Socially|Mundane

It's among one the the favorite stories about second Life and commercial entities entering it: American Apparel. Fail.

They came, they saw, they left with head hanging low and tail between legs.

I never saw the movie "Field of Dreams" - but I am well familiar with the tag line: "Build it and they will come." Well, as with all Hollywood movies, that's just plain fantasy. Practically all of what they dish out is false fantasy, even documentary material.

The fact of the matter is you can build it, but they won't come. Not unless there is a reason to do so, anyway. This is true in the real world as well. But even more so in Second Life and any other virtual world.

In Second Life, you have no need for any of life's essentials: food, shelter, clothing... nothing. You can't even die in Second Life. When "killed" - you are simply sent to your home location. You don't even poof and respawn. As a 'game' Second Life totally sucks as there is zero risk in anything and everything you do or don't do.

So along comes American Apparel: creates a build and a virtual location in-world and leaves it. it is easy to proclaim that they are either really so conceited that they think their brand actually means something to anyone or they are really, really stupid or both.

Well, it's not about that. Why would anyone go there for clothing? Clothing isn't needed in Second Life. Why would anyone go there for information on their products? They already have a decent web site for that. Why would anyone go there to inquire about a job, products, locations, anything? There were no official representatives on-hand. There wasn't even a proper catalog of product.

So they built it and left. No one came. Fail.

I can't speak for American Apparel and what their own take is on it. it was reported time and again that it was a, and I paraphrase here, 'massive failure'. Thus, all commercial endeavors in Second Life have been, is and will be: total failure. so don't waste your money.

Pffft.

The fact of the matter is that they simply didn't do it right. You need to treat Second Life as a whole new country with it's own culture and that culture requires interaction. There are many successful commercial entities in second Life. I've already mentioned in a previous post how I went to a flower shop in world, previewed several arrangements, made the purchase to have delivered and paid in Linden Dollars (L$) - they were delivered and the arrangement was actually pretty close to what I saw in world.

It was a wonderful experience. A large part of that experience was that there were 'official' representatives on-hand, in-world to help me out. it was great. Last year it alo was big news how a new method of marketing in virtual worlds became the grand experiment, which is considered the most successful venture to-date in second Life.

So much so that they still speak of it:

Wagner James Au sez: "Serve Existing Community Needs:With Second Life, new users enter a strange, overwhelming world without many objects in their inventory, and are usually too intimidated to talk with the locals. To serve this need, the agency behind a promotion for IMAX created “buzz agent” avatars who cheerfully engaged “noobs” in Second Life’s Welcome Area, offering them tips on using the interface — all while handing out “Harry Potter” memorabilia and directing them to IMAX’s retail site.

"Of course, while these success stories might encourage marketers to take a second look at Second Life and other virtual worlds, the metrics of success still haven’t been agreed upon. That’s why many are eagerly awaiting a Forrester Research report that will try to define and standardize virtual marketing ROI."

My point being a simple one: Understand your target audience - simple enough. Your current demographics will serve you well here. But also understand your market. In Second Life, your market is Second Life. It's a whole new culture that is not based on ethnic or any particular cultural paradigm. it's a new mish-mash of ideas and attitudes.

AQs in the real world, people must have a reason or interest to even look at your product. They must know it exists, have an interest in learning more about it, then and only then - if the interest holds - will they seek more information. Having a means to answer those questions clearly and completely will go a long way.

So, in Second Life: the culture has a lot to do with interactivity.

Source

UPDATE - 2:50 p.m. Pacific: In a bit of funny timing, here's another article about successful marketing in-world in Second Life. And actually a fun read, whether you're a marketeer or not. The article is found here.