Promotion and Branding from the Lens of Gamification in Challenging Times

Introduction

Human-Computer interaction has transformed contemporary marketing styles, and firms have evolved in their ways to engage and attract customers (Helander, 2014). Gamification is one such human-computer interactive mechanism that has gained pace in the digital business space. In its most crude form, gamification refers to applying game mechanics to non-game activities and contexts and is primarily used in motivation and engagement (Hamari & Koivisto, 2014). Academic studies have extensively used the concept of gamification by doing empirical, experimental, and longitudinal studies in several contexts like learning and education, health and fitness, societal needs and demands, and energy conservation, customer retention (Hamari & Koivisto, 2015). As gamification is also a science of psychology, there is a tangible link with behavior and its application; therefore, it lies the maximum in the area of marketing.

Marketing literature has extensively used gamification in different contexts. For example, understanding customer engagement (Eisingerich et al., 2019), customer loyalty (Hwang & Choi, 2020), intrinsic and extrinsic need satisfaction (Xi & Hamari, 2019), feedback and motivation (Mekler et al., 2017), engaging online and offline communities through co-creation (Leclercq et al., 2018), and brand love (Hsu & Chen, 2018), there lies gaps in how brand use it and promotions exercise (e.g. Spralls et al., 2016). The recent gamification applications are also seen extensively in promotions and branding, where the firms have invested in making the brand more interactive. Some of the classical cases of use of gamification in the industry include (1) the Starbuck game, (2) the Unlock the 007 challenge by Coca-Cola, (3) the Dominos Pizza ordering app, and (4) the clothing company Moosejaw.

The application of gamification is limitless. Case-based studies in gamification also indicate that game artifacts have helped firms increase their sales, improve profitability, and offer a competitive advantage among peers. While gamification applications are diverse, the area lacks coherence in conceptualizing, theorizing, and implementing it across industries for different brands. It is also essential to explore how game artifacts encourage customer interaction with the brands and fellow customers to support and show their love for their favorite brands, creating positive emotional attachment and nurturing brand loyalty. More importantly, gamification also stems from the inherent marketing concepts of the novelty effect, sense of urgency, and windfall gains. Gamified promos, when done correctly, provide a unique and unexpected experience for internet shoppers.

One of the discoveries is that providing an unexpected incentive to the visitors boosts the number of accidental purchases and the average spend value and basket size. Amazon India and Myntra leveraged this by offering spinning wheels with different promotions and customers winning a random award listed on the wheel. The strategies used include mystery coupons, sign-up bonuses, discount codes using scratch cards, spinning wheels, and loyalty cards.

We observe the application of gamification in the recent COVID 19 crises, where brands start using game artifacts for customer engagement, branding, and promotions. For example, Zenly is a Snapchat app used to share location, recently introduced leader boards that reveal which friends and family members spend the most time at home, following social distancing recommendations. Similarly, the Tel Aviv foundation's Colu platform built a gamified platform to assist local businesses in combating losses caused by COVID-19 and punitive social distancing measures. S7 airlines designed a gamified loyalty program that tracks the customer's location when opting for the "I am home" feature against a reward of 100 miles.

Thus, there lie significant gaps in drawing inspiration from different disciplines and applying it in marketing science literature in the context of gamification. Recent studies also provoke and promote gamification to address critical research gaps in branding and advertisement using a theoretical lens (Yang et al., 2017). It is also essential to use both microscopic and telescopic theoretical views to understand how game mechanics can help advance different firms' existing theoretical and practical viewpoints in branding and promotional activities. Based on the e-marketing practices, the scope of gamification and its interaction with data-driven tools like artificial intelligence, chatbots, augmented and virtual reality, big data analytics also needs to be explored.

Additionally, there are gaps in using new and advanced methodologies and cases to understand the applicability and impact of gamification better. Koivisto and Hamari (2019) postulate a substantial gap in understanding how studies can use a mixed-method approach focusing on case studies, simulations, artificial intelligence-based experiments, and neuroscience to discover new offshoots of gamification (Behl, Sheorey, et al., 2021; Jayawardena et al., 2022). There also lies a practical gap in understanding the use of interdisciplinary concepts by businesses and most startups in the digital space to capture and captivate the customers by adopting the correct branding and promotional strategy of their products and services. Thus, there is immense scope in critically assessing the current state of gamification in branding and promotion and predicting the shape of the future with advancing technologies.

The Special Issue address the issues related to the cusp of branding and promotions that aims to address concerns related to conceptualizing, theorizing, applying, and extending the knowledge of gamification to benefit marketing literature in challenging times. The issue captures four different dimensions of gamification in the promotion management literature. The diversified dimensions include employer branding, the relationship of gaming and Over the Top (OTT) consumption, augmented reality and social media gaming, and related reward-based gamification with brand quality. The studies also offer a mix of qualitative and quantitative approaches to understanding the relationship between gamification and game-based approaches to different sub-disciplines of promotion management and brand management.

