How does serious m-game technology encourage low-income households to perform socially responsible behaviors?

Despite the increasing use of technology, there is little research in the marketing literature that examines how games can encourage households to achieve socially responsible behaviours such as energy efficiency. Social marketing is a sub-discipline of marketing that applies technology such as serious games in the pursuit of socially responsible behaviours. This study investigates how a serious mobile game (m-game) (Reduce Your Juice) can encourage households to perform energy efficient behaviours by conducting group interviews with six households (n=17) in Brisbane, Australia. The findings reveal that households gained knowledge and were motivated and persuaded to engage in energy efficient behaviours as the result of the customer experience of playing the serious m-game. This study provides practitioners with implications for game design and evidence that serious m-games can encourage group level behaviours such as household energy efficiency