to work is a breeze, and you finish up early because you were so productive.  When you get home you get ambitious and cook up a feast, which is delicious and only furthers your satisfaction with the day.  It feels great to be around people and they feel great being around you.  At the end of the day lying in bed, you think think to yourself, “wow, that was a great day”.

Wake Up!

Everyone has those days once in a while, and it is always nice.  But the question we should be asking ourselves is, why isn’t everyday like that?

If you ask any “successful” person what the most important part of their day is, you may or may not be surprised to find out the answer is usually how they wake up.  Why is this?  When you wake up, the feeling you have sets the tone for your whole day, and during this time it is up to you to determine how your day is going to play out.  Lucky for us, we can make sure to have a great day by taking some simple steps to ensure we wake up feeling great.

Waking Up More Productive

Before You Go To Sleep

List before bed

Before you go to sleep

The secret to a good wake up actually starts before you even get in bed.  Before you go to sleep, make sure to write down the top 3-5 things you would like to accomplish in the coming day.  Make sure to only write down your 3-5 most important tasks, any more than that will actually start to hinder your productivity, as you will feel overwhelmed.

Wake up

Immediately when you wake up, go and drink a tall glass of water.  This will not only be refreshing, but it is necessary part of jump starting your day.  After 7-8 hours of sleep, and not drinking any water, your body will be dehydrated and you will feel sluggish.

As you are drinking the water, start to go over the 3-5 things you want to accomplish during the day.  Take a few minutes to visualize the steps you need to take to accomplish them and become comfortable with them.

Get out there and move!

Begin your day as you normally would, whether that means doing some morning exercise (highly recommended), or just hopping in the shower and eating breakfast.  As you go through your routine keep coming back to these tasks and continue to visualize yourself knocking each and every one of them out of the park.

By the time you actually get to the tasks, you will be prepared and ready to “crush” them.

If your normal morning routine does not help you get in to a positive mindset, it is time to start thinking about changing it up.  You may want to start exercising in the morning, research shows that getting your blood flowing before you start your day will boost spirits and increase productivity.  It doesn’t have to be intense exercise; even a light jog or power walk will wake you up and make you feel better.

Once you find a routine that works for you, stay with it.  Your body will become accustomed to this routine and start to associate it with waking up.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

How To Decide What Task To Do First

Here is a great clip from Eben Pagan’s “Wake Up Productive” program.  This clip outlines easy ways to prioritize your tasks, ensuring that you are working on the most important projects when you are best prepared.  Eben is a productivity master and his tips for keeping your day organized and successful are usually very simple, informative, and easy to implement.

If you are looking to get back your day, while taking your life and business to the next level, visit his site and buy the program.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Helpful Products For Operators

As you expand your vending business, you will soon realize you are taking in too much money to count by hand.  While this is a great thing, at a certain point it will become a problem for your business.  When it gets to this point, it is time to buy a currency counter.  The main thing to consider when purchasing currency counters (both coin and bill) is speed and accuracy, with accuracy being first, of course.


Money Counter

A machine like this will save time

What Are Your Needs?

Before you make a purchase, you need to make a decision between two types of counters.  You can get a money counter that will count mixed bills (for example $5 and $1 together), or one that requires you to presort all your bills before counting.  The mixed bill counter will make your life easier, but also comes with a higher price tag.  These machines tend to last a long time so think not only about your current needs, but also what you will need in the future.

When you decide which machine you want to purchase, make sure you bring with you a large stack of cash to test the machine.  Bring 100 singles and a significant amount of $5, $10, and $20. Run these through the machine a bunch of times to make sure it counts them consistently.  If you order online, run the same tests you would run in a the store before deciding if it is worth keeping.

This is NOT sweet

If you are looking for a machine and don’t really care about aesthetics, it is advisable to go with a used machine.  They will be cheaper and just as reliable.

One of the best companies out there is Cummins-Allison.  If you get to a level where you need to count large amounts of money every day, you can go with a machine called the Jet-Scan.  It is a premium machine that is both accurate and incredibly fast (also expensive).

Coin Counters

There are also many change counters and sorters out there.  The choice comes down to balancing functionality with price, as the machines will do anything from just counting, to sorting in to individual sleeves.  Do some research on your own to see what will work best for your needs.

