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October 27 - 29, 2005

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NATIONAL BULK VENDORS ASSOCIATION - NBVA

The Future of Bulk Vending
KGOYT: How it Can be Used in Product Selection and Display Front Design

By: Peter Becker

There is a general idea throughout the world of kid- andteen-focused products and services that Kids Get Older Younger Today (acronym “KGOYT”) than any other generation has in history, making it feel more difficult to relate to them.

What that means for us in the bulk vending industry is that we are constantly struggling to determine how to attract kids and teens to our machines and what the new, hot-selling items will be.

But in reality, according to “kid experts” like the folks at Nickelodeon and the National Parent Information Network, that perception is not reality: kids and teens today aren’t necessarily growing up faster; they are simply exposed to more than any other generation before them, giving them a level of sophistication unlike other generations. And that sophistication can be used to our advantage in product selection and display front design from an industry standpoint.

If we go back a little bit in time, childhood really only became idealized like “Leave It to Beaver” in the early 1950s timeframe (not coincidentally coinciding with the early beginnings of the bulk vending industry). Prior to that, kids worked. They worked on farms, in fields, in factories; you name it; they worked.

Since the 1950s, and the advent of the first televisions and TV shows, each generation of kids has had greater and greater exposure to the outside world through mass media, and the expansion of mass media at an almost exponential rate.

Today kids and teens have access to more than 240 cable and TV channels, thousands of radio outlets,more teen magazines every day, and they are really the first generation to have access to the Internet’s information flow.

What this means for our industry is that we can utilize the same information sources to help us in product selection and display front design. For example, routinely tapping into the same sources as kids and teens allows us to get a better feel for current trendy jewelry items, celebrities and super heroes, giving us a pretty good idea of what will be a hot seller. But on a more subtle level, monitoring how the teen magazines, web sites and media (TV and movies) market themselves to their kid and teen audiences gives us a feel for the current hot styles, colors and images or icons for utilization in product display fronts, so we can market our products in a way that will attract kids and teens to our machines.

Sample web sites to monitor include a few teen magazine web sites such as:www.cosmogirl.com, www.teenpeople.com/ teenpeople/, www.teenmag.com. A more comprehensive list of teen magazines can be found at:www.world-newspapers-.com/ youth.html.We have often found that these sites can be the launch pad for more research, taking information from the teen magazine sites and then looking at current popular movies, books, music, etc. In addition, we frequently visit the online versions of popular kid and teen “stores,” such as Claire’s Boutique (www.clairesboutique.com) to gain additional insight.

By capitalizing on the vast supply of resources available to our kid and teen generations,we give ourselves the best advantage for marketing to them and choosing products that will be great sellers.

So jump online or hit your local malls: the answers are there!

September 14 - September 16, 2005



September 14 - September 16, 2005



October 27 - 29, 2005