Ikea kiosk by Protouch. Fully branded and offers a wide range of solutions to customers problems.

Businesses are always looking to expand and grow into the ever changing technology-driven world. And from time to time companies stumble across a savvy solution and everyone else jumps on the bandwagon.

Well now is the time for kiosks and the retail industry are clocking onto it.

Their success is stampeding through clothes stores, supermarket chains etc and it’s only going to get bigger.

However, there is a problem and that problem could have a negative impact on the deployment of the kiosk.

A successful kiosk solution is one that creates an iconic value for the kiosk. In other words, the kiosk needs to be given its own identity. The look and feel of the kiosk, its software as well as its overall ability needs to immediately attract and relate to the consumer and stand out as a kiosk that your company owns.

Basically, customers who have an affiliation with your brand will be more inclined to utilise the kiosk over and over if your brand is splashed all over it. It encourages loyalty to your company and allows customers to access your company as and when they please.

Take a photo kiosk system, for example. A customer is going to feel more safe and comfortable with using it if they recognise your brand. If it’s simply a kiosk situated in a supermarket with no branding, customers are inclined to distrust who the company is and seek the service they need elsewhere.

We may be moving into a technology driven society, but this has brought fear and fraudulent activity to our lives where people are less inclined to trust others unless they recognise and know the brand.

“All of those factors are interrelated,” said Ronald Bowers, senior vice president of business development with Frank Mayer and Associates. “The success of a kiosk solution is composed of media advertising, support materials, signage, even simple things within the store before you get back to the kiosk. That branding experience is a critical aspect of the acceptance or the failure of that solution.”

When kiosk systems first took centre stage, many businesses went for cool, cutting edge designs in hope that the cutting edge technology would entice customers to use the systems. However, they failed to acknowledge brand loyalty and lack of trust for new technological products which left people unsure of what to do or how to use them. They just weren’t holding enough identity to make people try them out.

Nowadays, retailers are moving away from integrating kiosks simply as a new technology and learning to comply with their consumers needs. 

“For years and years if you were a brand marketer and a retailer attending a kiosk show, you would be overwhelmed that this is a technology show,” Bowers said. “It was a bunch of card readers and money changers and digital signage providers, but there was no body stepping up and telling you, ‘This is a branded solution.’”

In short, the solution to the problem is to simply create a kiosk that successfully solves a customers problem, but more importantly, branded well enough to show what services it offers. In doing this, it’s smiles all round. The retailer has installed a system that sells their brand, provides extra services for customers and in the long run reduces staffing hours. And the customer is happy as it knows it can trust your brand, it’s receiving top service and more importantly they feel like they are trying something new in this technology driven world.

For more information about installing kiosks into your business and how to brand it visit the Protouch website for more information.