Building a metaverse business strategy may feel like a task to push out into the future. There are so many questions surrounding the metaverse and its many connected elements. These questions lead smart companies to develop early metaverse business strategies.
What Is the Metaverse?
The metaverse today can be described as a collection of environments disconnected from each other. The grand idea is that these individual environments will connect to form an ecosystem – one metaverse.
In an interconnected metaverse, users will jump from one experience or virtual place to another. Their data will travel along with them, which means businesses could acquire more data. Edstutia’s Instructor Certification in XR covers how we handle data and measure performance in virtual reality.
The Metaverse is the Evolution of the Internet
One major proponent of this metaverse vision is Mark Zuckerberg. He believes in this future so strongly he changed the name of the Facebook corporation to simply, Meta. The social network is the only part of the company retaining the original name. The rest of the company is now focused on endeavors that bring the metaverse closer to reality. When first discussing the changes to the company, Zuckerberg explained the metaverse as “an embodied Internet that you’re inside of rather than just looking at.”
How the Metaverse Could Look
Today, you have to create an identity on each social media platform or web service you sign up for. Blockchain will make it so your one identity is not only protected but capable of accessing various places within the internet.
It’s this ability to travel within the internet that shows the true possibilities of the metaverse. Instead of using your phone apps to make purchases, users would do it with avatars immersed in a virtual environment. The very idea of shopping will evolve to fit the metaverse.
Imagine an environment where you buy clothing as an NFT from Amazon’s virtual store. You then go to a concert on Meta’s digital venue wearing the clothes purchased minutes before.
For added value, that NFT could be tied to real articles of clothing you receive later. The whole scenario blends the physical and digital worlds into one mixed reality. If you’re looking to learn more about NFTs and blockchain, Edstutia will be launching a module covering these topics soon.
Metaverse Business Strategy in Action
Immersed in the metaverse, users will travel to various places, shop, play, attend events for work and pleasure, and more. Users will develop a new sense of place and ownership within the metaverse independent of their physical world. In order to make this future possible, companies today are working to develop products, branding, and advertising for a mixed reality world.
Tito’s Vodka
Tito’s Vodka had its humble beginnings in 1997 and has grown to become one of America’s preferred vodka brands. This year, some retail displays of the spirit featured an AR experience users could access via QR code using their phone.
This summer, Tito’s is launching a VR experience that transports users to the 1997 Austin shack where the company began. Once there, visitors will “meet Tito’s dogs, and experience a virtual day in the life at the distillery—including hand-bottling, labeling, and finding all the different infusions crafted in Tito’s early days.”
Hyundai
Last year Hyundai launched its Mobility Adventure on the Roblox platform. The experience not only gives users the ability to interact with Hyundai’s current vehicles but also to see how the company looks to shape mobility in the future.
Opus-Labs
Opus-Labs is a young startup looking to help brands introduce NFTs into their strategies. The company relies on its experience in arts, business, and technology to push brands forward into a digital-first world.
Bryan Ottens, founder and CEO of Opus-Labs, said the following about the company’s mission:
“Our goal at Opus-Labs is to facilitate successful NFT project launches and integrate Web3 technology into legacy business models. We are an A-to-Z solution for companies to take their go-to-market strategies further through the power of NFT, blockchain, and the metaverse. Companies will have the ability to provide a multitude of value to their customers and fans, while positioning themselves as a pioneer in Web3.”
Volvo
When Volvo wanted to market the new model XC90 months before it reached dealer showrooms, the company decided to create a VR experience using Google Cardboard. The result was a virtual test drive through the Vancouver Countryside.
“Especially in the beginning when you launch a car model or car concept you have a limited number of physical cars. So, with the VR experience we could reach more markets and more journalists. It really helped to convey the story and highlight the features that we wanted to highlight.”
– Timmy Ghiurau
MetaVRse
MetaVRse’s “TheMall” will launch this summer. The virtual environment consists of 100 floors of an indoor shopping mall. Brands can purchase virtual store space and create unique experiences as customers walk through TheMall.
