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.