PurposeThis study identifies the conventional elements of the vending marketing mix and how they vary across academic segments in the context of a typical French university.Design/methodology/approachTo determine the elements of the vending marketing mix, the author conducts interviews with international industry experts and undertake 170 direct observations at various universities to verify the differences between the marketing mix proposals of dissimilar target markets.FindingsThe results reveal significant variances across all elements of the marketing mix, with distribution characteristics being the most frequently adapted element across various markets, followed by promotion- and product-related parameters, while pricing characteristics are most commonly standardised.Research limitations/implicationsVending operators should pay particular attention to marketing decisions related to the product assortment length, selection of appropriate locations, availability of smart payment options and feedback communication channels. The results reveal significant variances across all elements of the marketing mix indicating that vending operators apply strategies to reach different market segments. However, there is a high degree of standardisation within vending channels.Originality/valueThough vending channels are an important retail format, prior studies do not investigate their marketing mixes. This is the first attempt to empirically establish the conventional elements of the vending marketing mix and to measure its variation across customer segments.

Over the years, marketing has been influenced by the soft sciences (i.e., economics, psychology, and sociology) and hard sciences (i.e., mathematics and physics). In this study, we discuss the various intersections between chemistry and marketing, and we elaborate on the areas in which chemistry can help develop marketing from both theoretical and practical perspectives. In doing so, we do not intend to assert definitive conclusions or provide substantial scientific evidence but instead to introduce a new interdisciplinary research area that we call the chemistry of marketing and highlight its potential areas of application and some future research directions. To establish the initial scientific bridge between marketing and chemistry, we rely on: 1) metaphors which as figures of speech have long been used in the development of marketing science and 2) the general systems theory which is recognized as a prevailing form of generalization. Moreover, we provide a novel explanation of closed and isolated marketing systems, present initial evidence on their emerging importance in the business world, and offer some suggestions for their potential application to the first and second laws of chemical thermodynamics.

Although vending machines emerged centuries ago, only recently have they regained popularity. This study aims to provide a systematic review of available marketing literature on food and drink vending channels to delineate under‐researched marketing areas that require further investigation. Therefore, the abstracts of 2,409 articles were manually screened, of which 98 were retained as the most relevant for further synthesis. The author organized the existing marketing literature from a consumer point of view around three main areas (i.e., product safety management, health nutrition promotion, and stakeholders' commitment to policy measures) and three roughly equal time periods (i.e., 2000–2006, 2007–2013, and 2014–2020). The analysis identifies areas of vending wherein research is lacking: marketing trends regarding smart vending machines; consumer responses to vending experiences, especially cross‐culturally; and safety issues, which is especially pertinent with the increase in safety‐related articles since 2014 and the current COVID‐19 pandemic.