From March 2017, this distinctive 12-sided coin will be legal tender for any purchase. This is an especially important issue for operators of vending machines, ticket machines and parking meters. Any marketer that operates any of those machines has to plan now to adapt to the new coin.
The old coins will still circulate until September 2017, giving businesses and consumers time to make the change. Machines don't have to accept both coins, just one or the other (and notify consumers which will work) during March through September.
This new coin introduction has nothing to do with Brexit, yet it also introduces an element of change into the marketing environment. Not only do machines have to be adapted to the new coin, banks and retailers must use internal marketing to educate their employees to respond to customer questions, requests and confusion.
