Brands are everywhere these days. But how many of us understand what “the Metaverse” means? What does it mean to be a part of the Metaverse? And why should we care?
To survive in the future, we must learn to adapt. We must learn to embrace change and become flexible. This will help us thrive as our world changes around us.
A Metaverse is a new form of digital reality where everything exists online. However, it’s not just virtual worlds like Second Life or Minecraft; instead, it’s a new way of thinking about the internet.
It’s also a place where brands compete with each other to win over consumers. To succeed, brands must build a strong presence in the Metaverse. They must create a unique identity and establish themselves as leaders among their peers.
If you want to stay relevant in the future, you need to get involved in the Metaverse. Otherwise, you’ll end up being left behind.
What is the Metaverse?
In short, the Metaverse is an online space that allows users to interact with one another through avatars. These avatars can shop for clothes, go on dates, play games, watch movies, and much more. It also describes augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). In other words, it’s a new environment that combines both physical and digital worlds.
How Does the Metaverse Work?
You must first download an app from your smartphone or computer to use the Metaverse. Once installed, you can log in and choose an avatar. You can then explore the Metaverse and meet other people. Businesses are starting to take notice of this trend.
A few years ago, companies hesitated to invest money in the Metaverse because they didn’t know if anyone would pay attention to them. Today, however, the number of people using the Metaverse has grown exponentially.
Consumers in the Metaverse will expect brands to provide them with immersive experiences. To succeed in this new world, companies must become a vital component of the Metaverse and offer an immersive experience that feels just as natural as taking a breath.
Ecommerce and the Metaverse
One of the biggest reasons people are flocking to the Metaverse is its ability to connect people across the globe. People can chat with friends and family members from all over the world.
This makes the Metaverse an excellent place for eCommerce. For example, if you want to sell something, you can set up an online store and start selling products directly to customers.
You can also make money by charging fees to those who visit your store. This is known as micropayments.
Micropayments allow people to buy small amounts of items without having to spend large sums of money. This is especially useful when trying to reach out to a specific audience.
For example, let’s say you run a clothing company. You might decide to charge $5 per item sold to your target market. That way, you can attract people who want to dress like you.
You can also have your virtual land or office used for ad spaces. This means that advertisers can put ads on your storefront.
The best part is that you won’t be charged any additional fees. Instead, you’ll earn money based on the time someone spends on your site.
Brands can use the Metaverse for marketing by creating their own branded worlds.
Brands can use the Metaverse to promote their products. Many big brands already have a presence in the Metaverse, including Nike, Coca-Cola, Mcdonald’s, and Disney.
These brands have realized that the Metaverse is a great way to engage with consumers. So they’ve started creating apps and websites that allow people to interact with their brands.
These interactions include everything from watching videos to playing games. By doing so, these brands can create long-lasting relationships with their customers.
Eminem and Snoop Dogg have already used the Metaverse to promote their music. Both rappers created apps where fans could listen to their songs and watch videos.
If you’ve seen their last collaboration at the 2022 MTV awards, they performed as their BAYC avatars inside the Yuga Lab’s “Otherside” Metaverse.
In addition to Eminem and Snoop Dogg, celebrities such as Katy Perry, Justin Bieber, and Taylor Swift have made appearances in the Metaverse.
They’ve created custom avatars and interacted with their fans using virtual reality. These types of interactions are what help build trust between brands and their customers.
The purpose of a brand in the virtual world
A brand is a personified version of a business. It represents the values, beliefs, and personality of the company behind it.
As a result, brands should strive to become more human. When brands try to do this, they can gain more credibility among their audiences.
People tend to believe companies that act like humans. So, for example, if you see a company that treats its employees well, you’re likely to think better of them.
Similarly, if you see a brand that interacts with its customers, you’re more likely to trust it.
This is because people feel more comfortable around people than things. As a result, brands need to make sure that they treat their customers like real people.
By becoming more human, brands can connect with their audiences. As a result, people are more likely to trust brands that seem relatable and provide the best consumer experience.
How your brand can transition into the Metaverse
There are several ways a brand can transition into the Metaverse.
Pick your targets
As a brand, your goal is to capture attention and build loyalty among your target demographic. If you have a strong understanding of your customers and know exactly why they’ll want to interact with you, you can make intelligent decisions about when to enter the Metaverse.
For instance, you run a toy store, and your target demo is kids aged 3–6. You might notice that kids under five rarely use smartphones; however, once they reach age 5, they start showing interest in technology. Based on this data, you could decide to launch a Snapchat filter based on a character from Frozen, a game app, a virtual reality experience, etc.
While some businesses wait until their target demos actively engage with the Metaverse, others opt to jump in early and take advantage of trends before they become mainstream. For example, if you see teens starting to show interest in augmented reality games like Pokémon Go, you might consider creating a branded AR app for them.
