Posted by admin on Nov 5, 2009 in Business Idea | 0 comments
On a recent holiday I came across a great business idea: An Automatic Pizza Baker. It completely blew my mind because this machine was located in an Autogrill highway service station in Italy. Having lived in the US for a while I would have bet all my money on the machine being in the US.
The fun thing about this machine is that you can watch the pizza being made. Although the process of making it and baking it only takes 2 1/2 minutes it becomes somewhat interactive since the screen tells you about the process and the progress. There is four different kinds of pizza to choose from. The only downside here is the lack of different payment options. In this case it was only possible to pay with cash, raising the barriers to purchase enormously.
Other
Blogs and even the
New York Times have covered the launch of the machine and pointed out what makes this machine special. The complete pizza is actually manufactured on site. All parts of an authentic, Italian pizza are put together solely at the request of the customer. Other automatic pizza machines exist, however, they just zap-fry a frozen pie.
The Idea
Essentially, the idea here is to deliver a service without being dependent on workers actually doing it, without being dependent on the customer’s time preference, and without having to care about the entire service-scape of a whole restaurant. The concept itself is applicable to many products and services. On rather successful example is the “Packstation” of German logistics and postal service DHL. Since labor costs were outrageously high for the company it launched a nationwide network of automated post offices that are located at strategic points within cities.
The station is serviced throughout the day and customers can pick up or drop off their mail at any point in time. After a quick registration online it is possible to pay and print tickets right there (online) or at the Packstation. This obviously saves the company money and customers the great hassle of actually talking to another human. Just as the Pizza machine is never going to replace an Italian restaurant the Packstation is never going to replace a real Postal Office. Some kind of human interaction is required to solve more difficult problems than just sending mail.
I guess in the end the concept of an automated service point is to maximize the flexibility for the customer. This increase in flexibility might result in higher sales since customers perceive lower barriers to utilize the service or product. The easier it gets for someone to get a pizza or manage his (larger) mail the more inclined that person will be to actually use it. This is – in very short – why fast food has emerged as an acceptable way to eat. For any company that would be able to distribute its products this way it might be a very good idea to think about expanding through vending machines. One company for whom it payed off big time to launch vending machines is BestBuy – an American electronics retailer. BestBuy started to launch electronics vending machines at key hub airports in the US. This way BestBuy is able to bank on the forgetfulness or bad luck of travelers. In case you forgot headphones or your batteries are empty you can get this all in a matter of minutes on your way to your gate.
If you are not convinced that a vending machine is for your business just have a look at the link form Wired magazine. The article is titled “The World’s Wierdest Vending Machines” and pretty much says it all.
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