IGSB BLOG: June 2022

Blog by : Ms.Saumya Jadoun & Dr.Aatish Zagade

The 21^st century has been special if we take into consideration the extent to which we have innovative technology or its applications. Products or services that we have admired in sci-fi movies have become reality today, to name a few are drones, flying cars, and self-driving cars. Mankind has been always in the pursuit to build something magnificent, till date we have been only using technology but now it’s time to enter the submersive mode of technology. Here we would like to help the readers understand a magnificent technology, it’s the virtual universe that we all can be part of and it’s known as Metaverse.

Metaverse is a network of 3D virtual worlds that facilitate social connection and serves as a bridge between real and virtual worlds. The Metaverse refers to a virtual environment that includes different internet services, such as gaming, socializing, and business opportunities, all within an immersive virtual reality universe. The most remarkable advantage of the metaverse would be the fact that it completely makes geographic barriers insignificant. Once you’re in the virtual world, your physical location doesn’t matter anymore and you are no longer bounded by it. The metaverse will play as a neutral space where everyone can meet without any inequity to some extent. The things are different in the metaverse with social interactions and events being way more happening, allowing users to experience a personal connection with their friends and loved ones. Physical proximity or presense is no longer a limiting factor for any event or gatherings you may want to attend. Social media has helped to create many business opportunities and gave rise to a new form of marketing and advertising on such platforms, the metaverse will likely provide even bigger opportunities.

Metaverse offers a completely immersive way of nurturing and promoting products and services using new marketing and advertisement strategies like virtualized storefronts, organized shows, and highly interactive customer relationship and customer service. This means that you can see the product, hold it, and even feel it using tactile technology. This type of interaction will aid both the consumer and business, as both sides will receive a better user experience on Metaverse. Traditional methods of marketing are really not enough anymore. Metaverse Marketing is a new concept that will enhance the ways of marketing your products on a digital platform and increase the customer base by showing the virtual existence of your product on Metaverse.

Marketing strategies must be meaningful and fascinating to be considered successful and this is exactly why metaverse is guaranteed to achieve this for businesses of all sorts in the near future. In some ways, the critical aspects of marketing in the metaverse favour those of designing authentic and enhancing brand experiences in the physical world. But the application of these aspects in the metaverse can be very different. Many approaches are done for driving value online to evolve, the effective engagement of consumers in the metaverse that will require its evolving recipe for success. Targeting is an important process through which an advertiser identifies its target audience and then advertises to them through a variety of channels. By constructing the right user platform, understanding user habits, and finding the right base to reach them, a marketer uses process of targeting to improve the performance of the different campaigns. So marketers on Metaverse should think of targeting and segmenting their user audience. Marketers are aware that Gen Z and millennials are main focused target audiences. These users rely on technology and already use some forms of Metaverse, such as virtual reality. Marketers should create unique and mesmerizing experience similar to those they provide in the real world.

Let’s take an example of Hyundai Motor Company for Metaverse Marketing - ‘In October Hyundai Motor Company launched Mobility Adventure, a metaverse space on Roblox that features Hyundai Motor’s products and future mobility solutions. The combinely shared virtual space let users meet and experience Hyundai’s mobility facilities and customize their avatars. As the first virtual experience on Roblox designed by a global automotive brand, Hyundai Mobility Adventure is targeteing at young consumers who are advance in technology at exploring the virtual worlds. By familiarizing them with Hyundai Motor’s products and services and different future mobility solutions. Hyundai Mobility Adventure nurtures a ever-lasting relationship with users’. So let’s step into the virtual world of Metaverse and amplify the new methods of Metaverse Marketing.

References:

· https://www.practicalecommerce.com/12-examples-of-brands-in-the-metaverse

· https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/growth-marketing-and-sales/our-insights/marketing-in-the-metaverse-an-opportunity-for-innovation-and-experimentation