Related Posts:

Filed Under: CRUSH IT REPORT, H.U.M.A.N. Tagged With: , , , , ,

The Crush It Report – Volume I

October 27, 2010 By 8 Comments

Note from the Founders

So what the heck does it mean to “Crush It”?

At HUMAN we talk about “crushing it” all the time.  Most of the time this means creating big time business success in the world of healthy vending with all of our top-notch operator partners.  But it’s not just about business success.  That’s only part of it…a very important part, but still only a piece of the entire puzzle.

 

At HUMAN “crushing it” begins with our vision of a better, healthier world.  Check out this HUMAN revolution in the video above.

“Crushing it” is also about mastering, or working towards mastering, every area of your life that’s important to you.  Creating optimal health & happiness, excelling as a socially-responsible entrepreneur, making sure you’re having a whole lot of fun, being a great friend & family member, and a whole lot more.

At the end of the day “crushing it” is the same as excelling.  It’s just a lot more fun to say!

HUMAN Team Pic

The gang's all here!

To be happy is to crush it. To provide tons of value to your customers & business partners is to crush it.  To be an awesome mom or dad that has time to attend your kids sporting events & school activities is to crush it.  To wake-up every single day prepared to dominate your day and conquer any obstacles that come your way is to crush it.  To not let little things get you down is to crush it.  And certainly, to fight childhood obesity head-on by providing a very malnourished world with healthy vending machines is to crush it!

Maybe “crushing it” seems silly to you.  But that’s ok.  We simply know that we at HUMAN like to “crush it” and it’s a part of our everyday lives and our everyday culture.  It makes us better, makes us have more fun, and makes us motivated to do our very best.

junk food machines are horrible

Members of HUMAN Team "crushing" old-school, nasty, junk-food machines. This is definitely "crushing it."

So from here on out we’re going to be sending off weekly Crush It Reports to spread our energy & hopefully help you in one or more of the many things you want to achieve.  This will involve vending advice (obviously), entrepreneurial tips, and even personal development motivation.  Because all of it matters….ALL of it.

We’ll even be including free giveaways, special offers, and other fun stuff.  So don’t skip ‘em!

Alright?  Let’s get on with “crushing it”!  Like it, love it, live it.  Go on & “crush” your day.

Sean & Andy
Founders, HUMAN Healthy Vending

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Crushing It Quote Of the Week

“Don’t be afraid to give your best to what seemingly are small jobs.  Every time you conquer one it makes you that much stronger.  If you do the little jobs well, the big ones will tend to take care of themselves.”

~Dale Carnegie

Why is this Quote Important?

Dale Carnegie understood success as well as just about anyone.  He studied it, and the people who achieved it, for decades.  Being successful, especially in the vending business, is more about an accumulation of many minor successes than it is about one huge victory.  Treat everything you do in life like it matters and you’ll end-up one of the “lucky” ones.  Because at the end of the day the luckiest people in the world are simply the people who give themselves the most chances.

To buy Dale Carnegie’s best book CLICK Above:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Silly Motivation

At HUMAN we fervently believe that passionate, socially-responsible entrepreneurs are what the world needs more than anything else.  Entrepreneurs SOLVE problems while others create them.  Entrepreneurs CREATE jobs while poor government decisions destroy them.  Entrepreneurs BUILD hope while stagnant complainers suck all of the hope away.

As a result of our strong beliefs regarding the importance of entrepreneurship, we like to motivate people to be value-providing entrepreneurs in any way that we can.  Sometimes this means watching silly videos.  And that’s ok, because any motivation to do something great is great motivation.

Be an entrepreneur and motivate the people around you while having a direct positive effect on the world.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Entrepreneurial Tip: Design Your Ultimate Life

This is amazing stuff -- check it out!

What is your perfect life?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Vending Tip Of The Week:

How to Turn a “Dud” Vending Location into a “Stud” Vending Location

Watch the video and then use it to turn your vending machines into absolute crushers. Check out this video, and stay tuned for Part 2 next week!

Thanks for reading, now go out and crush it today!

If any of this has inspired you to take the next step in your life as an entrepreneur, click here to find out how to become your own boss.

