Much hype was created as marketers unleashed the viability of Virtual Worlds (VW) such as Second Life and Active Worlds as an ideal habitat for marketing. But unfortunately what followed this good news was not just as pleasant. Most marketing campaigns failed in practice whereas the rest even though not completely failed, was unable to reach its intended goal.
But VWs being a superior collaborative medium together with its immersive nature, global reach and ever increasing user rates proves itself as the ideal surrounding for marketing. With much curiosity in mind I was determined to discover the factors affecting success of VW based marketing strategies. Browsing through the net, reading bits and pieces, relevant literature lead me to a common conclusion, lack of awareness in marketing best practices which suit VWs.
However VWs are still in its infancy and requires a great deal of research and testing before proving itself as a strong business platform. Understanding the potential significance and timely necessity for further research in the subject area I decided to base my final year thesis on the marketing aspect of VWs.
About the Project
Project, “Reality of Virtual Trade” intends to collect information with respect to numerous marketing attempts by different companies and evaluate them in determining a set of marketing best practices to be followed when conducting marketing campaigns in VWs such as Second Life and Active Worlds. Evaluation will be conducted through user and expert views collected though surveys, interviews, observations and revival of literature, particularly statistics, research findings and critiques.
Finally research conclusions will be utilized in the formation of an industry specific business model based on IT and services industry.
Still I’m in requirements gathering phase and I’ll be posting my findings as I proceed with the research.