What?
A personal relationship with a vending machine?
Do the conceptors of this hate humanity THAT much??
Almost a million vending machines in Japan will be ready to start a personal relationship with shoppers, rewarding regulars with weather checks and even remembering their birthdays. Punters can check into the machines using a camera-equipped phone to snap a QR code and assign an avatar to that machine. Check in often enough …
On a cultural difference note, Japan is pretty solidly stuck in "cute!!!1!" where, say, the USoA is similarly stuck in "MIGHTY MIGHT!!!1!" (what was it that bunch of Aussies called it? "preposterone"). So, try and imagine the same basic thing only drawn with narrow hips, broad shoulders, and GUNS EVERYWHERE. Would that look more familiar? To 'merkins perhaps. What would it take for Europeans to take the bait, perhaps something themed on Ibiza?
Remember the spice girls? That was pretty hateful in how it deliberately targeted a very specific demographic and how inevitably that demographic's parents got to pony up, even if it was pretty well executed.
But yes, marketeering is all about making people buy your stuff and come back for more. Whatever it takes. Anything goes. Anything at all. You coming back because of the good service and it gets you something you actually need cq benefit from is a small fraction of the equation.