THOUGHT (aka Centric's Blog)

It’s funny how things work. Consider this:

Centric came up through marketing. We’ve been brought in to develop brands, to create communications strategies, to do the creative that delivers the right messages and compels response, to plan the interactive and conventional media around the campaign, and to produce and execute all the facets of the campaign on time and to budget.

And yet, today, we’re getting more inquiries for our Second Life work than anything else. From RL companies, that is.

From metabrands–companies that only exist in Second Life–we’re becoming known as a branding, strategic, and creative agency. Which is exactly the same thing we’ve done in real life.

It all started with Second Talk. Sure, we could have developed this product, called it the Portable Integrated Voice Application, put it up on SL Exchange, and been done with it. Instead, we thought about this from the point of view of the brand, and from the point of view of marketing it:

• What should it be called? Second Life didn’t have voice at the time, so why not Second Talk? Especially considering that secondtalk.com was available.
• What was the top level benefit of the product? It allowed people to talk and be heard. Which lead to the tagline of "Be heard."
• What was its unique value proposition? Well, it was the only portable voice chat enabler that was completely free. Which led to the top-level messaging on the website, the notecard, and on the press release.
• How should it be propagated? Sure, we could open a store, but creating a freely-available networked kiosk and giving them out to anyone who wanted one would be easier and would allow Second Talk to spread far and wide. So that’s what we did.

Of course, that’s for a metabrand that we created ourselves. But that has now led to working with several native metabrands, and to launching at least one new metabrand of our own. Each of these brands has its own unique goals. It’s our job to help them build the foundation of success.

And the formula in Second Life is very much the same as in real life:

Brand = ((Position + Personality + Consistency) * Delivery)^Time

Position is what you do and why someone cares about it. Okay, so you design skins in Second Life. What’s different about them? Higher quality and lower price might not be specific enough to differentiate effectively. What’s your unique position?

Personality is how you deliver your product or service. Are you the value leader, with brown-paper-wrapped prim boxes? Are you the luxury marque with white-glove service? The knowledge leader? The technology gurus? The jokesters? Personality is where someone makes a connection to your product on an emotional level.

Consistency is how well you can apply your position and personality to everything you do. If you’re the jokesters, can your customer service people carry on the lighthearted tone? Does your signage reflect this? Are your notecards fun and light and easy to read? Brand isn’t just a mark, it’s a tone, and it should be reflected everywhere.

Delivery is the kicker. If you can’t deliver on your promises, the value of your brand equation goes to zero. If you’re billing yourself as the ultimate luxury experience, but guests are treated like they’re enjoying a fine trip to the Department of Motor Vehicles, your brand is toast. This is why every successful brand is a reflection of the actual company culture–not something created out of whole cloth. And this is something that metabrands probably understand better than any RL company. In the instant-feedback, completely transparent world of Second Life, metabrands live and die by delivery.

Time raises the value of your brand exponentially. Have great products, a unique personality, apply it consistently, and deliver on it for a long time, and you’ve built a strong brand. There’s no substitute for this, and no shortcuts.

If you’re running a business in-world, you may scoff, and think, "This branding stuff isn’t for me."

But consider all the new faces in SL. Who will they trust? The guys with ads plastered all over the mainland with layout that looks like it was lifted from a flyer tucked under your windshield wipers and copy full of spelling and grammatical errors–or a well-presented company with a coherent, integrated program that communicates key messages effectively with memorable creative?

Here are a few dos and don’ts for metabrands:

• Do think about what your unique selling points are–what can you claim that nobody else can, and why would your potential customers care about it?
• Do anticipate the arrival of RL brands–they are coming, make no doubt about it
• Do use what you’ve learned about the world to express yourself, to be real, to be accessible–this will be your strongest differentiation from RL brands
• Don’t assume that since you’re a SL native, you’re immune to branding–if someone can communicate more effectively and compellingly than you do, you’re at a competitive disadvantage
• Don’t just launch and assume you can rebuild the brand foundation later–once you’re out in the open, it’s very hard to repair first impressions
• Don’t put off upgrading your communications to an integrated, coherent program with real differentiators–the sooner you can start the brand clock ticking, the stronger you will be

Of course, RL brands make their own mistakes when they enter SL–usually based on the fact that "well, we’re a huge brand, and that’s a draw in itself." So here are a few dos and don’ts for them:

• Do look at the competition beyond RL–even if your RL competitors aren’t in SL, that doesn’t mean you have no competition
• Do commit to a coherent in-world program that is reflected in your larger marketing activities–if your customer service people have no idea about your SL presence, this is a big problem
• Do have some fun, take some risks, take off the ties, and play a bit–this is a different world, with different rules, and it isn’t all about measuring impressions, deepening engagement metrics, or holding meetings
• Don’t assume that the strength of your RL brand is reflected in SL–there are many well-established metabrands that will eat RL brands for lunch
• Don’t assume that your brand is a draw by itself–if there’s nothing to do, no reason to come back, no direct links to useful services, no conversation, why would people want to spend time with you?
• Don’t start (or stop) with the build—define goals and strategies before starting, then consider ongoing visibility, marketing, staffing, events, and other tactics to make your presence meaningful

And then let’s get together, build strong brands, create strong communities, and (gasp) have some fun!

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 1st, 2007 at 4:01 pm and is filed under Ruminations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.