The Dark Side of Gamification in Interactive Marketing

Abstract

Gamification has captivated people’s interests from all walks of life, including marketing managers. Incorporating game mechanics in a non-gaming context like social media marketing, email marketing, customer relationship management, e-commerce, and mobile marketing enhances customer engagement and loyalty. However, every coin has two sides, and the buzzword gamification is no exception. Marketing scholars have extensively explored the positive aspects or bright sides of using a gamified approach to marketing; hitherto, its lesser attended side or dark side deserves attention. This chapter focuses on the dark side of using gamification in interactive marketing. The discussion of the dark side revolves around three key themes: Design-based challenges in gamification, Challenges in adopting gamified marketing solutions (pre-implementation, during implementation, and post-implementation), and User-based issues leading to lesser or no impact of gamification in the context of online marketing. The originality of the work lies in providing a framework describing the dark side of gamification in online marketing.