Sex, Pranks and Reality

I work in marketing in RL, and have done so for many years. Most of the people I work with have no clue about the possibilities here, and if they did, they would go about it the wrong way (just look at American Apparel).

The successful SL/metaverse marketers are being born and trained right now, here. Not in any MBA schools. Y'all might be teaching courses there in a few years, though--virtually, of course.

The virtual sky's the limit.

Word!

Those of us in here are learning what works in our world - and the corporations out there? Well, if the article in question is any indication, they dun have a clue.

That said, I know that I'm trying t ouse some of what I know of RL marketing, and applying the parts dat work, while doing what other things seem way better to do in dis world.

Mari

Good thread.

I agree that the concepts of training, teaching, virtual education, virtual meetings, and perhaps politics have a use for the technology that is SL. In addition (given that the individual user may have met/talked/used in real life there would not be that barrier to entry I mentioned in my first post, that is ID issues and/or not wanting commercial sites in SL.

In essence you would use SL as a tool, much like the telephone, email, letters, video conferencing etc.

SL's software is a bit flaky at present but if Linden Labs survive I suspect things may improve.

Therefore as another poster commented you have the concept of SL being split three ways, that is training, teaching, meeting etc/ corporate first life branding selling/ and lastly SL fantasy

Make that a weaving of three, rather than a separation/split.
Cross-fertilisation is good

American Apparel is an interesting example. They got off to a reasonable start: they had Aimee build a decent store for them, offered virtual versions of their RL goods at not-outrageous prices (plus an RL discount tie-in if you bought them, very clever), and held a nice opening party.

Then... nothing. No company representatives were in sight at the store after the first couple of days. No new merchandise has appeared. There have been no events since the opening. Basically, the initial splash seems to be all they were interested in; there has been no ongoing effort to market the brand in SL. They're still shelling out $295/month for a ghost sim. Stupid.

I went there once, and the prices were on the high side for what I consider to be poorly-made to mediocre clothes. I have seen beautifully made clothes from SL native designers for the same amount or less. In my opinion, this was a half-hearted effort, at least where the clothes were concerned.

I shopped there too in the beginning. I had no idea they were a RL store, until I saw a story on them on a Sunday morning show a few days later. I agree that the quality wasn't that great for the price, I think in fact I deleted all their stuff as I found better replacements.

Interesting - does Aimee actually make their clothes for SL?

This was the most I could find, taken from the article here:

http://www.3pointd.com/20060615/american-apparel-to-open-in-second-life/







$295/month = $3540/yr
Pretty cheap advertising.

I think I remember that she was listed as the creator, but that may have just been for the vending signs. Even if she's listed as the creator on the clothing, though, you can't tell if she's actually the one who created the clothing texture... just the one who uploaded it, or applied the texture to a clothing item created by her.

The only reason I question it is that I keep reading her talent as a designer is one of the reasons she is so famous. I've only seen one other thing by her, so I can't say.

Well her store is called "Preen" so you can go look.

I have had some of her clothes for years. I wear my Aimee jeans quite a lot and people notice them, so I suppose they arent too bad.

...and here we are, talkin' about them, with them jes dropping a small amount of money (relatively: look at their RL stores' costs and you'll see that $295 could well be a single average customer's bill). They made a buzz, and still are: many of us who use SL will associate their product with their SL presence. Some may even make a purchasing decision based on that presence.

In short, worth their money, no?

For us "little people," it's a different story. So we keep working on our regions, and providing service, and being an active part of this world. We have to.

Mari

Just a couple of notes...
1. SL will not be the future of the interne, but a 3d interactive environment in general will be.
2. If American Apparel is miffed and closes it's stores in world because of a protest, might we be able to hope they'd do the same for a protest in RL? (without the shooting of course).
3. I can only hope most of the big businesses bugger off from SL. If I want to be branded, I'll turn my tv back on....Oh wait, that won't work, at least I don't believe it will...It went for rather a long drop onto concrete...oops?
4. I teach guitar in world (when my connection works), I"ve been to a pun off, a haiku competition, SLRFL benefit events, met people from halfway around the world, and within 30 minutes from me, Learned how to model in 3d programs like wings and blender, and even learned some rudimentary scripting. But, I'm still a pixel vergin...I must be hanging out in the wrong part of the grid, since Everyone is apparently busy slappin' pixels. At least according to Forbs.

This forum isn't for general discussion; there are many Resident Sites where this discussion is appropriate — Resident Answers is for Resident-to-Resident help. I'll close this thread...