Abstract for SHOT 2005.
In the early 1980s, the Norwegian company Tomra Systems ASA was well on their way to becoming an international market leader in providing Reverse Vending Machines (RVMs) for consumer return of empty bottles and cans. Instead of addressing the consumers directly, Tomra appealed to grocery stores and breweries by providing advanced technology and affordable infrastructure solutions, as their slogan of the time indicated: “Rational handling of returnable packaging in grocery stores”. The fact that Tomra’s customers were different from the actual users of the RVMs created tensions in the design and marketing of the RVM. The grocers’ interests and needs were clearly defined from the beginning. But as this paper will show, identifying the consumers’ interests and addressing them directly was a lot more challenging.
When the Soviet Union started flooding cheap aluminum on the world market in mid- and late 1980s, the economical incentives for recycling cans disappeared. Tomra withdrew from many of its markets. Because of this pressure from the global marketplace, Tomra had to adjust their market strategy and become a global company with a global vision – adopting “Helping the world recycle” as their new slogan. Environmental issues became an integral part of the company’s products, identity and goal settings. The Brundtland Commission’s concept of sustainable development and the greening of the marketplace that took place in the late 1980s provided strong pull factors that further encouraged Tomra’s global transformation. As a result, Tomra had to address the consumers more directly. This paper will identify how Tomra envisioned their two types of users, and how they attempted to influence them through the use of industrial designers, couponing, and other marketing tactics.