Gamers and Customer Engagement

Abstract

Video games have become one of the most prominent leisure tools in today's society. As individuals with an intense association with games, they expect a game-like experience in shopping or other areas. Hence, brands face a “gamer consumer” audience. Also, for the long-standing customer-brand relationship, the importance of customer engagement is increasing; gamification offers an excellent opportunity to involve consumers in the activities of the brand. The contribution of gamification to marketing efforts is highlighted in two forms: the first is that it provides customers gameful experience in non-gaming environments, and second, it encourages engagement by integrating game elements into non-game areas. In this chapter, it is theoretically explained how customer engagement in gamification occurs in two dimensions over a proposed model. Then, through successful marketing gamification examples (Adidas, Alipay, MINI, the Karl Lagerfeld, Subway), it is presented how customers are connected to both the gamified system and marketing purposes.