Mobile payment revolution begins

Rubenstein hopes product manufacturers will come to appreciate the service capabilities companies like his provide.

Long-term, Rubenstein thinks the evolving tools of e-commerce will help him. “The best is yet to come,” he said.

Competing retail channels, meanwhile, have taken a cue from the product manufacturers and are using social media to promote mobile payments.

According to Cellit, a provider of mobile customer relationship management (CRM) systems, many quick serve restaurants did this by offering low-cost, easy-to-execute tactics such as leveraging existing social media and email databases to convert customers to mobile.

Social media channels quickly drive traffic to a mobile program and an average of 10 percent of these online communities signed up for the mobile program at little or no cost, Cellit found.

Some vend product manufacturers noted that because mobile marketing and social media marketing are still new, it will take some time before they know how to integrate the vending channel in these campaigns. Spokespersons for Coca-Cola North America, PepsiCola Inc. and Mars Chocolate North America noted the companies are developing integrated marketing approaches.

For more information, contact:

Cardagin Networks, www.cardagin.com

Cantaloupe Systems, 866-986-7333, www.cantaloupesys.com

Cellit, 800-790-6597, www.cellit.com

Coca-Cola Co., 800-438-2653, www.cokesolutions.com

DCI Marketing, 800-778-4805, www.dcimarketing.com

Kraft Vending & OCS, 888-879-0267, www.kraftvendingocs.com

NEOMedia Technologies, 678-638-0460, www.neo.com

PepsiCo Inc., 914-253-2000, www.pepsico.com

USA Technologies Inc., 800-633-0340, www.usatech.com