Metaverse Concepts and Marketing

Introduction

Metaverse, one of the essential concepts that have entered our lives in recent years, is expected to precede the internet revolution in the future. The Metaverse is a three-dimensional virtual universe where people interact with each other through their avatars. The real world is a metaphor in this immersive universe, and there is no physical limitation (Chalmers et al., 2022). Therefore, the Metaverse is a new visual world that combines the physical and digital worlds (Zhao et al., 2022). Metaverse is an environment where people experience augmented reality, virtual reality, mixed reality, and extended reality together. It will be a turning point in our lives when users can have fun, socialize, shop, play games, chat with their friends, spend time and navigate easily with their avatars in this three-dimensional virtual universe. With Web 3.0, based on the concept of decentralization, it is predicted that storing our records on the blockchain, not on a single server, will move many stones.

Metaverse is a virtual reality world where users can interact with each other, buy and sell things and fulfill their dreams through virtual reality or augmented reality. Marketing success in today's digital age is about more than embracing modern technology and making the most of it. It is also about keeping up with upcoming developments such as metadata storage. In the marketing context, Metaverse can be defined as a permanent, 3D virtual space where users can spend their time while being used as a target with brand-related content and sales activation tactics (Yazıcı, 2022). Metaverse's proposal for marketing is to provide exclusive access to consumers who primarily value innovation, using technologies that combine virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality in addition to artificial intelligence as part of their digital marketing strategy (Yassin, 2022). Metaverse marketing allows brands to maximize their creativity and reach their target audience in the most compelling way. That's why, one by one, brands are turning their faces to the Metaverse world for digital marketing.

Along with the importance of digitalization, businesses are also developing their virtual market strategies. Dominating the virtual markets necessitates changing the known and conventional methods. The most challenging situation in this regard starts with overcoming consumers' trust problems. Businesses' products or service supply should be shaped according to consumer purchasing behavior. In this context, companies must first understand the importance of digitalization and then develop new business methods. In line with this information, the necessity of planning the steps businesses need to take emerges. Many factors (social, psychological, economic, personal) affect the purchasing behavior of consumers, and the most determinant of these factors is seen as psychological factors. Using the advantages of technological developments has an advantageous effect on consumer behavior. Especially with the understanding of post-modern consumption, the demands and expectations of consumers differ. The most critical rule brought by this differentiation makes it necessary to develop new simulations compatible with change (Çelikkol, 2022). In the Metaverse world, businesses' adoption of immersive technologies are expected to cause significant changes in consumer behavior. Following a specific plan for this will accelerate businesses' entry into the Metaverse. The behavioral responses of consumers will depend on the method businesses use. Therefore, Metaverse is a determinant for exchanging virtual world elements with consumer behavior (Shen et al., 2021).

This section aims to explain the important concepts frequently used in Metaverse such as augmented reality, virtual reality, mixed reality, extended reality, blockchain, cryptocurrency, non-fungible token, Web 3.0, mirror-world, meatspace, digital twins, multiverse, internet of things, avatar, human computer interaction, three dimension, artificial intelligence, massive multiplayer online game, non-player character, digital identities, lifelogging, smart contracts. In addition, Metaverse marketing, consumer behavior that will change with Metaverse, and brands entering Metaverse will be examined and marketing strategies for the future will be explained. Thus, it is aimed to contribute to the literature by understanding the concept of Metaverse in detail, which is rapidly expanding its awareness and usage area, and to be a guiding study for brands to start their marketing studies.