A brief overview of the articles

In the first article, titled "Online gaming and OTT consumption: An exploratory study of Generation Z" the authors explore the relationship between gaming personality and OTT content's consumption behavior and pattern. The authors performed a two-stage study. They used a qualitative assessment technique to explore generation Z's online gaming and OTT consumption pattern, while the second study tested the model using a quantitative approach. The study relied upon the "theory of reasoned action" and "self-determination theory" to develop the theoretical base and further test it using primary data from generation Z in India. The qualitative assessment indicated a gradual increase in online games and video content consumption, especially during the pandemic, and consumers prefer a hybrid product offering on their mobile devices. The study shows that using the gamer type as an additional input variable can improve the recommendation system, especially for Generation Z. The study offers theoretical solid and managerial implications for OTT channels to understand the consumers based on their genre (game type) and pitch the content accordingly.

The second article titled "Does reward gamification drive brand relationship quality? An experimental approach" examines the impact of reward gamification on brand relationship quality (BRQ) in the context of mobile banking (m-banking). The study uses an experiment-based approach and focuses on the banking sector only. The study also investigates whether the association between BRQ and Gamification (mediated by brand engagement) and how it varies with consumers' innovativeness levels. The study pivots on Stimulus-Organization-Response (S-O-R) model and proposes mediated moderated model form-banking customers in India. The results highlighted that compared to nongamified rewards, reward gamification has a more favorable impact on trust, commitment, and satisfaction. Consumers with high personal innovativeness show more trust, commitment, and satisfaction in a gamified reward than in a non-gamified scenario. Thus, customer engagement using gamification in m-banking shortly and banks need to invest in their gamification strategy.

The third article, "Augmented Reality-enabled Instagram Game Filters: Key to Engaging Customers" associates the game filters of Instagram with elements of augmented reality (AR) to improve customer engagement. The study S-D logic-driven theoretical approach to propose hypotheses and test them using primary data collection from 458 Gen Z respondents in India. The study rests its foundation on human-computer interaction theory and uses S-D logic and self-determination theory as pillars to support the conceptual model. The study also uses gameful experience as moderators between elements of AR and customer brand engagement, which leads to brand satisfaction and brand loyalty. The results add to the understanding of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation used by users to improve their behavior. The study presents a positive relationship between AR-enabled game filters, gameful experience, customer brand engagement, satisfaction, and loyalty. Thus, the future of brands lies in associating Gamification and AR together to give their users a superior and engaging experience at the same time.

The fourth article titled "Gamifying employer branding: Attracting critical talent in crisis situations like COVID-19" explore the application of gamification to employee branding and recruitment. The study answers two critical questions. First, which elements of gamification can be linked to employer brand engagement and equity? Second, whether gamification of employer brand leads to positive or negative sentiments among candidates applying for jobs? The answer to the questions is based on the arguments on self-determination theory and uses secondary data collected from websites. The study sourced its data using web crawling of websites and reviews of candidates posted on multiple open forums and was analyzed using content analysis and sentiment analysis. This study shows that autonomy, relatedness, and competence emerged as themes from the present study. Further, the study shows that the reviews reveal a high degree of positive sentiments compared to negative or neutral. Thus, the recruitment process should have three key sections: Gamification-based assessment, recruitment-related questions, and employer brand-related questions.

Concluding remarks

The scholarly contributions made by the papers in the special issue unquestionably provided the necessary stimulus to the research on gamification, specifically in the context of promotion and branding. Acknowledging the promising potential of the technique, there remains an undeniable need to further progress the research in gamification and explore its possible applications in novel domains of marketing. Future research can further explore the impact of the gamification mechanism on a diverse range of consumer judgments and decisions. A potential future avenue can be to examine the outcomes of integrating gameful design elements with cutting-edge technologies like AR and VR to create an immersive customer experience. It will also be interesting to investigate the limiting boundaries beyond which the impact of gamification will cease to exist or will lead to negative consequences like dissatisfaction or disengagement (Behl, Jayawardena, et al., 2021; Gupta et al., 2021). Introducing new theoretical lenses which present a better interpretation of the phenomenon and ensure more useful marketing applicability of the technique can also be a likely area of research.

Some relevant future directions proposed in the special issue include exploring the applicability of the value-based gamification framework and the impact of gamer personality classification on real-world marketing strategies. Further, AR-enabled mobile gaming filters affect different segments of games like video games, tablets, gaming consoles, and how gamified rewards can be applied to contexts, such as mobile health, learning, payment, and retailing.

Lately, there have been advancements in gamification research, and its applicability can be witnessed in diverse domains. However, robust methodologies, new measurement instruments, sound theoretical frameworks, and evidence-based solid research are needed to establish gamification as a superior technique of the future.

Acknowledgements

The guest co-editors would like to sincerely acknowledge the Editor-In-Chief of the Journal of Promotion Management (JPM), Professor Hooshang M. Beheshti, for his continued leadership, guidance, and support. The guest co-editors would also want to express their gratitude to all contributors for their quality submissions and for providing novel dimensions and insights into the gamification phenomenon. Lastly, the guest editors would like to thank all the reviewers for their timely reviews and valuable inputs.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.