Where Loyalty Lies: Gamification

Uh, Andreas, you, you bring a little bit of a, of a broader perspective given your, uh, your background, uh, and expertise, a, a broader perspective on games.

So, um, so what, what's your sort of view both on what, what Tim is, is, is sharing on, on his, uh, learnings but also what, what's your view on, on, uh, on, uh, games as a tactical tool in, uh, in, uh, in retail?

I think, uh, a lot of the examples that Tim very nicely here described for us here is, is fitting super good into what we see as a, you know, the DNA of, of gamification or game mechanics, uh, in, in marketing.

Um, the human brain- Works more or less the same around the world, which is also why that a consumer in Tim's, uh, audience group or consumer, uh, group is reacting, uh, for a dopamine rush, meaning that whenever they see a game, it triggers, uh, something in our brains that we want to activate this brain.

We want to scratch a scratch card, spin a wheel, do a quiz, or whatever it is.

So the, the human need for this dopamine rush that we know from our private life when we get a kiss from our wife or a hug from our children, or beat our siblings in Monopoly or football or whatever, whatever it is, that's the same thing we are craving for all the time.

The brain is basically designed for that.

And if we put that into a marketing context and a customer loyalty program, as Tim also described here, the, the game and the power behind can really move people from A to B.

So if we want to win, for example, the Thanksgiving basket or the Christmas basket, which is normally a very high competitive blood red ocean, uh, in grocery retail loyalty programs, then games can be the trigger to get people from A to B.

And even though that it doesn't have to be a very high, uh, valued prize like a holiday or something like that, or many, many pounds or dollars or whatever it is, it can be a small little sample of a new flavor or points for a loyalty program or dollar hooks, whatever it is.

That is enough to trigger something in the human, uh, consumer behavior that, okay, cool, then I will go to one of Tim's stores versus a competitor, even though that I might have to change behavior or change habits, but now there is a little prize waiting for me.

And that's basically the reward mechanism that is also within our systems, the same that whenever we score a goal in football, we get a lot of high fives from our, our teammates.

We get a lot of applause from, from the audience or whatever it is.

That's the same mechanism that whenever we redeem a prize or get some points in our sample, uh, or point system, that's, that's basically the human DNA for, for what Tim just described.

So yeah, to, to answer your question very short and precise, it's spot on what Tim is doing, and we can also see that the more specific you are, the more niche you are, it gives a very, very high, you know, opt-in rates, uh, also very high redemption rate if, let's say I'm a meat lover as a consumer and there is something that is correlating in my shopping behavior, then I'm also more likely to redeem the prize.

The same goes unfortunately also in the opposite direction that if I'm getting something totally off, I can win whatever, baby diapers, and I'm not in that phase of my life anymore, then I will not, uh, react positively on games.

So, uh, yeah, sounds like Tim is, uh, in good, in a good, uh, pole position now to, to win the loyalty race.

That's why he's on the podcast.

Exactly.

[laughs]

We're bringing to- we're bringing together the best.

Mm-hmm.

That's the whole purpose.

Yeah.

Uh, but, uh, just to your point, Anders, isn't there also a story...