Do businesses really know how to take advantage of NFTs?

Recently, Alfa Romeo announced that their latest SUV will be equipped with NFTs that will track the car's service history and increase its resale value. I'm sure a lot of people will be skeptical, but I think it's good because it's hard for car owners to maximize the value of a dash cam.

I did some research on the use of NFTs in business cases and didn't find anything too convincing, but Hackernoon's Emmanuel Awosika provided some interesting insights on how to use NFTs in business. For this article, I will evaluate the feasibility of these ideas.

NFTs are linked to physical products

Nike has released a product, and if you buy a shoe, you also get an NFT for it. I'm not quite sure what's the use of this other than using this digital Nike shoe as your avatar.

Alfa Romeo's idea of using NFTs in dash cams is brilliant. This definitely makes our lives easier and allows us to take shortcuts and forget about further administrative tasks. I can easily see blockchain being attached to receipts, warranty cards, etc. If NFTs can ease administrative tasks for us, then it's definitely a good business case.

Sell NFTs to Virtual Audiences

This is where NFTs are now known as selling virtual goods to virtual audiences. But, I guess it's all about the audience. If the audience is not virtual, then why sell NFTs to them. It's like trying to sell orange juice to a kid who only drinks apple juice.

Apparently, Coca-Cola is selling Coca-Cola-branded gear to the Metaverse. It's good advertising, but I'm not quite sure how it will improve Coca-Cola's sales model. For sale purposes, Coca-Cola is a physical product that can only be used once. However, it's also a recognizable brand, but being recognizable doesn't necessarily increase sales. For example, I can recognize the Coca-Cola logo from a mile away, but I prefer to drink Mountain Dew because I personally prefer the taste.

Using NFTs like this allows brands to stay connected with their audience, I guess. To me, this marketing approach depends on whether people actually want to use the metaverse in the first place, or at least whether they want to use the brand as their game avatar or display photo.

Increase brand loyalty with limited edition products

This is a smart way to use NFTs to keep users loyal to the brand. However, I need to stress that it maintains loyalty and doesn't necessarily drive growth. Another point I need to point out is that in order to maintain limited edition NFTs, these brands need to hire many artists to continue producing compelling NFTs. So to discuss whether the ROI is proportional, if the brand is losing relevance to the audience, of course, but if it's trying to break into a new market, I don't know if it's going to be successful.

Reduce copycat products

The idea is similar to offering NFTs with physical products. It's useful to know if a product comes from the country of origin, but I dare say that depending on the product, everyday people don't necessarily care about the source. For example, if you are drinking with people in your circle and discussing luxury wines, NFT with luxury wines is a good idea. If you're like me and don't mind the occasional $10 bottle of Shiraz, I don't think NFTs really matter. However, for a company like Louis Vuitton, it's a good idea, but for most other consumer goods companies, I'm not so sure.

The idea is similar to providing physical products for NFTs. It's useful to know if a product is original at the source, but I dare say that depending on the product, people don't necessarily care about the source. For example, if you are drinking with people in your circle and discussing luxury wines, NFT with luxury wines is a good idea. If you're like me and don't mind a bottle of Erguotou occasionally, then I don't think NFTs matter. Still, it's a good idea for a company like Louis Vuitton, but for most other consumer goods companies, I'm not so sure.