The Metaverse Can Bypass Physical Supply Chain Issues
The supply chain issues we’ve seen recently show just how much work goes into delivering physical goods to customers. There’s manufacturing, packaging, and multiple phases of shipping before it finally reaches the intended customer. Along the way, anything from a pandemic to a traffic jam can delay the process.
What if companies could offer instant gratification to consumers through the metaverse? And better yet, what if those offers didn’t involve all the time, labor, and fossil fuels needed to manufacture and deliver physical products?
Those are the benefits companies can enjoy when offering NFTs to consumers instead of only focusing on physical products. At the very least, it’s a new revenue stream for companies to explore. And as we saw in the pandemic, companies with alternative ways to deliver products survived and even thrived when others were forced to shut down.
You Need a Metaverse Business Strategy
The Metaverse is Not a Fad
We’ve seen this before in the evolution of the internet. Don’t make the same mistakes companies made then. While we may not know exactly how the metaverse will look in 10 to 20 years, we do know it will take form.
Start Learning About the Metaverse
This post serves as a small introduction to the metaverse and how it may affect the way you do business. Continue to learn as much as possible about Web3, blockchain, and the metaverse. Edstutia’s blog is a good resource for information.
Assess your team and identify future-oriented employees. Put them on an L&D plan to learn more about the metaverse and how your business can participate within it. They should also understand the risks involved in the metaverse.
This Training Mag article “The Learning Leader’s Guide to Embracing the Metaverse,” breaks down several ways company leaders can get started with metaverse training. The recommendations include:
- Making a regular time to learn
- Looking for ways for the L&D team to “dip their toes” in VR
- Creating a repository for the team to collect VR learning materials
Identify What You Can Do in the Metaverse Today
Your first metaverse business strategy does not need to include a VR universe unique to you. That takes time, money, and other resources not every company may have. A separate VR experience is not necessary for every company.
Things you may be able to do today can be on a smaller scale. You may be able to develop an NFT concept. Maybe you don’t even need to sell it but instead give away a select number of them to create buzz.
You can consider sponsoring another company’s digital experience. You may even be able to develop a small area for yourself within a space like Roblox or Decentraland, or you can book a room on Edstutia’s campus to utilize an already developed space for an event.
Get Marketing Involved in Your Metaverse Strategy Early
Much like with social media, what you do within the metaverse should match the branding of your website and any branding in the physical world. Involve your marketing department in any metaverse endeavors so they don’t have to make brand corrections after things are already in place.
When launching new endeavors, companies sometimes silo them as separate projects and the team leading can go too far without input from other areas of the company. We see it most often with product development but it can occur with project management as well.
Business Insider presents a classic scenario of marketing being left out:
“The development process winds through the last test phase without any input from the marketing team. When all the critical bugs are fixed the product is released. It is at this point that marketing gets the product information thrown over the wall with the unrealistic expectation that it will create an immediate miracle. And then everyone wonders why the press release, the collateral, the web site, and so forth are so late in coming.”
Prevent these sorts of issues by adopting cross-functional teams. This way, every department is involved early and understands how to prepare.
Create and Upskill Your Metaverse Team
Whether your metaverse business strategy is in the hands of one employee or you have a team behind it, be sure to support them. The metaverse has the potential to revolutionize the internet and how we behave in it.
Your team will need the right resources, including access to upskilling programs. You may also come to the point where additional personnel are needed. When that time comes, take the necessary steps before burning out the team.
Metaverse Business Strategy Wrap-Up
Despite the metaverse being in its early stages, the evolution of both the internet and our world means the metaverse will exist in some form. The companies that get involved early will have a role in shaping that world. More importantly, the ones that choose to stay on the sidelines, may find it difficult to catch up later.
Edstutia’s upskilling and reskilling programs are designed to help businesses understand the metaverse. Our Instructor Certification in XR can prepare company trainers, executives, and key personnel for emerging technologies and help shape training programs. Learn about our enterprise solutions and how Edstutia can improve your training program.