Marketing in the Metaverse: A Sceptical Viewpoint of Opportunities and Future Research Directions

Abstract

Metaverse can be a difficult concept to comprehend because of its nature which includes richness and complexity. Researchers, managers, and opinion leaders anticipate that the Metaverse might actually change how customers engage with products and services. On the other hand, much technical staff and business managers are still unfamiliar with the Metaverse as a new business concept. By taking a sceptical viewpoint, the current paper may assist managers and scholars in making better decisions concerning the concept of the Metaverse in a marketing context. The paper begins by describing the metaverse notion in broad and in relation to marketing. Following this, we adopt a sceptical approach towards four critical categories: customer experiences, customer trust, customer engagement, and advertising in the Metaverse. Lastly, we propose future research directions, including defining what marketing in the Metaverse is and describing its narratives while minimising the hype and exaggerated claims surrounding it.