JKR

Douwe Egberts concept, BeMoved vending machine, turns buying a drink into a physical game for the young at heart, allows on-screen click and drag coffee customisation, gives you real-time news and weather and lets you log your personal preferences. All very Minority Report. And all indicative of the way technology is broadening our choices (I was told by someone in the know recently that our relationship with comparison sites is about to invert – rather than us choosing from what’s available, we will soon be putting our needs out to tender, for competitors to bid on).

But this general movement towards more and more choice and noise must surely also be creating a space where simplicity can have a certain cachet. Brands offering over-information and over-engineered complexity feel like they are locked in an arms race, all those whistles and bells signifying little that will build lasting brand value, and what consumers want (beyond a little novelty) is not always at the heart of the thinking. But perhaps these are just the views of a Luddite who is out of step with the amount of time and attention folk want to give to buying a vended beverage?