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29 Jun

BMW vs. Mercedes. A strategic assessment

Strategic Marketing, Virtual Research

BMW and Mercedes are included in the Automobile case study.

BMW vs. Mercedes. A strategic assessment. Brands entering Second Life do so for different reasons. Some do it just for the PR (not an ideal strategy). Some do it because in many cases they have to be there (global tech sector companies) and others do it because it’s a strategic fit in terms of the target markets they position themselves towards.

Automobile brands (as this timelime shows) have been very quick to go virtual – for good reason – the audience profile of residents in SL closely matches their real world footprint. Both BMW and Mercedes recognised the value in attempting to leverage their brands in SL. This article uses the 7 Point plan for marketing in Second Life to compare how well these two companies strategically placed themselves into the virtual world.


At face value, examining the traffic these two brands have recently received to their islands, its extremely clear which company has been most successful.

BMW traffic: 319 visitors

Mercedes traffic: 4,348 visitors

Mercedes has generated over twelve times the traffic. So why is that? The Seven Point plan can explain this. Marks out of five are given to each company based on how well they meet each criteria.
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11 Jun

Virtual Worlds Conference Turin

Strategic Marketing, Virtual Research

Virtual Worlds Conference Turin. The Virtual Reality and Multi Media Park in Turin is hosting a one-day conference on business opportunities in virtual worlds on June 19th 2007.

I’ll be speaking about the Seven Point Plan for marketing in Second Life. Other speakers include:

  • Aaron Brancotti: discussing Sony Home, Second Life and other metaverses
  • Leandro Agro: on avatar interfaces
  • Andrea Benassi: speaking about new media platforms
  • Antonio Santangelo: explaining the language of Second Life

More information about the conference can be found here.

28 Mar

The voice of a Second Life resident

Strategic Marketing, Virtual World strategy

The voice of a Second Life resident: The media type and general discussion taking place about Second Life across websites continues to grow with various standpoints and perspectives being taken.

In part, this media coverage has actually assisted the penetration of SL with people keen to engage after having read about it. But, interestingly, the non-SL platform which has received less attention and awareness is blogging. Blogs and SL go hand-in-hand with thousands of SL residents maintaining presence via blogs to support their in-world activities. Take a look at this chart, showing blogposts containing the phrase “Second Life”

Posts that contain Second Life per day for the last 360 days.
Technorati Chart
Get your own chart!

The first peak was December, a time of massive coverage and a fast influx of global brands in SL, categorised by some as the Peak of Inflating Expectations . But that’s not the point of this post.

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14 Mar

The technology adoption curve, part three

Strategic Marketing

The technology adoption curve, part three. The Late Majority. Without stating the obvious, the Late Majority always follow the Early Majority when it comes to the adoption of new technologies. And although the Late Majority represent exactly the same proportion (34%) of the general population as the Early Majority, timing isn’t the only factor that distinguishes the two.

More…These types of consumers are extremely risk averse, tending to only use new products and services once they have become mainstream. Importantly, these people do not really listen to opinion and are not influenced by others to use something new. So, from a relationship perspective, whereas Early Adopters follow the views of Innovators and the Early Majority are influenced by the Early Adopters, the Late Majority decide for themselves when they will take a service.

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16 Feb

The technology adoption curve, part two

Strategic Marketing

The technology adoption curve, part two: The early majority. Representing 34% of the population, the Early Majority are the third in line to adopt new technologies and importantly the joint highest in terms of overall numbers.

Whereas Innovators and Early Adopters will often quite willingly trial, test and adopt new products and services, the Early Majority are slightly more elusive and harder to trigger. Just like Innovators tip and influence Early Adopters, the Early Majority rely on (typically first-hand) recommendations from Early Adopters.

It’s important here to refer to the adoption curve (shown below). Early Adopters do a lot of the pushing (up the curve) in terms of raising awareness and helping a product gain commercial standing. By the time the Early Majority get involved, most of the hard work has been done. The role of the Early Majority is to increase the critical mass of take-up.

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30 Dec

The technology adoption curve, part one

Strategic Marketing

HUNTING THE INNOVATORS Pt1: The take-up (and penetration) of new services, products and technologies lies heavily in the hands of a consumer type called ‘Innovators‘. Innovators only represent 2.5% of any general population, but nevertheless, are a vital first link in the chain of adoption. The graph below shows the Rogers adoption curve, a bell curve that shows the five different consumer types.



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