We are sending out this “crush it report” for you guys, so in order to make sure it is useful we need to hear from you! Either post a comment, or send an email to austinb@healthyvending.com with your ideas/suggestions/questions for the next report. We will be selecting the best suggestions for reprint in our next crush it report, and each commenter will be entered to win prizes in upcoming drawings!

Related Posts:

Filed Under: CRUSH IT REPORT Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Starting a Vending Machine Business in Today’s Economy

August 12, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Since the market implosion in the Fall of 2008, watching the news will scare the pants off of you.  No, literally. I was walking by a department store that had the evening news displaying a graph of the market and my pants literally detached themselves from my legs. Now I am sitting here staring at a $500 citation for indecent exposure, just what I needed in this down-and-out economy! Seriously, though, the collapse of our financial markets scared many investors into not taking risks.  Starting any business, including a vending machine business, at face value seems risky right now.  But like anything, you have to look at the facts.

Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy only when others are fearful. -- Warren Buffett

I JUST DROPPED A WARREN BUFFETT QUOTE ON  YOU.  That means things are about to get heavy.  If you are looking into starting up your own business or buying into a franchise model, the choices are endless.  The demands for initial investment vary from a few thousand dollars to millions.  The time, expertise, and knowledge capital requirements vary equally as much.  An often overlooked option is a vending machine business.

PROS: Vending operators who are successful often revel in how sweet of a set-up this business is for a variety of reasons:

  1. Low Cost of Labor: The machines do all the work.  No clerk is required to execute each transaction. Filling the machines and handling maintenance are the main human-required components once the machine is placed.  This is a business you can do in your spare time which keeping the stable income of your day job.
  2. Customer Accessibility: Your business is open for as long as people have access to the machine. In many locations, such as hospitals, this can be 24 hours a day.
  3. Mobility: Location starts to get low traffic? Sales are suffering? Pop that baby on a dolly and wheel it on across the street to a better one!
  4. Relatively low initial investment: Compared to other franchises, these machines are a minimal investment.  $10k for a premium high-tech vending machine, and a little as $2k for a plain ugly brown box traditional vending machine.

CONS: If something sounds too good to be true, it usually is. I’m sure this is no surprise to you. Just like any business, there are risks involved:

  1. Location, location, location. Location is obviously important in ANY business.  With vending machines it is THE most important factor (assuming your machines work and have product in them).  Just buying a machine and trying to find a location on your own is difficult.  Turnkey-model vending businesses exist that will help you acquire premium locations, though, but you must be sure to use an established and reputable one.
  2. The traditional vending industry is in a decline. The industry that everyone knows best, traditional junk food and soda vending, has become stagnant.  Sales have flat-lined for soda, candy, and chips.  However: Certain niches within the vending industry are exploding.  Healthy vending is poised to become a long lasting trend with legislation emerging from the Obama administration demanding healthier food and snack options in schools.  Wellness programs at office buildings and hospitals are also becoming increasingly interested in provided premium amenities for their employees and customers rather than the typical junk.
  3. You could be contributing to the declining health of Americans. If you are interested in being as socially responsible as you are financially successful, then you need to consider the real effects that investing in a traditional vending machine company will have.  Over 33% of Americans are now obese, and obesity costs our country $150 billion per year in health care costs. Childhood obesity is on the rise at an alarming pace as well.  You should consider how your business will fit in to this mess. Will it make the problem worse by providing junk food and soda to people? Or will it provide healthier choices for people?

So do your homework.  Warren Buffett would agree, and I’ll verify this with him if he ever returns my phone calls.  The Oracle of Omaha says DON’T BE SCARED of taking a risk…but do your homework first.

Related Posts:

Filed Under: HEALTHY VENDING, VENDING INDUSTRY, Vending Trends Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Vending Machines and Socially Responsible Business

July 29, 2010 By Leave a Comment

You might be asking “What the heck to vending machines have to do with socially responsible business?” My answer: everything. Vending machines play a key role in food distribution in our country, and food is obviously an essential part of life.  That brown box down the hall from you in the break room holds more power than you think, for better or for worse….

