On the blog of the Canadian Marketing Association, Daniel Brum addressed on March 6th the development and benefits of Gamification as a tool for marketers wishing to reinforce the relationship between customers and brands.

Gamification as such has been around for a long time but the more recent development of smartphones and social media represents an opportunity for extension and gives to gamification a new potential. It involves interaction and participation as well as gaming mechanics, motivation and feedbacks. Typical gaming mechanics include things like points accumulation, levels of difficulty, puzzle solving and challenges, virtual rewards, and competition.

Gamification in marketing builds upon entertaining targeted customers while building up their relationships to the brands developing the games. It yields greater engagement, loyalty and revenues in the long run. People tend to associate themselves to the brands and the marketers gain a greater access to personal information. Often, the gamers can opt-in for future communications from the brands, rate their products, give valuable feedback and become brand ambassadors to their social networks.

I acknowledge the potential strength of gamification because I believe in the outcomes of playing. People like having fun. On the other hand, I would like to challenge the obsession of developing too many marketing techniques embracing as many technologies as possible. The following picture illustrates well my point.

If a product is good, if it truly solves a problem the target segment has; there should be no need to consistently develop such indirect marketing tactics. It is at the edge of being unethical because a gaming experience does not directly represent the benefits and characteristics of the products themselves. A good product that fulfills an existing need should be trusted. Creating such product should remain the paramount priority and marketing technique of any enterprise.