Brandname luxury goods in second life- would you pay for the 'real deal'

Yeah, I was thinking of going the other way, too.

There's *got* to be some impoverished small nations in the middle of nowhere without good maps, or any real clue.

Imagine a 'real life' ambassador from Caledon showing up, signing a treaty of friendship with a big steampunk pen, and sharing a grand dinner with heads of state whilst promising excellent relations and trade...

C'mon, $L 500,000 would send just about *anybody* to *anywhere* on earth for a few days... we'd just need some fancy letterhead and a flag, and a snappy costume!

Anyone up for being the real "Right Honourable Ambassador __________ from the Independent State of Caledon"?


pics of the celebrations would rock

I could envisage an RL maker of shoes or boots doing well here in SL if their stuff was good quality. They would be able to charge the going rates for shoes etc. However the types of business that could do this without being in the freebies type catgegory that Argent mentioned would be very limited.

No. But if they did, you bet I'd own one.

Shades of Anna and the King! Me, me, pick me! I even know a Venezuelan I can go visit!

I'll expect to see you riding along in a pic like this:





score some silverware with the official emblems too

Nope I wouldn't but having free bag of endless bag of Doritos that I virtually chewed on with my real life boyfriend made us hungry for real product.
He wanted bag of Doritos so I went and bought it after a week.
I thought it was bit odd though how it worked.

First Second Independent State of Caledon, even has a ring to it

Actually, it seems its the brands that would pay to have their products placed in world, freely distributed. Such as the "Captain Morgan White Blanc on the Rocks" that you see everywhere.

maybe they will have sweatshops producing these products in SL !!!

Nissan made a really high-quality replica of the Sentra in SL, and gave it away, for free. Nice details, and it certainly did work. Even had a few unique SL features, like a flight mode. They considered it free publicity. (And they didn't try to do it on their own, from what I heard. They hired some top name SL builders of vehicles to make it for them.)

How much do I use my fancy name-brand car? Virtually never. I have plenty of other vehicles designed and sold by people who have invested a lot of time and effort living in SL and learning what works here and what doesn't. I use those. You see, it wasn't any better as an SL vehicle than many in-world brands that I'd happily pay hundreds or even thousands of L$ for. So I would not have bought it just because it was a well-known real-world brand.

Would I pay a lot of money to have an SL product with a "name brand" from the real world on it? No, unless it was exceptionally well-made and reasonably priced, and competitive against normal SL products of that class. In other words, the name brand means nothing, if the product couldn't compete without that label.

Would real-world companies like Gucci, Rolex, Mercedes and others even give a bunch of students the time of day, when asked for virtual-world licensing rights? Probably not. Why should they allow you to profit from their designs and creativity? When you tell them what goods sell for in SL, they will likely laugh at you.

Would those same companies sue the pants off any University or students that tried selling products with their trademerled and copyrighted designs and logos and product names. You bet they would. They have to, to preserve the real-world value of their trademarks, copyrights, and patents.

Consider that some of the highest-ticket items in SL are things that sell for maybe L$5000. That is less than twenty dollars, US. Gucci won't sell you a key fob for that kind of change, let alone a purse. Most complete outfits of clothes sell for a mere L$200 to L$300. It is simply NOT worth their time and effort to market virtual goods that resemble their real-world products. There's not enough profit in it, for the time it takes them to design and build and market the items. All it does is dilute the value of their copyrights, trademarks and patents, UNLESS they are in full control, all the way, and use it for marketing and publicity.

Botom line... Bad idea, kids.

If a RL designer started selling virtual goods in SL, I'd give them a look. Why not?

I wouldn't buy them just to own the real thing, but quality goods are quality goods whoever makes them. Coming from a RL company wouldn't turn me off.

absolutely not.
sl has its own 'real deals' and respected brands, built by members of the community. i have no desire to see rl corporations dumping their own products as marketing gimmicks and demographic research and whatnot. imo rl corps can only cheapen the grid and harm the economy.

University student. Study. Brand names.

Why does this all sound familiar to me?

Kids have such great memories.

The one defining feature of students is that next year a different student will be assigned to do the same study, otherwise there's no reasonable way to compare them.

Go to their island. For the price of IMing the account that built it for the code, you can get a (no mod) car from a giant animated snack-vending machine behind the glass - it actually drops the car down behind the "glass" before giving it to you. No charge, and a cool and intelligent use of the tricks you can pull with reality inside SL. Plus they've got a nice low-lag 4-sim track for you to drive it on.

If I was going to buy an SL car at all, and they sold improved (say, moddable) versions of those cars. I'd definitely consider one. I wouldn't give a moment's thought to buying one of Toyota's Scions.

Um... it's written on the wall nearby, I didn't need to IM anyone.

Assuming, of course, that this is a student -- and not a "student." I 'spect the latter.

Oh, an this should have been on this thread, not where it is.

/327/38/286317/1.html#post2175529

I prefer Fords.

I just am not interested in RL companies marketing me here in SL, and that is the only reason they are here, they do enough of that in RL. I'd rather buy an item from a fellow SL user than take a freebie from them, no matter how much "better" it may seem.

There's a major difference in the nature of things when it comes to branding in SL.

In SL, nearly everything is made by small time creators. Even our "big creators" happen to be just one or two people who work their heads off to make dozens of items a month.

In these cases, the brand doesnt represent the brand for the sake of the brand - as is the case with Rolex and Nike IRL - but rather it represents the work and craftsmanship of a specific person. Its their personal 'signature'.

Would I buy an item branded by a large SL company for its brand? Or would I buy an SL item branded by an RL company brand?

Short answer: no.

Although small time creators dont have the mega funds for advertising and a team of artists and coders to create an item, SL's environment and social structure allows them to do very well without that support. You dont NEED a company to get stuff done in SL: Its a small timer's world and its a good thing that it is.

Ah, they decided to quit requiring that. One time I was there there was a series of people showing up, yelling the code, and vanishing. Seemed silly.

The basic point is that it's a really cool piece of work.

Ah, they decided to quit requiring that. One time I was there there was a series of people showing up, yelling the code, and vanishing. Seemed silly.

The basic point is that it's a really cool piece of work.
Do they have a presence in SL? How about Mazda?

I don't know. Don't care either. I wouldn't visit them as well.

What she said.

I'll support SL builders with my Lindens over some big RL brand name every single time. I don't come to SL to see Mercedes and Gucci, and what on earth do I even want a Rolex for in SL? I can see what time it is on my screen, and there is plenty of beautiful jewelry out there if I want a bracelet.

IF the big companies got a clue, I might visit their places. Probably wouldn't buy anything, but I'd definitely visit.

Heck, there were some companies that I didn't realize were there until after they were gone. So, yeah...