Setting an example is not the main means of influencing others; it is the only means.
Albert Einstein

I don’t bust out Albert Einstein quotes lightly.  I only use them when I really need to drive a point home, and that point is this: everything you do as a company, down to the smallest choices you make, has an impact.  Its often the little things that get overlooked, too.  For example, how many companies out there claim to be socially responsible and yet still only provide their employees with unhealthy snack and drink options from vending machines that also have a huge carbon footprint?  While these companies may be socially responsible on a large scale, what about the health of its employees and the health of the planet?

I know what you’re thinking: “Is this guy serious? Vending machines? We have bigger fish to fry!” Well, what I’m saying is how are you going to expect your employees to perform at their peak when they are putting crap in their bodies throughout the workday? And how can you really say you’re a “green” company when you won’t replace your traditional, energy-sucking vending machines with modern eco-friendly vending machines stocked with health food?

Let me hit you with hard numbers if you’re still not convinced:

A study led by University of Cincinnati on obesity’s effects on productivity on 341 manufacturing workers indicated that health-related losses in productivity were 4.2% for moderate to obese workers, costing the company $1,800 per year in absenteeism related costs!

So let’s say your company is made up of the average distribution of people in the U.S. (30% obese).  If you have 1,000 employees then 300 are obese.  300 x $1,800 = $540,000 per year.

That’s half a million greenbacks!

While you can’t be responsible for the lifestyle decisions your employees make, the least you could do is provide them with healthy snack options while they work.


Related Posts:

Filed Under: ADVICE & EDUCATION, Health & Nutrition, Healthy Vending Machines, Philosophies & Beliefs, The Bigger Picture, VENDING INDUSTRY, Vending Trends Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

How Vending Machines In Schools Are Affected By Branding

July 23, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Hello people, it’s Brian Knopke. Here is another video for vending machines in schools.  I have heard that many schools are filling their vending machines  half with healthy snacks and half unhealthy snacks.  What are students going to buy? Telling the students to eat better will not encourage them to buy healthy snacks or solve the childhood obesity problem.  The reason is big food companies do branding. Can we compete with the big boys? See how to avoid a losing battle against unhealthy snacks.

Related Posts:

Filed Under: ADVICE & EDUCATION, Health & Nutrition, Healthy Vending Products, VENDING INDUSTRY, Vending News, Vending Tips & Tricks, Vending Trends Tagged With: , , , , ,

Obesity Gets Knocked Out by Healthy Vending Machines Thanks to the Boys & Girls Club of Ada County, ID!

July 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Muhammad Ali. Joe Louis. Sugar Ray Robinson.

Obesity and malnutrition would rather step into the ring with these boxing greats than the Boys & Girls Club of Ada County, Idaho.

The mission of the Boys & Girls Club is “to enable all young people, especially those who need us most, to reach their full potential as productive, caring, responsible citizens.”

Gotta love ‘em.

The cutting of the ribbon!On July 20th, the Garden City and Meridian clubs joined the fight to promote health for its kids by implementing a state of the art healthy vending program through H.U.M.A.N. Healthy Vending.  With a high tech machine installed at each club, the positive and measurable impact on the kids’ health has begun.

Star athletes from Boise State and nutrition experts participated in an educational event before unveiling the machines, speaking to the children about the importance of nutrition and exercise at the Moseley Center.

CHECK OUT THE NEWS COVERAGE OF THE EVENT!

Local H.U.M.A.N. operators Amy and John Hobbing are excited to be the first exclusive healthy vending operators in Idaho: “As leaders in the Treasure Valley have come to realize, poor nutrition and obesity are not just bad for kids, but its bad for business.  One out of every three adults and children are now classified as overweight or obese.  The cost of poor health is well documented: lost productivity, higher healthcare costs and a lower quality of life.  We have decided to take a stand against poor health and help innovative organizations and leaders like the Boys & Girls Club bring the right kind of tools to help kids and adults with better nutritional choices.  Lastly, we want people to know that good health can taste good!”

When I was a kid, I couldn’t tell you the difference between sodium and simple carbohydrates.  Heck, most of the time I couldn’t even match my socks.  Not surprisingly, not much has changed.  In Garden City, the kids crowded around the colorful and high-tech machine feeding it quarters and excitedly retrieving their snacks as reporters quizzed them on what the basic ingredients were.  The look on the kids’ faces said it all: “I don’t know, lady, I just know it tastes good!”

