Vending Belief
Friday, September 16th, 2011Problem with product believability?
The traditional solution is product sampling.
But where have traditional tactics gotten us lately?
Exactly. We have to be smarter than traditional.
Case in point – the beyond sampling efforts of PepsiCo for their Lays brand.
Consumers are skeptic of the Lays brand and PepsiCo knows it. As a of a bigger effort underway to emphasize that Lay’s is made entirely of real potatoes, with a little oil and salt, Lays bags have been redesigned to show real potatoes on the back panel. Ads on billboards and delivery trucks also communicate the “only potatoes” claim.
But seeing (and tasting) is believing…and PepsiCo knows that too.
Instead of traditional product sampling, PepsiCo developed something new and interesting — PepsiCo has created an unusual vending machine that appears to manufacture Lay’s potato chips before consumers eyes after a real potato, rather than coins, is dropped in a slot.
The Lay’s machine, which will make its first appearance in a Buenos Aires supermarket this fall, features an intricate system of tubes, flames and boiling water as the potato is seen going through six distinct steps: washing, peeling, cutting, cooking, salting and finally packaging, ending with a bag of Lay’s potato chips popping out of the machine.
Connecting the sampling / brand interaction dot, Lays promoters will hand shoppers real potatoes with stickers inviting them to take the potato and insert it in the Lay’s machine.
The process, which looks incredibly real, is actually a video that appears to show the inner workings of potato chip manufacturing.
Follow the link the watch the Lays Machine in action
http://adage.com/article/global-news/argentina-lay-s-vending-machine-turns-potatoes-chips/229828/