Building loyalty and engagement is just a big game
I believe ‘gamification’ to be one of those words that many modern marketers resort to when they’re trying to impress clients with their knowledge of terminology. Like a lot of marketing speak, it’s a made-up term that attempts to distil a complex and strong concept into a buzzword, therefore sadly limiting how seriously most people will take it….
However I love the concept, regardless of the name, so I’m going to swallow my pride and talk about it throughout this post.
In the most basic terms, it means to apply the positive essences of gaming to real world, business objectives, rather than just pure entertainment. Gamification isn’t really about games, it’s about using data and information to drive engagement and activity. And according to Gartner, Gamification will account for 25% of redesigned business processes by 2015. So what does this mean, and why is it important?
The Challenges
Two of the biggest challenges faced by businesses today are encouraging customers to engage with them (and to continue engaging), and ensuring that their workforce is motivated and performing at work.
You may not consider building a loyal and engaged workforce and customer base a ‘game’, but it has long been suggested that the number one motivators for people are progress and recognition, not monetary rewards. As Gabe Zichermann, author of the new book The Gamification Revolution highlights: “People may be motivated by getting a gift card, but what really drives them is recognition [as well as] status, access power and stuff (the SAPS Model).”
So gamification of systems can potentially solve both of these issues – let’s look at some examples…
“Life is a Sport. Make it count.”
Launched in 2006, the Nike+ campaign was created to engage the global running community. Among other things, it allows users to compete against their own times and those of their contacts, unlock achievements, undertake challenges, and train with coaches and sports stars towards particular goals. It is also intrinsically tied in with mapping and music functionality, as well as with running clubs and events.
Within a year of launch over 500,000 users from over 120 countries had signed up, and Nike had captured 57% of the $3.6 billion dollar US running shoe market, up from 47% the year before.
Furthermore, to prove that the campaign had potential for continued engagement, by August 2009 over 1.3 million runners from over 150 countries had signed up, and Nike’s US market share had risen to 61%. And keep in mind that you don’t need Nike shoes to use Nike+…
By identifying the needs of a large but very specific market, then gamifying a number of these features, Nike has created an ‘all-in-one’ running application that has multiple reasons for continuous engagement and increased loyalty to the brand.
Collaboration, Advocacy, Sales and More…
A recent study suggested that 71% of employees are not engaged at work, meaning they don’t enjoy their jobs or don’t feel recognised or fulfilled at work. In response to this potential crisis, gamification has successfully been used to engage and motivate employees in a number of interesting and innovative ways.
For instance, in July 2010 a restaurant in Colorado, US initiated an incentive program for it’s employees to encourage cross selling of two specific products. When successfully selling the products in question, employees were presented with the opportunity to play an online game which awarded points that could then be exchanged for a cash value. It was estimated that the ROI of the scheme was an impressive 66.2%, meaning that for every $1 spent they received in $1.66 in additional revenue.
Businesses in a broad range of sectors have adopted similar models to different ends. Some concentrate on knowledge acquisition and training, some on sales and cross selling, and others on customer service and performance goals. But all work on the premise that staff members need more than just monetary value to feel fully engaged at work.
How Does This Affect Me?
The idea of providing desirable incentives to encourage engagement, loyalty and ultimately sales is certainly nothing new, but it has never been so important to brands as it is now. Retaining a customer’s attention in a 24 hour, multi-channel world has never been such a challenge, and if you want them to keep coming back you’re going to have to give them a very good reason.
Adding incentives that users really want could well be the answer. And as the very different case studies above show, you don’t have to be a big business to introduce gamification into your staff and customer processes, you just have to come up with the right ideas and build them into your business models. But as always, remember to benchmark, test and analyse, or you could end up wasting a lot of time and effort.
If you would like to improve brand loyalty, engagement and the overall interactions people are having with your brand get in touch today and we can create a plan that is suitable for your needs.
