Business and Marketing is SL

brand building and marketing in sl

how to do it withoug harming the community

building brands within sl

how do you build brand

trust factor huge

keeping the 1 to 1 factor going forward

shifting from artisan culture to the mass market culture

spin martin – doesnt sell clothes, does media (machinima, redesign)
only here a year
r and r
things that havent been done

living affects what you do

live shows, promoting musicians

spillover in the media space
f
fitting the vibe

where these brands came from

giff constable – esheep
2 thresholds – real world brands
challenges of resident businesses
small business person – helped build startups

product design and channels you face
environment is diff, but the challenges are similar

moof murray – makes vending machines, bubblegum, skates

crucial armitage
crucials creations
aug 29 2004 began

designs clothing, womens fashions, mens fashions

started via there.com – found it on techtv – 3d virt world – said he had to do that

second life – creative freedom released – no bounds

nothing but tried to make the best clothing with most passion he can muster

justin – diff b/w corp identity and mass produced consumer goods

crucial – trust and branding even more imp in SL
not sure of what you are getting before you buy it – trust is huge – dont know what you bought until you bought it – go into a store and buy something – you know that brand –

BRand is a key for someone to talk to you – its your reputation, your actions

brand defines the qual of your work, your cs and the way you price things – build brand thru your actions

crucial – things dont sell immediately – word of mouth imp – doesnt sell until people see it and buy it

justin – dont be afraid to tell your own story – struggle is what they are buying into – dont be afraid to give away and create evangelists

give a little get a little

brand is about differentiation – cant test it – concentrate on story – amy weber and pixel dolls – still strong still understand stories

catherine linder – how do you evangelize in sl?

spin – didnt talk about it – avoided it until he understood it
hard to be a brand that helps other brands

how many work at getting their products out there
make the tie in easier

easy to script snark

justin – how important is the web presence

spin – huge institution – search panel and events – not avail to those outside

machinima is huge for brands – number of people who watch the videos is huge – clever marketing

xmen 3 event – power of vlogging is huge – exciting and creative

crucial – sponsoring the event is about getting your name out there
50 hours a week or more logged in

moof – companies want in but dont know about it – good for dev systems

giff – websites with slurls to get them in

a lot less stuff transferabble – not as much given away

justin – no real idea of geo location, distribution – how do you get yoru stuff out there

music is good for us – branded content –

giff – slog – blog
ask the question – do you have a single store or a mall?

when you first get going use a lot of malls – leverage extra eyeballs

aloi

moof – bubblegum stories

resell vendors for skates and stuff

distribution model – in 1.5k places with the vendors
easiest and cheapest way to meet the new influx of people

catherine – what about collaboration with other business?

giff – tableau – some of the fav clithing makers joined forces (in demos for a while) have moved to tableay and their sim

only reason some products still sell isthat his stuff in others stores

moof – not a lot of crosselling going on
prefab makers – for ex – they tend to be empty – uninviting – make it inviting like a show home – give them the ability to buy the home and furniture in one go

crucial – one of the reasons he built the mall is to put his own shop in there – the biggest there – best spot – and make money renting the rest of the stores – all the other vendors attract and they see his shop – thinking about from his main location
cool to have a skin seller and clithing in one shop

spin – custom services is huge – and scripting – do the baseline and the custom – can you spread beyond your core products?

white label your products as well – many dont want to reinvent the wheel

the future and whats happening – surpised all the durannies were turning up – came into sl and came in and bought products – harness as they are coming in – brand as a biz and not a plot of land

giff – some brands dont go anywhere – some are a failure
malls that dont do much to bring the green dots into the store – how to market (Frog Marlowe) – didnt have games or events – critical to coming to your space

spin – siloing drives him bonkers
giant malls of advertising
frustrating to see things existing by themselves – all newbies at some point

how do you find talent in sl?

justin – need to create your own network and supply chain – its cool

green dots on the map are new people and tend to congregate in certain areas

crucial – 70% OF SALES come from green dots not the shop

uses classified and goes direct to the greeen dots

moof – gave up bringing the green dots to him – resale vendors are where the green dots are

very time consuming and difficult to do

giff – how to get partners? – carve out a niche where you start and spread from there – if there is a market that buys your stuff, try to get a read of the cust – find prods that would be oriented to the niche – warning – the most successful partnerships for friends beforehand

SL has business challenges – no legal sys – amazing relationships in sl, but feel we can accelerate those – be carefuls with how intense you make the partnerships

expect some will work out and some sep ways

plan how you will bring them into your land

plan for both

good and bad people everywhere – sl – trust factor – meet someone in world – no idea who they are –

use yor customer base as your focus group – market to them

crowd – within sl the pub industry is growing – as an avenue for advertising – how imp is that to building a brand to adv products

spin – so many diff places to put advertising in – exploding

justin – get into advertorial – provide content to it – not enough news – parcel knowledge out – tell story and get people halfway down the road

giff – how many businesses use classified or adv in snapzilla – how many buy from lookign at those ads

profiles are huge for marketing – in their pics

how many buy from forums?

cool – the leading (and first?) business magazine in Second Life!

http://www.slbusinessmag.com

I am digging into Second Life more and more and found the link above today (thanks PSFK!). This team has put together a magazine for and about SL business. The topics are neat, the layout is pretty good and they even have advertisers.

THe most interesting thing about the story is this:

You have the potential to reach for your dreams. The team of SL Business Magazine is proof of that. I am deployed in a war zone with the US Army in Afghanistan. I can escape the shattered terrain and death outside my mud and plaster building when I create an exciting and beautiful world full of friendships inside Second Life. It also allows our Creative Director in China to provide you with the stunning designs found in this issue. Our Editor in Canada can easily meet with our Copy Editor and Sales Manager in the United States. We have contributors from locations such as Australia, Germany, Japan and other global locations. So the point here is the obvious! And that is the idea behind our motto: Reaching. Connecting.

This is actually really well done. I cant wait to see issue 2