How Game Theory Can Improve Your Experience

For those who are yet unfamiliar with the concept, game theory is a term used to describe a tool most commonly used for making important marketing decisions in a strategic environment. Although many think of literal games when they hear this term, the ‘game’ being referenced here is any activity involving groups of people in which some lose and others gain. Originally created by economists and mathematicians, game theory has been applied to everything from war to business. Now being used to drive the future of marketing, utilizing game theory is one of the best ways to stay ahead of the competition.

Also commonly referred to as the science of competitive strategy, game theory is essentially a method of making business decisions based on data collected on the selling/ buying behaviors of customers as well as their competitors. No matter what type of business you may have or what sector you may specialize in, various steps must be taken to provide continuous upgrades and updates, to maintain a thriving company in an ever-changing business climate. That said, the following is a closer look at how game theory can improve your experience.

Engagement Boosting

One of the main ways to improve or boost engagement is using game theory. Given that game theory involves leveraging the massive body of applied mathematics as a means of making better, more informed decisions, it is one of the cutting edge methods being explored as a means of boosting customer engagement. Use game theory to boost engagement in the following ways:

Evaluation and Assessment– Firstly, one of the top ways game theory helps to boost engagement is by helping to evaluate and assess the data collected. Data is collected on users each and every time they interact with your web page or app. This data is then used to understand things such as the driving motivation for customer interaction as well as sales.

Tracking the Journey– One of the most unique elements of game theory lies in the ability to track the customer journey from beginning to end. For instance, every time one of your clients plays a game on your app, game theory will keep track of their moves. With this data, the company can then begin to understand what motivates the customer to do things such as play the game or make in-app purchases. For instance, if there seems to be a correlation between increased in-app purchases and cool, damp weather, the result will be increased ads for in-app purchases on rainy days.

Data-Driven– Although this is a term often used in the age of digital marketing, being data-driven means different things depending on where you encounter the term. In the case of game theory, theory attribution assigns far more accurate credit to each touch-point. Over time, it becomes easier to predict the behaviors of groups and individuals in that game theory will eventually have collected enough data to be able to determine patterns of behavior as well as the most likely causes of said patterns.

Increasing Accuracy– Furthermore, while many tools may plateau or even decrease in accuracy over time, the use of game theory will allow you to receive more accurate data over time. This is because, each and every time a customer visits the site, this allows the system to gain additional insight to be factored into their overall habits, patterns, and preferences. Over time, this will allow business owners to create personalized shopping experiences both groups of similar customers and/or for individual customers.

Customer-Based Solutions– Moreover, in addition to collecting insights on individual customers, game theory can be used to collect data on the ways in which people respond to one another. Additionally, it can also be used to track the way in which groups of people can be driven to seek certain services or products based on various social cues and other influential events. Therefore, once you have begun using a system based on game theory, your solutions will be fueled by this profound level of analytics.

Boost Sales– Although there is no such thing as a fool-proof method of marketing, game theory is one of the best methods of boosting sales. In fact, one study shows that a company was able to achieve a simultaneous 23% increase in customers while decreasing the cost of activating them by 24%. In other words, by keeping track of customer’s interactions and behaviors, the seller can use the data collected on the patterns of behavior to alter their selling behaviors to be more in line with the motivating factors of the customers. For instance, if you have noticed most of your customers are eager to buy when the holiday season is approaching, you may opt to hold a Christmas in July sale and begin promoting the holiday season earlier in the year in order to help drive sales.

The Phalanx Solution

Overall, no matter what type of business you have or what you wish your digital experience to be, game theory can helpit to “level up”. Helping brands to leverage data as a means of engaging customers from the very beginning, and for a longer duration of time, game theory can be a revolutionary marketing tool. Regardless of whether you are building a mobile app, website, an eCommerce site, or anything in between, game theory and design can be an invaluable resource indefinitely. Contact Phalanx for more details and to begin using game theory to drive sales and improve business.

Great Study Materials:

Game theory: The Nobel Prize-winning idea that’s changing marketing (and what to do with it)

http://www.the-future-of-commerce.com/2017/08/11/game-theory-for-marketing/

Game Theory & Business Strategy