Paymification as a key marketing and monetization tool

It,s been a while since I last wrote in my blog.. but it has been a very hectic year full of payments!!

Saying that, and following on a recent "whitepaper" I wrote a "whitepaper" for the World Regulatory Briefing (WRB) which I did attend last October, I would like to share its content here and hopefully use this post as a welcome back to blogging :)

Here it comes...

Paymification as a key marketing and monetization tool

We all live in a transactional era, where most of us belong to an almost impulsive consuming society, full of different marketplaces and or excuses to transact. This need to buy or transact can range from p2p to c2b, c2many (crowdfunding), or even for a quick gaming/gambling experience. On top of that, we must add that the form of currency to pay for all these can vary from one or many of the following:

Old fashion banknotes/coins, Electronic transactions, E/M-wallets, Virtual/social currencies and or Bartering or any other form of exchange.

Furthermore, the social revolution, where almost everyone has the urge to share his/her experiences over the net, helps building a more proactive ecosystem, where the new king will be the one who rules and shapes the engagement to fulfill, not only its business needs, but the ones that every customer wants and needs at any time given.

It is important to note that I have just mentioned a few ways on where we can pay/transact, as this new concept of paying can be extended to almost all the different ones we currently know (b2b, g2g, etc)

Digital markets, such us iTunes or Amazon are other key contributors to this “paymification culture”, as they are creating a much richer transactional environment, where we pay for quick consumptions which will never truly belong to us and or be passed to our loved ones as part of our inherintance; and consequently creating a new concept and sense of ownership/property. Therefore, we have a new opening for innovation, where at least we can replace that lack of ownership with a playful experience where we all feel not only secure but happy enough to keep clicking/paying in the future; this being in dollars, euros, barter or whichever other currency we can pay with. 

In other words: “Why simply Pay if you can Play and Pay? Change and make sure you engage and train your consumers to have the experience they deserve”.

There are many ways to describe how paymification can be used, such us:

1) Making the paying experience simple and secure, delivering to the customer several actions where he/she can have a fun experience to remain as a customer (unblocking loyalty points, etc)

2) Driving the customer to the checkout in a playful way where we make him/her feel part of it, without forgetting that all is secure and unique.

Depending on multiple variables like the product, customer and or the business we are in, we will apply one or the other, and that is why it is key to understand and segment our market and customer base as more precise as possible, taking mainly into account the payment method currently used or the one we think can be better for both the merchant and the consumer.

In conclusion, we can say that in order to make this new concept a successful reality, there are several factors that should happen. There won´t be a winner if merchants are not open enough to embrace the change needed. Saying that, there is whole new opportunity to explore where companies will have to either be disruptive by themselves, and or embark into joint ventures/ partnerships with other key players that will make this paymification experience and culture a complete breakthrough.

..and remember that total convergence will only happen if we understand that “It is not what we buy but how we pay”, where everyone must play the chance to win.

Now, I can only encourage everyone to explore this area and read/work accordingly. I might have "created" the term paymification, but for sure there are other companies, individuals and or providers that have been working on this topic for many years now. For instance we could refer to a great post from Digital River where they showed us last year their key view on this. Therefore, I can only hope that we can all keep working hard to make the payments area, an even more critical part of any business/industry.

As a closing note for this post, I would like to personally congratulate my good friend Oscar Molina for his recent career move. I had the pleasure of working with him, and I am sure he will do a fantastic job at MRC Europe. He will be for sure one of the leaders of this new "payments geeks generation", and together with him and other passionate colleagues we will try hard to keep shaping this key area for the better, to both consumers and merchants.