Abstract
The internet is a technology that has provided changes, giving rise to new trends and concepts applied in the most diverse areas. One of these trends is gamification, as it is a concept applied in several areas: education, information technology, management, communication, and marketing. Companies understand that gamification applied to marketing can be an opportunity to strengthen the relationship between brands and consumers, increasing consumer engagement and loyalty. Marketing strategy based on gamification can boost marketing results, increase brand engagement, generate more motivation among users, promote knowledge retention, encourage cooperation, and provide a competitive advantage and valuable feedback. It becomes pertinent to understand how gamification can attract, engage, and understand a brand's audience. This chapter is based on the methodology of a systematic bibliometric literature review with a qualitative approach to understand the application of gamification to business when applied to marketing in order to verify research themes and development patterns.
TopMethodological Approach
The research uses a Systematic Bibliometric Literature Review (LRSB) with a qualitative approach to collect, analyze, and synthesize data on the application of gamification in marketing.
However, we must consider that the scope is limited by the definition of the question and the selection criteria. Furthermore, most of the time, the questions reformulate alternatives that are not answered by the chosen central question. Although it involves gathering data from existing literature, a systematic review is considered an original work (Rosário, 2021, Raimundo & Rosário, 2021, Rosário et al., 2021; Rosário & Cruz, 2019). It consists of identifying, selecting, appraising, and synthesizing high-quality studies that explicitly indicate precise contexts and research intentions through rigorous and explicit design (Bettany-Saltikov, 2016). It involves summarizing and combining relevant individual studies, thus, developing knowledge usable in decision-making and strategizing. In addition, a qualitative approach was adopted to provide in-depth data analysis on factors influencing branding and promotional activities in games. Bilgin (2017) explains that in-depth character is the main advantage of qualitative market research since it allows data collection and analysis of factors such as the quality of interaction determining consumer satisfaction. Huotari and Hamari (2017) indicate that gamification in marketing literature is illustrated as a communicative stage that conceptualizes consumers as co-producers. In recent commerce activities, consumer engagement in business processes has become rampant due to increasing empowerment platforms, such as social media, that facilitate user-generated content. Therefore, this methodology can build knowledge on the context of gamification, its goals, affordances, and psychological mediators that make it an appropriate marketing strategy.
LRSB process was carried out, divided into 3 phases and 6 steps (Table 1), as proposed by Rosário, 2021, Raimundo & Rosário, 2021, Rosário et al., 2021; Rosário & Cruz, 2019.
Table 1. Process of systematic LRSB.
| Phase | Step | Description |
| Exploration | Step 1 | formulating the research problem |
| Step 2 | searching for appropriate literature |
| Step 3 | critical appraisal of the selected studies |
| Step 4 | data synthesis from individual sources |
| Interpretation | Step 5 | reporting findings and recommendations |
| Communication | Step 6 | Presentation of the LRSB report |
Key Terms in this Chapter
Gen Z: Individuals born between the mid-1960s and early 1980s, years following the post-war baby boom (1946-1964).
Co-Creation: Form of innovation that happens when consumers, suppliers and employees associate with the business or product or brand, adding value, content or marketing innovation, receiving the benefits of the contribution, whether through access to customized products or brands or, in promoting ideas.
Game Aesthetics: It is defined in three dimensions: the sensory phenomena that the player encounters in the game (visual, auditory, tactile, embodied); the digital aspects of games that share other art forms; and, as an expression of the game that experiencing pleasure, emotion, sociability (aesthetic experience).
Gen Y: Also called millennium generation, internet generation, or millennia born between 1980 and 1996.
Game Design Elements: The basic building blocks of gamification apps (badges, leaderboards, performance charts, meaningful stories, avatars and teammates).
Gameful Experience: Interactive state that occurs when the player realizes that the goals are achievable, through an experience, measured by a game experience scale, which translates into the game experience.
Corporate Social Responsibility: A business model that encourages companies to be socially responsible.
Gamification: Strategy to increase user involvement, improving performance by generating experiences similar to those experienced in playing games.