Make Gamification work for your Retail Brand [ Part I ]

(This post is written in two parts and gives you the know-how on how Retail brands can effectively tap into Gamification to engage with your consumers without making it seem predictable or boring )

Retail is a volatile space. So, it comes as no surprise that brands struggle to adapt to ever-changing consumer preferences. Mobile has managed to bridge this gap in recent times, because of the “anytime, anywhere convenience” and access to user analytics. Every brand wants to be active in the Mobile space to engage consumers, understand preferences and obtain dynamic feedback.

The first wave was social; every brand wanted to be on the social space, to follow and engage consumers through social networking.This trend was quickly followed by location-based services; the word on the street was “local,” physical proximity over world-wide presence.

Which brings us to the third wave, Mobile Engagement.

Quoting Ted Schadler, writing on behalf of Forrester on Forbes

Version one of your mobile app was just a standalone pretty face. But in versions two, three, and four, your mobile app will be the new face of systems of engagement, with a goal of helping people “take action in their immediate context and moments of need ”

When carried out the right way, Gamification can engage audiences in ways that traditional advertising cannot. Consumers have already caught onto this, from Four Square that started the trend to Habitica that uses game mechanics to help users lead a healthy life, Gamification has appealed to the ever evolving consumers who are constantly looking for unique experiences on Mobile.

I was in charge of driving the Mobile Strategy for ‘customer engagement’ for a leading retail chain. Like every solutions person, I wanted to apply the recent hot trend and apply it right.

I started with “user/consumer profiling” to understand the behaviour patterns, preferences and pain-points of the consumers in my scope. But, since Gamification is a recent trend, my research tools online did not promise accurate information. I wanted to understand the audiences and their pain-points at a much deeper level. So I turned to the Solutions team at Mobuzz to carry out a field-study. We visited different stores, mapped in-store experiences and talked to people.

During this process, I quizzed a few people in a few social places about what they thought were the most effective gamified processes in life. I was surprised to hear what they had to say.

“ Exams” said one. “Appraisals at work ” said another.

It suddenly dawned on me that Gamification isn’t new, it is age-old; it has been an integral part of our lives. Each one of us has psychologically warmed up to the process of excelling in an activity and in turn expecting a reward for it.

That brings me to:

1.Don’t just interpret behaviour patterns. Get to know your audience.

There’s more to understanding user behaviour than decoding analytics. Switch places, instead of sticking to the planning-end of your business, venture out to few of your stores. Be an end-customer for a change. Talk to people and try to understand what bores them, what excites them, and what brand aspects are they attached to? You are sure to have a new perspective on what to gamify in your consumer-cycle.

Over a few cups of coffee, I asked people at my workplace to talk about how they would respond if their day-to-day tasks were gamified. Entering the time-logs could be monotonous; maybe, we could look at gamifying it? Viewing reports in never-ending grids is uninspiring; what if someone comes up with an interesting and engaging way to do it?

People seemed to like these ideas, because every idea was driving fun. We were talking about transforming boring, non-engaging tasks into something enjoyable and gratifying; something one would be self-motivated to do. That brings me to:

2. Pick an area that is non-engaging.

The objective of Gamification is to drive engagement and fun. So, if you choose an aspect in your line-of-business which is already engaging, then the curve of customer engagement would be flat. So start with one of the most boring areas of your process. Try and understand what will make each of these fun. Invite your most-loyal customers to a flash-preview of the gamified process. Document what they enjoy the most. At the end of this activity, you are sure to have your Gamification strategy ready.

One of my female colleagues had an interesting insight to share during the course of these conversations. “It is a known fact that women love to window shop and men don’t like it so much. I would be interested in gamifying such small but challenging areas.” I quickly searched for any Gamification of window shopping and chanced upon Adidas Neo window shopping in Germany.

It’s a universal fact that pretty models catch the attention of men, combine that with a widely accepted fact that any consumer-end solution needs to be simple-that’s Adidas Neo Window shopping for you. A user just has to drag clothing items and voila, the model mirrors your movements just like Tom cat in Talking Tom does. Window shopping cannot get any more interesting than that — no wonder the initiative won an Abby Lion. Which brings me to:

3. Do not Gamify your end-to-end process. Opt for gamifying select touch points.

A majority of the target audience belongs to the ‘Generation C’ (The connected consumer) . One of the defining characteristics of Gen. C. is an affinity for instant gratification. Time and convenience are a customer priority. It is wiser for your business to choose one or two select touch points and -bring them to life as exciting and engaging mobile apps through Gamification. Because at the consumer-end, Gamification is just not a solution, it’s a statement made by your brand.

The Home Shopping Network (HSN) — a believer in gamification since its HSN Arcade helped the company register more than 700,000 shoppers — added an in-app slot-machine game, Spin to Win, in 2013 to target young, affluent shoppers with discounts and prizes.

“A lot of focus in our company is on the mobile experience — giving the customer a reason to check in with us in the morning, just like she would check the weather,” HSN CEO Mindy Grossman, told attendees of IRCE that year. “Everyone should be thinking about gamification”

For a Strategy consultation on how Gamification can be integrated into your Retail brand experience seamlessly write to mannsa@mobuzz.co | Follow me @imappaholic | Say hello to the left brain people at my company if you want to talk code @Xkrishna @Nishvishnu

( To be continued..)