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If successful with its metaverse plans, Meta will dramatically expand its revenue streams by taking a cut of an explosion in sales of new digital goods, services, and software while significantly increasing its ability to study and influence consumers and sell their changed behaviours to advertisers. The latter is the focus of this article because Mark Zuckerberg’s idea of a brave new world is being built by the same people who helped create some of today’s major social problems. Whatever consumers choose to do in the real world and on social media, they can reimagine and do in the world of the metaverse—work, play, shop, date, exercise, bet, trade, learn, influence, travel, create, communicate, follow. While there is potential to improve remote work, the social costs of a virtual wild west could outweigh the benefits. Society stands the risk of being fed a steady, addictive, and customized mix of manipulated content by forces seeking to monetize the three elements that it takes to brainwash people–perceptions of identity, belonging, and injustice. The initial marketing focus will be on attracting users and getting them to spend a lot of time in Horizon Worlds. But the focus will shift to value extraction. This will likely be done by systematically and simultaneously working on users’ perceptions and behaviours while changing context continually. This evolution of marketing would break new and dangerous ground in oppositional marketing. While regulatory oversight of metaverse development is warranted, it isn’t guaranteed to happen or, if attempted, succeed at mitigating the risks.

Mark Zuckerberg's brave new world sounds cool-but regulators need to recognize it is being designed by the Facebook culture responsible for creating major social issues

This article highlights the four key interrelated areas in which brand addiction can be planned: product, rewards, price and communications. Historically, marketers have focused on more traditional, obvious benefits of products. However, reward systems such as loyalty programs are useful in increasing differentiation and encouraging consumer habituation. Intrinsic consumer rewards (e.g. personal satisfaction) stand in contrast to extrinsic rewards (e.g. point systems), but when consumers repeatedly modify their behaviours in order to, for example, achieve more points, they may convert extrinsic rewards into intrinsic ones. Firms have long used discounting and loss leaders to attract business and, in going a step further, a “free price” for a product may help to foster product addicts. Here, consumers can pay in other ways, such as through attention, referrals or feedback. Furthermore, firms are increasingly using communications strategies to support the repetition of modified purchasing behaviours. Ultimately, the key is to conceive of the four elements of planning brand addiction in new ways, starting with a meaning for the product that goes beyond the main product benefit the customer derives, and then using the communications strategy to support the repetition of modified purchasing behaviours and to bring forth a new consumer consciousness.

It is common for Canadian retailers to receive blame for in-store prices that are higher than in the United States. However, retailers have little control over higher prices. This article explains the causes of these higher prices, such as foreign-owned companies’ expectations of higher margins in Canada, as well as higher costs of doing business in Canada. It also provides recommendations for ways to keep shoppers in Canada.