Product Trend: Will Kiosks Be Key?

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Seems like everywhere I go lately there’s a brightly painted metal box with mechanical stuff inside teasing me with an offer I almost can’t refuse.

I walked into Lowe’s six weeks ago to have keys made. You know what happens next: Go up to the counter in the hardware department, wait on line (always!), hand in your keys, and wait patiently while the gent behind the counter whips them up with a machine that makes lots of noise.  The big exchange? Purchasing two keys = One half hour of my life.

This isn’t what happened. Meandering  down the wide front aisle I came open a large green kiosk with a big blue and white sign proclaiming “Keys in one minute” towering above.  A “key-osk”! Feeling curious, I inserted my credit card.  Carefully reading the instructions, I inserted my key and selected the number of copies. I watched through a glass window as the mechanism within stirred to life and grinded and whirled. It was fun to see; almost as fun as playing an arcade machine at the Jersey Shore.

When the keys were completed, the machine asked for my email address. I punched it in and immediately received a receipt via email. The whole process for two keys took maybe seven minutes. For a short video, click here.

And today I found an ID tag engraving kiosk in a pet department. Didn’t try it, however, I suspect it would be just as fun as the key machine.

While traveling in Europe last year, I marveled at the airport kiosks where you could casually buy yourself a new iPod (perhaps you lost yours on the plane?) just by inserting credit card and hitting a button. Other items in the $100 to $200 range were available as well.

Last year in Las Vegas I even found a beauty product dispensing machine in a busy mall. Sorry, but Jessica Simpson was nowhere to be seen.

Now, while all of these examples are rather interesting, here’s one that truly “takes the cake”. On a nostalgic level, it perhaps harkens back to the days of Horn & Hardart automats. Think about it. You’re in a swanky city in sunny Los Angeles and you’re jonesin’ for something sweet as you stroll along. And there it is, all in pink, sweetly embedded in the wall; cupcakes dispensed in an ATM! Yum! See the video here.

How creative will businesses get with this concept? Judging by what I’ve seen so far, anything is possible and opportunity is ripe both for small businesses to put a fresh twist on their marketing to start ups with a product that hasn’t been available in an automated fashion yet.

Will these self-serve ATMs / kiosks create jobs or take them away? It may be a trade-off between jobs in the lower paying fringes of the service sector such as working behind a counter ringing up sales and new positions ranging from marketing of these devices to manufacturing them.

But will the shift in types of jobs at the very least balance out as we embrace purchasing products without human interaction? And, it’s certain we will, otherwise online giants like Amazon or Zappos, simply put, wouldn’t be giant. We seem to enjoy a shopping  experience lacking a real person’s involvement.

And perhaps the biggest advantage to these kiosks is that the purchaser receives almost instant gratification. Is that enough to purchase a cupcake from a sidewalk ATM rather than enter a shop and enjoy human contact and a pleasing atmosphere?

A most interesting trend. Let’s see how far out-of-the-box, uh, kiosk, it will go!

Marketing Marvels: Peter Lemongello

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Growing up, the savory vocals of crooners wafted through the speakers of the console in the corner of the living room: Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, and Jerry Vale. Oh, and a guy with a funny name too, Engelbert Humperdinck.

Then, in the mid-70’s, out of thin air so it seemed, a crooner from Long Island with a name that sounded like dessert appeared. And the name was his real name: Peter Lemongello.

Flash backwards, 1976: Memories of late night television advertising of that time and falling asleep in the rocker/recliner. But for those who could stay awake, a whole world of products beckoned even before the term “as seen on TV” was coined: Ronco slicers, dicers, and lighters, ginsu knives, and a singer!

A singer? Well, why not? What a novel idea. Introduce your pipes to people half asleep; how sweet the sounds. Peter had already tried the usual tricks like sending gifts (lemon jello) to DJ’s and record companies. And he had already achieved some short lived career highlights that failed to gain for him the recognition he craved.

But Peter was doing more than singing for his supper. He grew a distribution business. The product? Eggs. He took his profits and made savvy investments. Peter proved his sales, marketing, and business knowledge.

Going on 30, perhaps panicking about his desire to be a star but not giving up, his handsome looks and crooning charm made a perfect blend for soothing the ears of the late night crowd.

He found investors for his, at the time, “crazy” scheme. Close to $400,000, about $1.5 million in today’s dollars.  And this is how a star is born (click here):

Peter's promotion plan was aggressive; advertising was frequent and intense, first in the New York Tri-State area. Once sales started kicking in, spots began airing in the second largest metro, Los Angeles, followed by Las Vegas. These markets all made sense, tying in to his earlier years where he made many TV appearances on talk shows, had a record deal, and sang in Las Vegas with Don Rickles.

