Abstract
In digital age, a large audience of players has emerged. This creates a game-related shift in the cognitive and social aspects of the target audience of brands. Consumers are more interested in gaming and therefore more readily engage in game-related applications. Customer engagement is therefore an important approach to forging a strong relationship with customers as traditional marketing methods begin to lose power. This chapter seeks to explain how customer engagement occurs in gamification through a proposed model. It was explained on the theoretical basis that users engage in both game experience and marketing purposes. Game elements increase engagement as they offer customers an enjoyable experience, and the utilitarian features of gamification strengthen their engagement in the process as they lead customers to functional goals through the gaming experience.
TopIntroduction
In the last few decades, the concept of consumption and the brand-customer relationship have expressed a meaning beyond the purchase-sale relationship. Today’s consumers are in search of experiences that they can immerse themselves in the consumption process, beyond just a product or service that they can be satisfied with (Cova, 1996). Therefore, the main value that stands out in the customer-brand relationship is how much experience it represents, rather than the physical attributes of the product. When a company connects with its customers in a personal and engaging way, a state of experience emerges in which the brand is involved (Pine & Gilmore, 1999). In this interaction, customers’ experiences with the brand evolved from past product-customer interactions to a relationship in which customers are actively involved (Cova, 1996).
Consumers expect brands to create brand content and value in order for them to develop their own identities, express themselves creatively, socialize with other consumers, and enjoy unique experiences (Gambetti & Graffigna, 2010). According to Price et al. (1995), one of the most effective methods of developing and maintaining customer-brand relationships is to provide “extras” that will delight consumers and satisfy them outside of purchasing relationships. Schmitt (1999) states that beyond the physical experience dimensions of products or services, versatile experiences addressing consumer personal lives, social relationships, and sensory points must be introduced. The common point of these approaches is to move the consumer-brand relationship beyond the purchase, and it matches the definition of consumer engagement that is widely used in the literature: consumer engagement is the creation of a brand experience beyond purchasing activities (van Doorn et al., 2010). At this point, gamification is being implemented by companies as a suitable system for creating these experiences and thus ensuring consumer engagement. Because the main purpose of gamification, as in games, is to increase the user’s engagement and provide an enjoyable experience for users (Huotari & Hamari, 2012; Leclercq et al., 2017; Zichermann & Cunningham, 2011).
Gamification is the application of game elements to a non-game area (Deterding et al., 2011). Users are fulfilling a specific purpose (e.g., purchasing) while playing games (Tondello et al., 2018). Gamification, in other words, guides users to beneficial goals through an enjoyable experience (Huotari & Hamari, 2012). Therefore, consumers are expected to show two-way engagement in gamification. The first is that gamification has a game design, so users are expected to engage in game elements, such as players (Harwood & Garry, 2015; Leclercq et al., 2017; Xi & Hamari, 2020). Secondly, although gamification is based on game elements, it is mainly designed for a utilitarian purpose. Therefore, users are also motivated to achieve this goal (Hamari, 2013; Rodrigues et al., 2016; Tondello et al., 2018). We defined this motivation state as the engagement of consumers in gamified content.
Digital and mobile technologies offer a wide range of possibilities for creating game-like applications. Individuals spend more time in digital worlds, and mobile phones are widely available around the world. This situation provides a lot of convenience in delivering game-like applications to a wide audience (Racoma, 2021). Moreover, the target audience of brands consists of great video game players (Statista, 2022). This situation affects the way consumers think and behave and drives them to show more interest in game-like applications (Lufkin, 2020; Vesa, 2021).
Beyond that, traditional advertising approaches can't create an experience interaction with consumers at the moment of the experience economy. Instead of ads with a strategy of coercion and seduction, brands need to develop structures that focus on the consumer’s values and create touchpoints where the consumer is naturally integrated into the content that develops around the brand (van Waart et al., 2011). Gamification offers an ideal experience design for such structures. Thus, both the change in expectations of consumers and the new possibilities of technology has led to the increase of game-like applications.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Game Elements: The elements and rules that make up the game are often called game elements. These include mechanics such as points, badges, or levels, as well as competition, collaboration, or achievement that determine the outcome of the gaming experience.
Gamification in the Context of Marketing: By designing non-game content as a game, consumers are brought to functional purposes with a gaming experience.
Engagement of Gamification Experiences: Consumers' participation in a brand's gamified content through game elements such as a player.
Engagement of Gamified Contents: Consumers' participation in a gamified marketing activity or application for non-gaming functional (purchase, sign-up, discount, etc.) purposes.
Gamification Experience: In the context of marketing, gamification experience is when consumers experience a brand in a game-like way beyond the shopping experience. It is the experience of customers in the consumption process, like a game.
Customers as Gamers: They are consumers who are familiar with games, think like gamers, and expect a game-like experience from their relationships with brands.
Engagement in Gamification: Is a two-way engagement of consumers with a brand's activities, both playful, and purpose-driven.