Metaverse Marketing - The New Reality

Author:

Swapnil Sengupta

Symbiosis Insitute of International Business, Pune

Understanding the concept

“Metaverse isn’t a thing a company builds. It’s the next chapter of the internet overall.”

– Mark Zuckerberg

Metaverse is not something which is here to replace the ongoing Social Media setup. It has just added a new dimension to the existing infrastructure. The internet, which was 2D, is experiencing a new wing of 3D, with the help of Metaverse these days. In this new 3D world of Metaverse, there is huge amount of data related to business, communication and others which are interoperable. This 3D world allows people from anywhere in the world to get connected in a common virtual world, in the form of avatars, which bears a resemblance with them and imitates their movements.

Companies which are present in the real world, for them Metaverse is a huge opportunity to experiment as it targets a big chunk of younger population Metaverse has a very vivid application in the field of virtual gaming through the medium of virtual worlds like Decentralland, The Sandbox etc , but its not essentially true that application of metaverse end with the gaming industry only Its pretty much predictable that Metaverse will add value to other companies in future also, mainly which are in the sectors like Healthcare, Fashion, Entertainment and Media, Retail Industry etc

Growth of Metaverse

The market for the metaverse is expanding quickly every day, which is luring online gaming firms, social networking companies, the fashion sector, and others to invest in it The international metaverse market, which is presently valued at USD 68 49, is anticipated to grow to over USD 1 3 trillion by 2030, with a CAGR of 44 5% between 2022 and 2030 (Source – Precedence Research, https://www precedenceresearch com/metaversemarket)

Application on different sectors

Hospitality sector consists of restaurants, hotels, event planners and all which nowadays are trying to incorporate metaverse in their day to day actions to uphold the realtionship between their customer engagement. The metaverse presents both significant potential and challenges for the hospitality and tourism industries. Organizations in the hospitality and tourist industries strategically employs the metaverse to personalise and jointly develop hybrid virtual and physical experiences.

One of the best examples in the hospitality sector is the example of a region in Canada, known as Nova Scotia, which provides high quality 360° VR Videos, which lets people experience one of the best places in Nova Scotia in different languages

Marriot Hotels are also applying the concept of metaverse with the help of their “Teleportation” concept. They used their VR headset, which featured locations and hotel amenities using VR technology. We can also see in Fig, that in order to allow the 100 couples who are married there every day to virtually sample hospitality properties in Maui, Hawaii and London, UK and learn more about honeymoon options in their hotels, Marriott Hotels put up a "Get Teleported" booth outside of New York City Hall in 2014. [Buhalis, D., Lin, M. S., & Leung, D. (2022) https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCHM-05-2022-0631]

The dining experience takes place in "capsules" that offer a fully immersive audio and visual metaverse-like environment with various virtual settings, such as the ocean's depths or space.

Restaurants are also using Metaverse as an efficient tool to enhance customer experience. Sublimotion restaurant, by Ibiza, which is in Spain is conceptualized by Michelin two-star chef named Paco Roncero. In this restaurant, the guests are told to wear Samsung VR headsets to experience various activities of the restaurant One of then is the chef cooking the ordered food for them

Where is Metaverse heading towards?

Though Metaverse is having a huge potential in every sector we can think of, still it has its own drawbacks Like for example, in real world the identity of everyone we meet is pretty clear But in any metaverse, its quite difficult to authenticate one’s identity And maybe most significantly, how can we even demonstrate our identity to prevent another person or even a robot from trying to imitate us? Quite difficult right?

Getting into the Metaverse will also raise a serious question about Law and Order Organizations working with Metaverse should be very clear and vivid about Virtual legal domains. Incorporation of no law may result in vulnerability of consumers. While using Metaverse, people get a vivid difference in time with the real world. One of the main reasons is that they often loose body awareness while in Metaverse. This may lead users to spend more and more time in the virtual world, rather spending in the real physical world.

Even if a virtual universe is still a way off, creating the Metaverse might be difficult and full of opportunities. Without a doubt, it is crucial to make sure that the Metaverse develops into a realm that complements rather than replaces the one in which we live. As much as one can anticipate the virtual world, it is crucial to stay vigilant, secure, and alert in this new, huge cosmos