Monday, February 26, 2007

The Three “Q”s of Vending

There are some certain factors in vending, which when put together can make your Planet Antares vending business very profitable. Some of these factors can be considered as the three “Q”s of vending, which are listed below:

Purchase a Quality vending machine…….
At a Quality price…….
And place it in a Quality location

With a Planet Antares vending business you can easily achieve the there “Q”s. The company provides quality snack and beverage vending machines at quality prices. The vending machines are easy to use and easy to maintain. In addition to this, they are made of the durable material that makes the body of the machine long lasting. Planet Antares vending machines have superior mechanical parts that makes the functioning of the vending machines trouble free. Since this is a snack and beverage vending machines, it does not need to keep the snacks refrigerated, it’s only the beverages that need to be kept cold. What this means is that your vending machine will not consume too much electricity. To top it all of these vending machines are available at reasonable rates. These are the reasons why these mechanical vending machines are among the best in the market.

Once you have purchased the Planet Antares quality vending machines at a quality price, it will then be time for you to look for a quality location. Looking for locations is not something easy, and that is the reason why many people rely on Professional Location Companies. This is something that is not really necessary, since it is something that you can do on your own. Doing it your own can save you money, since location companies have to paid for their services. Use a Professional Location Company if you probably have a full time job and are too busy to look for a location.

To secure the perfect location, go to many of the vending machine location in your area to know how they run. You can also talk to other vending operators to find out which are the best locations for snack and beverage vending machines in your area. Equipping yourself with this kind of information will prepare you for your location hunting. When you see a location it should feel and look right to you.

A quality location for your Planet Antares vending machine would be one that has high traffic. If you place it in a business or an office, it should be one with not less than 50 employees. Shopping malls, diners and motels will also make good locations. Vending machines that are placed in a quality location will make money for you even on slow days. For a location to work, you need to meet the needs of the customers in that location. Develop a good business relationship with the location owner, so that you can have a smoothly run business and a healthy return on your money.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Vending Becoming More Challenging

Vending operators all over are facing the most challenging business environment ever, an as a result of which they need a plan that will give them direction. Planet Antares can offer established vending operators as well as start-up vending operators strategies that will help you through unstable economic situation. An economic recession can make the vending industry more challenging. Operating costs in such a situation would rise and the opportunity to increase sales would become almost impossible.

The current economic situation gives all size companies sufficient cause to take the time to establish a business plan. A business plan will organize “hard data” in a way that will give a Planet Antares vending business direction. The more “hard data” a business has, the better it can set goals and at the same time monitor its performance.

A business plan that is provided by Planet Antares will show vending operators how a vending operation will deploy its resources over a specific time period in an effort to maximize returns. Although much of the plan will focus on the deployment of capital and operating cash flows that are generated. A business plan covers the use of all company resources, including human resources.

The current state of the vending industry makes planning more imperative than ever. Aside from one of the most challenging economic environments the industry has ever faced, the current business climate requires more direction than in the past. Customer needs are less uniform than ever. A Planet Antares operator that is serving a large metropolitan area needs to understand the demographics of the customer base. Customers have different demands and that is why it is important that you carry out research to find out what customers in certain locations want. This is something that can differ from one location to another. Equipments are offering more possibilities than ever, all thanks to technology. These technologies offer enhanced customer service, but require additional investment. If you have a sizeable vending operation, it would make financial sense to invest in some of the technologies that are in the market today. Technology may just be the best way of dealing with the challenges that are being faced by the vending industry today.

Vending software offers the ability to gather financial information faster and more accurately. This information will be used to improve customer relations. The internet also allows companies to gather information about products faster, which can then enhance product selection. The Antares operator needs to assess what products will maximize sales. There are products that are more popular than others. Some products are the trend for a short period of time. Whatever the situation, ensure that you have the right product mix in the vending machines.

Friday, February 09, 2007

Vending Offers a Complete Service
The vending industry has so far accomplished so much in offering customers the best service that they can, but they are yet to improve on the way they market themselves. This is an area that still needs development. Convenience stores at one time had to overcome a stereotype as an overpriced outlet to one that offers great convenience and a way for customers to save time. Vending offers a complete service of convenience and affordable rates of products to the customers.

The shopper no longer price shops between a supermarket and a c-store because they understand that c-stores are selling a convenience. The vending industry can change consumer perception as well. Large Planet Antares vending operations should have an entire division committed to marketing.

