Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Challenges Of Serving A Mixed Customer Base

Your vending business will face challenges of different kinds while serving a wide customer base. People differ in their tastes and preferences, likes and dislikes. To keep all of your customers satisfied is not a simple task. You have to cater to diverse needs instead of focusing on a single category of people.

United States has a cultural diversity in its population. The native whites are the original inhabitants while the blacks, Asians, Mexicans and other communities are all residents too. Your vending machines will be used by people from all cultures, so you must be prepared to fulfill their varying desires.

While selecting ethnic items for serving a mixed customer base, keep the following factors in mind:

a. Presentation matters
When you are serving immigrants, it is important to focus on the visual appeal of your Antares vending products and machines. Having a vending machine with glass front door is a good idea as it will attract many people. Immigrants are impressed by interesting, attractive designs and products. They will buy by color of the products.

b. Lower prices
You should not expect immigrants to pay much for their purchases. They are frugal spenders and may not buy large amount of vending products at first. So, you cannot expect them to spend as much as other groups.

However, you cannot ignore the ethnic groups as they are a growing part of the American population. Hispanics and Asians are fast growing into the majority groups of the current population, especially in blue collar locations. For many vending companies, such places comprise of major business and revenue generators. That means that you will have to concentrate on serving the needs of these customers.

c. Emphasis by suppliers
Vending machine and product suppliers are focusing on developing technology and products that suit the needs and objectives of vending customers. Hence, marketing strategies are changing in favor of the buyer as compared to the previous emphasis on the seller.

d. Packaging changes
With the customers coming from different ethnic groups, you will have to adopt product packaging that can be easily understood and liked by maximum number of people. Using bilingual text is a good way to reach the immigration population.

All these factors make it essential for you to keep an eye on the type of customers you are catering to and adopt suitable measures to make them happy and coming back for more. Ethnic groups are becoming an important part of the vending customer base and hence, will get more attention in the future.

Bilingual text proves helpful
You can target the Hispanic consumer with bright and colorful packages with bilingual text. Bilingual packaging is important in reaching the immigration population because it shows more authenticity.

If you want to make a decision on whether or not to have ethnic items in your Planet Antares vending machines will all depend on the location that you are catering to. If your machines are in a location with a large ethnic community then it would make financial sense to vend these products.

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