Play, games and gamification: possibilities for customer loyalty

Customer loyalty is central to both the study and practice of marketing. Some marketing managers have designed programs to create, maintain, and build customer loyalty in a game-like nature, which can be described as gamification. Built upon the conceptual foundations of customer loyalty, this chapter discusses how gamification, and its underlying principles, can be applied to the customer loyalty context. We outline guidelines for designing gamification strategies to enhance customer loyalty outcomes by looking closely at some real-world cases where marketers have had mixed success applying gamification to their loyalty programs. The chapter closes by suggesting potentially interesting directions for future research.