GAMIFICATION AND CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP:

A COMPARATIVE CASE ANALYSIS

AGENDA

• INTRODUCTION

• THE BASICS OF GAMIFICATION

• COMPARATIVE CASE ANALYSIS

• TAKEAWAYS

It looks like adding game elements to a non-game context!

JUST TWO WEEKS AGO…

“Gamification is the use of game design elements in non-game contexts”

(Deterding, 2011)

WHAT THE EXPERT SAYS

WHY ADDING GAMES ELEMENTS TO NON-GAME CONTEXT?

BECAUSE GAMES ARE POWERFUL!They are able to influence us

• They are able to stick us on the TV screen for hour and hour

• They work both on young and adults

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

RQ1 What kind of benefits gamification is able to produce for the brand sustaining the overall business

growth?RQ2 How companies can develop an effective and sustainable

form of customer relationship based on engagement?RQ3 How does gamification support customer co-creation of

value?

1. Academic literature to interpret the cases.

2. Compare the cases with each other.

3. Identify patterns that contribute to answer the question: why do

brands implement gamification?

Validity of the study is given by the replication of findings during the analysis.

HOW I HAVE ANSWERED THESE QUESTIONS:COMPARATIVE CASE ANALYSIS

LIMITED SPAN ATTENTION

RISE OF CASUAL GAMES

MILLENNIALS

THE INTENRNET

TODAY’S SNAPSHOT

HOW DO WE GET POPULATION X TO DO Y IN CONTEXT Z?

“Instead of asking ‘How can I motivate people?’ we

should be asking ‘How can I create the conditions within which people will motivate themselves?’”

(Deci, 1996)

• The point is to involve people into a meaningful experience that has the power to engage the them according to a predetermined path.

• People think differently in gamified context so they approach the topic from another perspective because they are motivated thanks to game mechanics. (Van Laere et al., 2013)

Theory of Fun: “something as simple as fun is the easiest way to change people’s

behaviour for the better”.

HOW DO WE GET POPULATION X TO DO Y IN CONTEXT Z?

WHAT’S YOUR CHOICE?

WHAT DOES MAKE ACTIVITIES FUNNY?

EXPLORING

BEING PROTAGONIST

TEAM WORKING

SHARING CUSTOMIZING

PROBLEM SOLVING

WHAT TRIGGERS EVERYTHING

SELF DETERMINATION THEORY argues that human beings seek out (and continue to engage in) activities if they promise (and succeed) to satisfy 3 intrinsic motivational needs.

(Deci and Rayan, 2000)

WHAT TRIGGERS EVERYTHING

COMPETENCE: «I CAN DO THIS»

AUTHONOMY: MEANINGFUL CHOICE

RELATEDNESS: IMPACTING ON OTHERS

DESIGNING MEANINGFUL EXPERIENCES

RELATIONSHIP ENGAGEMENT MEANING

“Value emerges only if the designer elicits user motivation i.e. whether he

finds what makes the customer time worthy to be spent.” (Brian Burke – Gartner Inc., 2012)

FROM GAME TO BUSINESS

Gamification is not about creating games, rather it is for any brand - B2C or B2B - who wants to create MEANINGFUL, MEMORABLE and MEASURABLE connections to their audience

(White Rhino – Strategic Marketing Consulting Group)

“Gamification is to be considered as a mean – and NOT AS THE FINAL RESULT – to achieve a bigger company’s goal”

(Lucassen and Jansen, 2014)

“A gamified application must provide something that is ALREADY MEANINGFUL to the user on its own right. Game elements are like an

amplifier: THERE HAS TO BE A GENUINE SOUND FIRST”(Deterding – Google Tech Talk, 2011)

MULINO BIANCO: I Talenti Del Mulino

«Gamification allows engaging your target into a whole brand experience that goes beyond the mere purchasing relationship»

BRICO CENTER: Casa Brico «In several occasions customers follow just promotions, then the company does gain neither loyalty nor engagement. Gamification […] generates relationships that resist throughout the time because each badge the player gains is the outcome of an action intrinsically done»

ORIGINAL MARINES: Play Original

«It’s not just playing. By interaction and fun, gamification makes possible to achieve important business goals such as brand awareness and brand loyalty»

ACTIONS POINTS REWARDS ENGAGEMENT

RQ1: WHAT KIND OF BENEFITS GAMIFICATION IS ABLE TO PRODUCE FOR THE BRAND SUSTAINING THE OVERALL

BUSINESS GROWTH?

«Gamification key aspect is about how to engage your target. […] Engagement drives the website traffic, it means customers interact more fruitfully with the brand thus contribuiting to achieve one of the company’s goals.»

«Thanks to customer engagement, users are eager to interact with the platform and generate new contents that place Brico Center in the first rank of Google search.»

Stimulating customer engagement is strictly related with the increase of brand awareness and the consequential launch of the e-commerce platform.

Cucinelli

Mulino Bianco

Brico Center

Original Marines

Basile

Martella

RQ2: HOW COMPANIES CAN DEVELOP AN EFFECTIVE AND SUSTAINABLE FORM OF CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP BASED ON

ENGAGEMENT?

«Thanks to engagement, player’s experience throughout the game is constantly sustained as it happens in real videogames. [...] Customer relationship is achieved as the platform motivates players to take a path of actions that implies consequential rewards.»

«Thanks to Casa Brico Center, the brand is able to directly establish a relationship with the customer: this is our main goal. Starting from the genuine interaction with the customers the brand is then able to better inform them about its products and get interesting insights about how these products are used.»

The brand invites players to take part of missions. The gamification platform motivates users to be engaged with the brand as the more the actions achieved, the more the points gained.

Cucinelli

Mulino Bianco

Brico Center

Original Marines

Basile

Martella

RQ3: HOW DOES GAMIFICATION SUPPORT CUSTOMER CO-CREATION OF VALUE?

«Value is generated each time customers interact with the platform providing valuable information to the company and getting in turn fun. [Doing so] the customer increases his emotional attachment to the brand and thus a preference against competitors.»

«The content produced by our users on the platform represents a great source of value. […] For instance it is directly exploitable by product managers for product development purposes.»

Value emerges whenever players react to gameful missions. In other words value consists of the experiences and perceptions customers have each time they are involved in the gamified system.

Cucinelli

Mulino Bianco

Brico Center

Original Marines

Basile

Martella

If engaged, users tend to spend more time within the system, thus permitting the company to lead customers throughout a defined path made of those activities that are more likely to produce value. Customer engagement appears as a key driver for business growth.

Goal of relationship marketing is to build mutually, satisfying long term relationship with key constituents in order to earn and retain their business. (Kotler and Keller, 2009)

TAKEAWAYS

Gamification is a process of enhancing a service with affordances for gameful experiences in order to support user’s overall value creation. (Houtari and Hamari, 2011).

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION