Are freebies hurting SL content creators?

<.<


*goes to look for the oooooldest thread in the forums....*

/me laughs

Don't worry about it. It was an excuse to post a silly picture

From the consumer point of view, at least mine, you are doing yourself a giant favor by offering a high quality freebie. I've been disappointed in the past by purchasing items that look great in the picture, but not so awesome in reality. So I take your freebies and look at the work. I don't buy anything that costs more than a few linden unless I can get a freebie or a demo first anymore, sorry.

I also go on hunts, which are a great way to see stores you might not have any idea exist! If I get a hunt freebie that I love, that is great quality, that makes me go "oooooh!" I do come back and buy more. I found my absolute most favorite, not at all famous, skin store I get all my skin from now exactly that way. Ditto a number really fantastic designers I had NO idea existed.

***The downside for you is, I assume, fair of me or not, that the quality of the freebie reflects the quality of the rest of your stuff.***

If you dumped something you didn't make, or junky bit of practice work, crap that isn't related to your regular line, or a bit of old, discontinued product in your box just to get me in your store, you've wasted your time. Remember, I'm judging the quality of your work by this item!

Unfortunately you can't simply trade it off like that.. of course, you ARE hurting others by competing with them, but that's not really the point. The point is that the narrow marketing channels in SL, and the economically irrational practices of some businesses, _do_ hurt content creators who aspire to profit, as they are forced to resort to modelbots or freebies to get noticed.

This is the problem.. even if freebies aren't the problem, or even if they were somehow stopped.. the underlying problem of SL marketing will always force more and more loopholes to be discovered.

You know, I hear that a lot. Maybe it's because I work in advertising and marketing that I don't really see a problem in SL when it comes to opportunities to market.

Sure - a lot of the traditional aspects of RL marketing don't exist in SL. Periodicals aren't a fraction of the delivery method they are in RL... there's no "SL cable" that allows you to buy commercial airtime on a targeted channels... not much in the way of radio in the same respect. "Direct Mailers" are the equivalent of things like Fashcon - you buy into their list, and you send your mail (though - limited to text, primarily). And as funny as it sounds to say - there's no "internet" in SL, so that's not an option either.

At the same time, you also don't have many of the challenges to RL marketing you have in SL. Materials are a one time purchase or investment; if you give away 5,000 promotional t-shirts, you don't have to consider the cost of getting more made. It is much easier to cooperate with other stores on promotions, because there aren't really legal teams involved and (worst case scenario) legislation to consider. You don't have to consider where you advertise and where you don't geographically - because everyone in SL is a single teleport away from your store. No such thing as how far you can get people to drive.

And generally - I am happy with the opportunities and channels to market in SL. Yet, I hear a lot of people say they aren't. At the same time - those same store owners don't want to pay someone to consult them on marketing in SL.

And we see those people in RL too. They don't want to pay a marketing consultant, and they aren't convinced marketing works. Despite the fact that their competition is doing it successfully every day... and they themselves are responding to marketing daily.

So - I guess the merchants who aren't familiar with how to market, or how to market in SL, and don't want to hire someone to help them with it... are just kinda stuck.



PS:

Rhonda - I loved it. I saved it, actually. >.>

That's true, and all of those are marketing techniques that do work well in SL, but still word-of-mouth seems to dominate. I've always seen the geography thing as more of a problem - it means you're competing with everyone across the world for a single channel, which is why you get the stupidly high prices for classifieds.



Well, it's not that simple. If it was just that there was something they needed to learn, we could write that information in a FAQ post for them all to read and then they would know it - somebody actually tried that a while back and I think the post is still there, on Search. The problem is that it's an arms race - you don't just have to market well, you have to market MORE than the other person, and ultimately the last step will be the one you can't take (else it's not really the last step).

Interesting points.

As a marketing moron myself, I'm glad that sex sells itself. A little product placement does the job!

I do promotional freebies now and then, but more for the fun of it than anything else. That's besides the freebies I did for the sake of it, before I went into business.

IMOH, the worst thing about freebies is that it raises the bar for makers who are just getting starting, learning their craft. But I can't use that as an argument to criticize anyone for putting them out.