Morpheus Media's director of creative and emerging strategy explores the value proposition inherent in virtual worlds for gaining relevant -- and more accurate -- consumer insight.
How well do you know your consumers? How well do your marketing efforts address the needs and wants of your consumers? The answers to these questions are at the pinnacle of an effective marketing strategy.
Traditional techniques such as focus groups have often been the modus operandi for marketers; however, traditional methods have their flaws. The proliferation of consumer choice in the internet age has made gaining mass consumer insight through small sample groups less effective (case-in-point: Nielsen TV ratings). Marketers should look at new technologies in order to gain more relevant consumer insight; the 3D virtual world Second Life is one such technology.
Marketers, advertisers and media practitioners must continually remind themselves of the old McLuhan-ism "the medium is the message" when leveraging virtual worlds as a means to gain consumer insight. If a marketer entered Second Life, set up a virtual conference room and invited avatars to join a virtual focus group that was merely an emulation of a real world focus group, they would be undermining the value proposition inherent in virtual worlds. The true value proposition of virtual worlds (for marketers) does not lie in their ability to replicate real life. The value lies in the ability to extend real life experiences into a virtual mediated space. This extended mediated space allows for a greater level of social interactivity from consumer to consumer, as well as brand to consumer.
A nesting ground for ideas
Virtual worlds can serve marketers as a relatively cost efficient research tool. By employing 3D virtual space as a sandbox or nesting ground for ideas, marketers have the opportunity to experiment and to converse with consumers about various products and brand attributes.
A great example of product experimentation and open consumer conversation is Millions Of Us' Toyota Scion campaign. Millions of Us -- an agency specializing in virtual world campaigns -- quite literally extended the real world into the virtual space with its launch of the first real world automobile in a virtual world (the Scion XB). On the surface this launch resembled a brilliant PR stunt; but while highly effective, the PR aspect of this initiative was only part of what made this experimental brand building exercise a success.
If you dissect this initiative and look at the event's fundamental design, it is apparent that the effort contained great depth. More than just a superficial ploy to garner attention, it is obvious that the conceptual architects (as well as the physical ones) understand the power of the medium they are working in and understand the inherent ability present in Second Life to create an extended, mediated experience.
Focus experience vs. focus group
The above implementation contains elements of what I call a focus experience, where consumers are immersed in an environment with a product (or brand), other consumers and, potentially, representative's from the brand team. While the leader of a traditional focus group is trained in "reading" the body language of the members of a group, a focus experience provides a more natural setting, where consumers can speak with a greater degree of candor. While I feel there is a greater visceral connection between people in virtual worlds than through other forms of interactive media such as the telephone or the 2D web, there is still a certain sense of anonymity in a focus experience.
Personalization is an important concept for consumers living in an age powered by the internet, and the automotive industry is certainly no exception when it comes to consumer demand for personalized products. The after-market business in the auto industry is seeing rapid growth and will hit 34 billion dollars this year, up 9 percent from 2005.
Keeping up with consumer's desires is no easy task in this type of market. Putting together effective focus groups and extracting relevant and somewhat homogenous insights to base product development is equally as hard. These challenges make virtual worlds (and focus experiences) an increasingly viable channel to mine consumer insights.
Virtual challenges
Market research in virtual worlds does have drawbacks. At this point the drawbacks are largely operational. The largest issue posed to the mainstream is that Second Life is a processor-intensive application. Many people I have turned on to Second Life simply say that their year-old computers cannot handle the application. While there are a number of things that can be done to make Second Life less of a drain on your computer, many people simply do not want to bother taking the time to implement these modifications -- and often it is the non-tech savvy individual that you want to target.
Another obstacle is the ability to quantify success and provide key performance indicators. Many people will hold virtual marketing campaigns to the same standards of accountability as other online endeavors and may be disappointed in the results. These detractors are currently being addressed by various tech firms and marketers alike and, just as the 2D web before it, will be iteratively resolved.
Virtual rewards
The Toyota Scion saw tremendous success in 2006 becoming the No. 3 auto manufacturer in the United States (beating out DaimlerChrysler AG). In light of this, some may question Toyota's strategy to produce fewer units. Marketers at Scion have also said that they will be reducing, if not cutting, all television advertising spend in order to focus more on experiential marketing.
Moving advertising dollars away from television and into interactive channels is becoming an increasingly popular trend amongst marketer; however, this trend presents the challenge of what to do with the massive amount of dollars that were once being poured into television. Simply shifting these dollars into online banner ad buys and search engine marketing may not, at this point, make use of the large budgets that advertisers spend on television. A solution to this conundrum is to pour those dollars back into the product itself by spending more time talking to consumers and letting them dictate how products are developed.
3D virtual worlds may not solve all the concerns of the modern marketer; however, many of the core ideas mentioned above, including consumer conversations and focus experiences, are key concepts that will carry over into other interactive channels and should not be overlooked.
Adam Broitman is director of emerging and creative strategy at Morpheus Media. Read full bio.