The key takeaway here: As a marketer, you must always think ahead about where your customers are heading and what they’ll want next. Otherwise, you risk missing out on opportunities to connect with your customers.
Watch the competition
The moment you start talking about virtual reality, virtual space augmented reality, artificial intelligence, virtual economy, blockchain, or even cryptocurrency, it becomes clear that there is no shortage of people trying to solve problems in those spaces. And while some of these solutions are good, others are downright scary.
Many of the technologies we discuss today are still nascent, meaning they’re either unproven or underdeveloped. This makes the industry ripe for hype and overpromising. In addition, the sheer number of players in each area creates confusion around what is real innovation and what is simply marketing spin.
So how do you watch the competition? By being aware of where the market leaders are investing resources and energy. You can look at their product roadmaps, check out their investor decks, and see what they’ve done in the past. These tools help you understand how far along each company is toward achieving its business goals.
Look for applications
The Internet of Things (IoT), virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, and the Metaverse are just some of the technologies that are being used today to help businesses achieve their sustainability goals and provide interactive experiences. In addition, these technologies offer companies ways to innovate, experiment, and test new ideas without investing in full-scale production.
In addition to offering the opportunity to test new products or services, these technologies allow companies to see how they might impact society and the environment. For example, they can track and measure environmental impacts, such as water consumption, energy use, carbon emissions, waste generation, and employee productivity.
Companies can also evaluate the social implications of their work, including how it affects employees, suppliers, communities, consumers, and the planet. And finally, they can explore the economic benefits of implementing sustainable practices.
For example, according to IBM, IoT could save $1 trillion globally over ten years, while AR/VR could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 3 billion tons annually. Blockchain technology could cut food waste by up to 50%. AI could eliminate human error in financial transactions.
So what does this mean for marketers? Well, there are three main areas where companies can look for applications:
Product innovation
Most of these technologies are still emerging. But because of this, they have yet to become mainstream consumer products. So if you’re looking to innovate, you need to think outside the box. That means taking advantage of all available technologies — not just VR but IoT, AI, and blockchain.
This may sound like a lot of work, but it’s an exciting time to work in digital. There are so many possibilities now that we don’t know what will happen next. Unfortunately, it’s easy to get caught up in the excitement and forget to focus on your long-term goals.
But when you start thinking about all the opportunities, you realize you can take advantage of them immediately. For instance, you can create a game that uses VR to teach people about recycling. Or you can develop an innovative home application that helps customers monitor their energy usage.
These types of projects aren’t only fun; they can also provide valuable data to help improve future products and services.
Customer Experience
Another way to innovate is through customer experience. Companies can leverage the latest technologies to make their online experiences more engaging and interactive.
This includes using VR to give customers a 360-degree view of a product before they buy it. It also includes creating apps that let customers interact with products and services in real-time.
And finally, it includes developing AI solutions that anticipate customer needs and respond accordingly.
Marketing Strategy
Finally, companies should consider leveraging the latest technologies to enhance their marketing strategies. A few examples include:
- Using VR to engage potential customers in a different way than traditional advertising methods
- Creating a mobile app that allows customers to share feedback directly with brands
- Developing an AI solution that predicts which customers are likely to purchase a specific product
Plan your entrance
Asking your agency team to start thinking about how your company should appear in the Metaverses is a good idea. It’s essential for holding companies and independent marketing firms alike to be aware of the latest trends in social networking and digital advertising. So, it’s a great time to ask them what they see across their clients’ portfolios.
Keep your balance
If you’re already inside it, prepare for a possible future where all new spaces may present both risk and reward; manage your expectations accordingly. Fortunately, the recent COVID-19 pandemic gave us all a chance to become much more agile than ever before. There will be failures — so be prepared!
Creativity and storytelling are essential for leaders in brand marketing or management positions. However, suppose the creative toolbox expands dimensions in the Metaverse. In that case, we should be excited about the possibilities of creating new kinds of digital user experience (UX) across every stage of the consumer journey, from acquisition to purchase to post-purchase and beyond. Eventually, we may be able to move from physical to virtual realities seamlessly. That will be the future.
Economics
Games like Fortnite show consumers will buy or compete for rare items to elevate their perceived social standing. This is the scarcity effect at work. Just as these behavioral economics concepts hold in the real world, they also have in the Metaverse. As marketing becomes increasingly reliant on digital channels, brands need to understand how people interact with each other online.
In conclusion
The future of marketing is going to look very different. Brands must adapt to survive. In addition to the challenges of being relevant and engaging, marketers will have to deal with the rise of artificial intelligence and augmented reality. These two technologies will change the way we live our lives and the way we market products and services.
We hope this article helps you better understand the importance of having a presence in the Metaverse. Finally, we wish you luck in your endeavors.
Visit the Coinpoint Blog to read more about the Metaverse and Web 3.0