And, now, he gained attention.

You know what happens next. Peter sold millions of records on his own label. Several articles have cited Peter Lemongello as the first singer to sell over a million copies of an LP on TV; in this case the two disk set, “Love ‘76”. That’s quite a feat for what some might deem schlock but what was ultimately christened “mood rock music” in the TV spots. He toured too and the ladies giggled and screamed.

At the height of his sudden fame, he was portrayed by Chevy Chase on Saturday Night Live as Peter Lemon Mood Ring.

Early 1977, Peter was picked up for his second album by Private Stock, a record label with Starbuck, David Soul, and later Blondie, in their stable. It whimpered.

Peter retreated to Florida shortly after the failure of his second album and became a home builder, something he had previously toiled at on Long Island. He ran into some troubles in 1982 regarding an arson case. Sigh.

R. Buckminster Fuller once said: "People should think things out fresh and not just accept conventional terms and the conventional way of doing things."

Peter did just that. In 1976, long before the internet, there was television; remember it? Advertising on TV was a major avenue for a brand or product, but not in the way he used it. He put to work skills acquired in other industries, applied a new twist, and took a leap of faith. He convinced private investors to put their stock in and trust his instincts. The product (his pipes and looks) had little competition at the time and a target market (women) were there waiting for someone like him.

Did he do research beforehand? Don’t know, but let’s hope he did. Having hard facts showing the size of the audience would have been a strong driver for demonstrating his promising success to potential investors.

Currently, Peter makes limited appearances on the East Coast. Sources also cite that at one time he performed in Branson Missouri as well. Catch him if you can!

And February 11 is his birthday! Wishing him the best.

To see highlights of Peter Lemongello’s career, click here.

Advertising. On a Banana?

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Picked up some fruit while shopping the other day including grapes, oranges and those long yellow things with a peel. A peel? What a perfect place to put an ad for the movie, Chipwrecked.

So who is buying bananas? One can surmise that moms buy bananas for their kids as a healthy snack. And WHO else sees the advertising on the banana? Yep. Kids. Guess the QR code is for the curious adults. But wait! Kids have smart phones so they may very well be scanning and viewing the trailer too.

Moms are you peeling that sticker off before you hand that banana to your child?

Advertising pops up just about anywhere nowadays. We’re all used to seeing it in our shopping carts at the supermarket. It’s almost “normal” now.

And what about building wraps? Now there’s something you can’t miss. Saw this one recently while visiting Las Vegas:

Sorry to say I wasn’t in town long enough to catch their show. But I sure knew about it!

Advertising. On cars. In pools. On objects placed on city corners. Heck, even around the manhole covers. What's next?

Does this suggest that “traditional” advertising is no longer effective? Heck no. Non-traditional and traditional advertising work together. Chipwrecked had TV spots during that all important holiday season and no doubt had billboards too. There’s a Facebook app (9,000 monthly users) and a fan page (27,000+ users). Hadn’t seen any (I’m not the target audience), but it’s highly likely there were banner ads on carefully selected websites too. A quick search revealed no presence on Twitter or Google+. Makes sense since you won’t find kids there. You WILL find mommy bloggers on Twitter though, so perhaps that’s a missed opportunity?

It’s all so much, isn’t it? Why? Simply put, it’s hard to grab your attention. Too many of us on the run; advertising, when we see it, gets mere seconds of our time. Brace yourself for more attempts in unusual places in an effort to increase your likelihood of viewing the information, gaining your awareness and hopefully heightened interest. Down the purchase funnel we go!

A target audience for Chipwrecked: Moms of young kids. Uber-busy moms who may be holding down part-time or full-time jobs AND raising a family. How much time is left to relax in front of the television? A half-hour a day? Are they going to catch that TV spot? Not unlikely. But they shop. A box of disposable pampers for their youngest gets used up pretty quickly. Fruit needs to be bought often so it’s fresh and a box of cereal is gone in no time with a family of four.  By now they may be ignoring ads on shopping carts, so why not put them on the actual food?

Speaking of food, some of us enjoy snacks and drinks when flying, right? Imagine my surprise during a trip in October when I pulled open the tray and discovered a nifty print ad instead of off-white plastic greeting me. Being up in the air does not allow you to escape advertising anymore!

Makes you wonder how far out advertising is going to get. People have sold their foreheads for $20,000 and tattooed advertising on them; remember goldenpalace.com? Can it get any crazier?
Yes. It will. And our brains will adjust and learn how to tune out noise yet again. Sigh. On the other hand, a company may finally reach you with the solution to fulfilling a need or desire you have.

On that note, I’m running to the drug store now for just a few items. Let me grab a basket...

Where have you seen “unusually placed” advertising and how do you feel about it?