Article

Blue-ribbon kiosks, part I

In the first of a series of stories looking at award-winning kiosk designs, the spotlight is focused on Burn A Song and WinesandRecipes.com.

June 26, 2005 by James Bickers — Editor, Networld Alliance

Although success is certainly its own reward, the praise of one's peers can also be extremely gratifying. Pundits and journalists may "ooh" and "aah" over a new design, but when people who know your business honor the work you've done, you've accomplished something special.

Earlier this year, KioskCom.com 2005 hosted its Interactive Excellence Awards, which handed out kudos in 17 categories. Over the course of the next few weeks, we'll use this space to tell the stories of some of the winners.

Eat, drink and be merry Â…

WinesandRecipes.com had already established a name as a trusted online destination for recipes, gourmet food tips and wine advice when it decided to make its foray into the retail space. So it is no real surprise that the resulting WinesandRecipes.com kiosk is as compelling a project as it is - after all, it dips into a rich content pool that offers expertise on more than 50,000 wines, cheese and recipes.

Housed in a bottle-like enclosure, the kiosk not only gives shoppers the chance to make more informed buying decisions, it also gives retailers an instant expert "on staff" to help customers with what is, for many people, a largely random purchase.

"A real differentiator that is exclusive to WinesandRecipes.com Â… is our cheese pairing section, which was written by nationally known cheese expert Raymond Hook, also known as `The Cheese Guy,'" said company president Jon Holland. "Each of our cheese descriptions is perfectly matched to at least two wine varietals with interesting descriptions and pairing notes."

Once the perfect match is found, the kiosk prints a shopping list. That shopping list is a source of pleasure rather than frustration, since the database is customized to the retailer's inventory - the kiosk only displays and suggests items that are available for purchase in the store.

"Besides being the business conceptual planners, wine enthusiasts and food and cheese lovers, we must say that we were like proud parents of a beautiful baby that has started to grow up," Holland said. "WinesandRecipes.com developed the product in approximately 1 ½ years from initial business concept to receiving the award, and we are proud to have accomplished this industry recognition in such a short period of time."

Music to go

The Burn A Song kiosk, designed by Louisville, Colo.-based Kiosk Information Systems and Los Angeles-based Touch N Surf, resembles a high-tech jukebox on the surface: Users browse music by genre, touch album covers to view offerings by artist, and finally select the songs they want. But while a jukebox simply plays the selected songs, Burn A Song does just what it's name implies and spits out a custom-burned CD filled with the purchased tunes.

It's an impressive application, even more so given the licensing requirements for the content being dispensed.

"This is a budding market, and the barriers to entry are high," said company president Shervin Rashti. "It is very difficult to acquire content licensing from the major labels."

According to Rashti, Burn A Song has established a relationship with Billboard, allowing the machine to offer preselected playlists based on those charts.

"This helps us speed the song selection process, and get the user what they need quickly and hassle-free," Rashti said.

The CD that emerges from the kiosk is custom-printed with a color label. While they're waiting, customers can send video e-mail to a friend. The machine can also be extended with couponing, cross-promotions, and the sale of other digital products like games and ring tones.

"The growth potential for this market is enormous, and will include its own verticals that will revamp the way people get their media," Rashti said. "Very exciting!"

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