Educating customers about the Planet Antares vending service that you are providing for them is a great way of promoting your vending business. The whole vending industry has to be promoted. If the public is educated about the vending services that are being provided by vending operators, they would be more willing to pay for it. The vending industry will never be able to move forward if vending operators compete strictly on the vend price. As a Planet Antares vending operator, you should always look for ways to move your vending business forward.

Category management is a system that simplifies selection as the route and warehouse levels and enables a vending operator to control the machine menu. To do this, the operator must have a way to track individual product sales accurately. This can be done by investing in handheld computers.

Vending and c-stores are both retail outlets with limited selling space. In both, a product is being sold, but more importantly, a convenience. This is something that they both have in common. The vending industry has very limited space, which means that all vending operators need to treat that space like gold.

Handheld computers can allow you to easily track product movement in your Planet Antares vending business, and thus enable you to build successful planograms. Category management is becoming more crucial in the vending industry. As a result the manufacturers are paying more attention to the industry. All these technologies that have been mentioned can be implemented in your vending business, which would of course lead to a more profitable vending business that offers a complete service to the consumer.

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Monday, February 05, 2007

Sales and Marketing Strategies in Vending

Sales and marketing strategies are no longer optional for you to succeed in vending. In the past, many successful vending operations mainly enjoyed growth mainly through word of mouth referrals and luck. This will not always continue to work. When you start a Planet Antares vending business, you would want to experience growth so that you can acquire more vending machines and locations.

Carrying out a vending operation in the same old way will not work in today’s marketplace. This also applies to selling in the same old way. Increase in competition, combined with a declining number of potential locations necessitates a more deliberate, systematic approach to the growth of your Planet Antares vending business. Creative, hard hitting sales and marketing strategies must be in place if you are to have any chance of growing your vending business.

Sales and Marketing strategies are both needed
To create and maintain a winning Planet Antares vending business, you will need to incorporate clearly defined sales and marketing functions in your company. People often confuse marketing with sales. Sales is a day to day tactical issue, marketing looks down the road and addresses how you get the word out, how you package your goods, how you identify your market and other strategic issues.

If you decide to bring on a new product line in your Planet Antares business, for instance, that will be considered as part of your marketing strategy. Successful sales and marketing strategies also require you to vend a good product. If the right product mix in your vending machines, you are bound to have successful sales.

Understand your customer base
Finding prospects is probably the easiest aspect of sales. There is no longer any need to buy expensive data bases and mailing lists. With an access to the Internet you can come across numerous data bases on the Internet that contains details on all potential new accounts in your area. The Internet has today become a powerful tool that can be used by vending operators to acquire locations. Understanding your customer base is essential for your vending business. The vending machines that you place in the locations need to have the products that the customers would want to buy. Match the products with the locations, in order for you to have a successful vending business.

All in all, using the right sales and marketing strategies in your vending business, will greatly contribute to the success of your business.

Friday, February 02, 2007

Cold Beverage Vending

Cold beverage vending in the U.S. has always been popular. People always have the need for a cold drink, especially on a hot summer day. Vending operators that have placed beverage vending machines in locations always experience high sales. This of course happens if they have placed the vending machine in the right location.

Planet Antares offers cold beverages as well as snacks in their vending machines. This kind of combination works well in most locations because when customers buy snacks, they would usually have a cold beverage with the snack as well. Cold drinks in vending machines have found their way into a wide range of locations populated by just about every identifiable demographic group. There are locations where the customers would like to maybe see diet cold beverages. If this happens in your Planet Antares vending business, it means that you would need to offer regular cold beverages as well diet cold beverages. People in locations always have different tastes and vending operators have responded to this market evolution by increasing the pace of new product development and making better use of sales analysis to tailor cold drink menus to suit a wide scale of tastes.

Having a Planet Antares cold beverage and snack vending business would mean that you would need to offer customers all varieties of drinks, which would include new flavored carbonated soft drinks, diet twists, juices, energy drinks and bottled water options. Offering this mix in your vending machines will mean that you are catering to the masses. Certain beverages would be preferred over other beverages in different locations. To maximize your profits, you would need to make sure that the quantity of the products in each machine matches with the locations demands. Category management can play a significant role in such situations. This system would allow you to maximize your profits by offering a profitable product mix for each location.

A glass front Planet Antares vending machine will also maximize the profits of the merchandise in the vending machine. When you introduce new beverages in the vending machine, the interest of the public will be generated because the new beverage will be visible while in the machine. In order to maintain that interest of the customer, you can continue to rotate new items in and out, although it will always be the core items like Coke and Pepsi, which will always sell the most.