How to Incorporate Games into Your Business

In just a few decades, video games have gone from a hobby, to a massive billion dollar industry. Major electronics manufacturers like Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo have entire segments of their business devoted to gaming.

Whether your business is directly associated with gaming or not, there are several ways you can incorporate games into your business to enhance your strategy, boost morale, and attract customers.

3 Exciting Ways to Bring Gaming into Your Business

Games are all about providing a reward to the player for their efforts. Take Foursquare for example. People started using that app to check-in at locations and receive badges or attain “mayor” status.

These rewards didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things, but they did provide incentive to keep using the app. What if you could capture something similar for your business? Here are three ways gaming can be incorporated into your company:

1. Enhance Your Strategy

If you can somehow incorporate games into your business model, you’ll find that your strategy becomes infinitely more engaging for everyone involved. It doesn’t need to be a traditional game, but it can embrace concepts like these:

● Levels — give your customers rewards for milestones with your company. A perfect example are rewards programs with certain retailers.

● Titles or Status — Reward your customers with a new status like VIP for repeat or loyal customers.

● Set Time Limits — Like many video games, your time is not unlimited. Give certain promotions and offers a limited time before they expire to drive urgency.

● Tell a Story — Get your customers involved by telling them a story where they are the hero, like most modern video games.

2. Boost Morale

Games make people happy. They take our minds off of stressful things and force us to focus on and engage with something else. Consider adding some sort of leisure activity to your office or daily routine.

Your employees will feel heightened and refreshed if they can enjoy a few minutes of relaxation throughout their day. Even something as simple as a game console in the break room can go a long way towards boosting morale.

3. Attract Customers

Gamification is a major topic right now in business. How can companies apply the concepts of gaming to bring in more customers. One example would be experiential marketing. Events where businesses have some sort of activity related to their company allow customers to engage with the brand and earn rewards.

A very simplistic example, are the windy cash machines often seen at retailers or car lots. People stand in a wind tube and try to grab as much money as they can swirling around them. Whatever they catch, they keep.

More creative ideas will be needed to make the game line up with your business. You want the game to connect to your brand in a meaningful way, otherwise you’re distracting customers from the thing you want to sell them.

Over to You

Gaming is a great way to spice up any and every aspect of your business. It can add fun to otherwise boring things, keep people engaged, and boost morale with your employees. How do you incorporate gaming into your business? Let us know in the comments!