With a customized array of snacks chosen for both taste and nutritional content, kids and parents were not disappointed.

I have to say that nothing warms my heart more than seeing a kid chugging Hansen’s soda instead of Pepsi.  My wife was offended by this because apparently our wedding video should take precedence, but that’s neither here nor there.

And as childhood obesity rates soar throughout the country, the Boys & Girls Club in Ada County, Idaho has scored a first round knockout.


Related Posts:

Filed Under: Company Happenings, H.U.M.A.N., Health & Nutrition, HEALTHY VENDING, Healthy Vending Machines, Lifestyle, Vending News Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

The Future of Vending Machines

March 10, 2010 By 1 Comment

A vending machine? A digital advertising platform? What is this hi-tech, awesome looking machine? It’s H.U.M.A.N. Healthy Vending and the all new Media Mogul!

This machine is custom built for vending success. Not only will you make your standard margin on product sales, but you now have access to a completely new revenue stream by taking part in the booming digital advertising industry!

Through the H.U.M.A.N. Ad Network, ads can be uploaded remotely and customized towards any machine location. The Media Mogul comes with a 23″ HD LCD screen that looks great. It is such an eye catcher that product sales go up simply because people want to check out the machine.

This machine does not come with your standard coil trays either. It is equipped with the most sophisticated vending technology to date — a conveyor belt style delivery system. What does that mean for you? Higher capacity (meaning less work for you) and product versatility (you can vend anything that fits!). It is an entrepreneurs dream.

Related Posts:

Filed Under: Company Happenings, Entrepreneurship, The Bigger Picture, Vending News Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Why Partnering With H.U.M.A.N. Makes Sense

February 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Aside from our amazing machines and unparalleled customer service, here is the #1 reason you should partner with HUMAN Healthy Vending when you start your own healthy vending business:

In vending, it’s all about finding the best locations. LOCATIONS, LOCATIONS, LOCATIONS!

Premium locations with high traffic is what any vending machine owner strives for. We at HUMAN could keep our strategies a secret, but we like our operators and potential operators to be fully informed.  Check out our 6-Step premium location acquisition process:

Step 1 -- 4 stage direct mail campaign to the top 250 locations in your region
Step 2 -- 4 to 6 Weeks of Telemarketing to every single healthy vending conducive location in your region that meets our criteria (at least 20 vends per day)
Step 3 -- 1 week of in-person location discovery & acquisition training with a HUMAN location pro
Step 4 -- A HUMAN location pro attends 30-40 top-tier meetings over the course of a week
Step 5 -- Custom press release and media outreach to every newspaper, tv and radio outlet
Step 6 - Constant follow-up marketing and outreach to EVERY location in your region for the lifetime of your partnership

With Step #3, this is all about the “Give a man a fish he eats for a day, teach a man to fish he eats for a lifetime.”  We’re training you to be successful in the short and long-run!  Which brings me to my next point, #6.  We perform continual follow-up marketing for the lifetime of our partnership to ALL of the locations in your region.  We have a custom email and customer marketing solution that helps us with this.  Additionally, as our brand grows nationally and internationally, you’ll benefit from our success.  Everyone who comes to HUMAN is passed along to you.  And as our brand grows to tens of thousands of machines, it’s very, very good for you.

Here is a sneak peak of The Media Mogul! My next post will highlight the features of this unbelievable automated retailer/digital media money maker!!!!

Related Posts:

Filed Under: ADVICE & EDUCATION, Company Happenings, Entrepreneurship, Healthy Vending Guidelines, Philosophies & Beliefs, The Bigger Picture, Vending Tips & Tricks Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

H.U.M.A.N.: Creating Healthy Vending Success Part II

February 12, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Why We Succeed at Schools While Traditional vending Companies Fail Part II

Products that are Actually Healthy AND Taste Good

When a healthy vending program fails to reach optimal success, it almost always has to do something with the products. The products must taste good and they cannot taste that much different than what students are used to. You can’t just change students’ taste preferences on the flip of a dime. Therefore, you must work with them. Take what products students like, find healthy items that taste similar, and offer those products to the students. Healthy snacks don’t have to taste like cardboard, and they shouldn’t!

