In pursuit of happiness

Project Part II: Motivation

This week’s scenario:

You are approached by Ryan Morrison, the mayor of a medium-sized city in the Midwest of the United States. He has heard that you know a lot about gamification and believes that gamification techniques can transform city government.

He would like to start with the health of city employees.  The city has 50,000 employees and they happen to have exactly the same rates of obesity as the U.S. average: 34.4% overweight (but not obese) and 33.9% of them are obese.  53.1% of the city’s employees do not meet the U.S. Physical Activity Guidelines for aerobic physical activity and 76% of them fail to meet the Guidelines for muscle-strengthening activity.  The city pays for health benefits for its employees and this cost is a huge part of the city budget.  Economists in Mayor Morrison’s office have estimated that a 3% improvement in the average physical fitness of city employees would amount to a US$94 million reduction in annual city health costs; a 5% improvement would save US$188 million.

Describe in general terms a gamified system that could effectively motivate behavior change to address the challenge presented above. Specifically, explain how the system would effectively incorporate intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, or both.

Your answer should address the fact that this is an internal gamification project, targeted at the institutional goals of the city government.  The system can use any technology (or no technology!), so long as the resources required seem justified by the scope of the opportunity.
My submission:

In this paper I will show how the city government can use gamification to effectively motivate behavior change among its 50,000 employees, by incorporating a social wellness service called ShapeUp.

The theoretical framework is based on Self Determination Theory.

According to their blog post “Innovations Transforming Corporate Wellness: Gaming” ShapeUp is using gamification in the following way:

“Social wellness companies like ShapeUp are designing packaged games that have different themes, use different gaming mechanics, and have different rules. All of this combines to drive people to change their behavior and achieve their health goals, whether they are focused on physical activity, nutrition, or preventive care. And the best part is that this is that it doesn’t have to be top-down programming; what is really innovative is when employees design the games themselves. For example, social wellness platforms enable an employee to challenge a colleague to go jogging today. And then they can track if the goal was accomplished, perhaps evening winning a prize for their accomplishment, depending on how the competition is structured and the gaming dynamics that are in play..

[This implies that the city government can use one serviceeven though there are two segments; a) the 1/3 who are overweight but not obese and b) those who are obese. By allowing the users to define the challenges themselves the program is meant to create intrinsic motivation]  

..What’s great about games is that not only will they ramp up employee engagement in your corporate wellness program, but they also promote tracking, which is a great way for those of us in the corporate wellness space to achieve our goals.  We know that when people set personal goals and track their progress toward reaching these goals, they’re much more likely to succeed. Behavior change research has demonstrated this. With daily tracking data, individuals get insights, and can make day-to-day adjustments based on their performance. Games get people tracking, as they have a new, engaging reasons to do so. In many instances, they will even want to share their results so they can inspire their team. This provides a feeling of obligation to all team members, and suddenly people are tracking all of their different health metrics over time.”

The program can work as a variable schedule reward machine; giving the participants a Skinnerian “rat in a box dopamine addiction” but within a self made structure, based on social interaction and meaningful growth for the users.

The institutional goals for the city government should therefore be to allow the workers full autonomy of the program, and only facilitate it by:

1. Paying for it.
2. Having healthy food in the cafeterias.
3. Setting up shower rooms so that workers can run or cycle to work.

Project Part I: Definition

This week’s scenario:

You are an employee of Cereals Incorporated, a large manufacturer of breakfast food products.  Your supervisor, Madison County, approaches you because she knows you recently took a course on gamification, which she has heard will revolutionize marketing.

She tells you that Cereals Inc. is about to release a new line of ready-to-eat breakfast pastries, and she wants to know whether to use gamification as part of the marketing strategy.  The breakfast pastries will be aimed at the 18-35 age bracket. Surveys show members of this demographic often skip breakfast because they don’t want to eat the typical cereals of their youth, and they are too active to cook their own breakfasts.  Market research indicates that the pastries are likely to appeal more to women than men by a 65%-35% ratio. Cereals Inc. has a 35% share of the overall breakfast food market, but only a 10% share of the fragmented ready-to-eat segment.

Provide as many reasons as you can why gamification could be a useful technique to apply to the situation your manager has presented to you.  Explain why these reasons address the specific scenario provided.  At this stage, focus on the problem rather than the solution.  In other words, describe the goals of the project, not the particular game elements or other techniques you plan to use.  We strongly encourage you to watch this week’s lecture segments before attempting this assignment.

My submission:

In this paper I will show how Cereals Inc. can use gamification to:

a) Increase the overall market and its market share in the ready-to-eat breakfast pastries segment.

b) Identify customers’ needs.

The theoretical framework is based on Nicole Lazzaro’s Altered States in Why We Play Games: Four Keys to More Emotion Without Story, hereafter mentioned as “FourKeys” and the “Dynamics” aspect in The Pyramid of Gamification Elements. Hereafter mentioned as “ThePyramid”.

Please note that I sometime use the word player as a synonym for customers.

1. How gamification can increase the market/market share by forming customers habit. 

In this case the demographic target group often skips breakfast. By associating eating breakfast pastries with the right emotion one might increase the number of times the player eats breakfast and thereby increases the overall market and Cereals Inc.  market share.

One aspect of FourKeys regarding emotions is that many “Players treasure the enjoyment from their internal experiences in reaction to the visceral, behavior, cognitive, and social properties” (page7)

In the light of the “ThePyramid”one may argue that a well made gamification structure which focuses on generating emotion through behavioral components like the change of eating habits, can help form a habit that addresses the problem of the target group skipping breakfast.

2. How gamification can identify customers needs.

By letting the individual player give and receive feedback on what is important for them, Cereals Inc. can gain valuable consumer insights.

FourKeys has identified that some players focus on “Being better at something that matters” (page5). By using “ThePyramid” progression aspect to show the player journey and the making of meaningful choices (eating healthy breakfast) a gamified breakfast could include a daily feedback from the player to Cereals Inc.