Healthy products have made a huge stride over the past five to ten ears when it comes to taste. The problem is that many of the best products are not available via standard vending machine product distributors. A vending operator needs to build a network of new suppliers and distributors with different rules, policies, and prices, and many time they’re not willing to do that. HUMAN has never been involved with anything other than healthy vending. Therefore, our suppliers and our network is dialed-in to allow for the distribution of the healthiest, tastiest products that students love. We know what students like, and what they don’t, and that’s the foundation of our program.

With over six years of taste-test research (and many, many mistakes along the way), we know how to put together the perfect healthy snack and drink plangogram (product mix) for students. It’s been a learning experience, but without this experience, success would not be possible today. Without creating the optimal product offering, nothing else matters!

LCD Screens that Educate Students & Catch Their Attention

Beyond the fact that they make the machine look much better, cooler and more innovative, LCD screens also help increase sales at healthy vending machines by educating students about the products inside the machines, providing them with the products nutritional information, & offering nutritional tips & tricks that are useful to students throughout the day. This is all done vi streaming video that can be remotely loaded and, therefore, kept fresh. When getting students to switch to healthy vending, education is so important, and the best way to educate students without doing so in person is via digital LCD screens.

The 1-2-3 Punch

In order for healthy vending to work & succeed at your school, you need all of the above to exist. You can’t do one thing right and two others wrong. You can’t have the best machines and the worst products or vice versa. The entire program needs to make sense and needs to be built for healthy vending success. Healthy vending is not the same game as traditional vending--the delivery method, in that it’s automated, may be the same, but that’s about the only similarity that exists. Everything else is a 180 degree difference. A paradigm shift is needed.

At H.U.M.A.N., healthy vending is our game. Our only game. And our goal is to create healthy vending success where others either cannot, will not, or are not able to do so. I hope we’re able to serve your school and provide your students with a ton of value!

Related Posts:

Filed Under: ADVICE & EDUCATION, Entrepreneurship, Healthy Vending Guidelines, Philosophies & Beliefs, VENDING INDUSTRY, Vending News, Vending Tips & Tricks Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

H.U.M.A.N.: Creating Healthy Vending Success

February 9, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Why We Succeed at Schools While Traditional Vending Companies Fail

Education, Marketing & Promotion at School

In the world of traditional vending, an operator will conduct next to no on-location marketing & promotions. They place the machine, fill it, and once in a while change out products that aren’t selling. That’s it. This is a flawed model regardless of the type of business one is running (what’s more important than marketing & education?), and it’s especially flawed when running a business whose goal is to implement healthier snacks & drinks at school.

Healthy snack brands are often times less recognizable than traditional vending machine fare — students need to be taught about the items. Most importantly, they need to taste the items and learn for themselves that healthy snacks & drinks can and should taste good! These are not your grandma’s healthy foods — they taste just as good as traditional vending fare, but are just a whole lot healthier. Via sampling events, coupon giveaways, digital & standard signage, and consistent promotional strategies (all optional but highly recommended), H.U.M.A.N. operators get to know students and integrate directly into the school’s healthy vending initiative. This has a huge impact!

Innovative Machines Made for Healthy Vending

Selling healthy snacks from a standard, ugly, and boring vending machine is like trying to sell a new car from a used auto parts lot. It’s not going to work. Healthy vending success is all about creating a paradigm shift in the students’ minds regarding what vending, or automated retail, is all about. If the delivery channel is the exact same as standard vending, the students’ minds will expect the same products & experience. The delivery channel needs to change.

By using only new, unique looking machines with customized graphics that tell students “these machines are cool, premium, and good-for-you,” students are much more likely to approach them. And when they do approach them, they’re going to expect something different than traditional vending, and this is what we give them. That’s the whole point! Additionally, by adding innovative technology such as LCD screens, cashless card readers, and automatic conveyor sensor systems, the machines’ “cool” factor is maximized in a big way.

Running out of time today! So check out the next blog post for Part II of this bloviation…

Related Posts:

Filed Under: Entrepreneurship, Health & Nutrition, Healthy Vending Guidelines, Healthy Vending Machines, Healthy Vending Products, Philosophies & Beliefs, Vending Tips & Tricks Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
« Older Posts