SL selling points... from a long, long time ago

For anyone who's ever had to think up a Second Life advertising campaign, I found this scrap of paper tonight, notes I had taken from a sales book from the 1940s:

Wants You Can Satisfy With Your Product

Eating (yes, SL food is actually a viable business! Just visit At-Cas to see!)

Pursuit/hunting (SL combat)

Acquisition/collection/possession (ahem, 20,000 inventory, anyone? :D )

Escape from pain and/or suffering (isn't that what a lot of SL is all about?)





Wants You Can Satisfy With Your Product (continued)

Escape from fear (this one was difficult to apply... but something that could protect my inventory from loss would be pretty cool. :D )

Avoiding disgusting things (Anti-griefing comes to mind)

Being active (Again, what SL can be all about)

Emotional excitement (Dancing/Platinum beds anyone?)

Seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting (Artwork, textures, builds, particles [like rising steam from a prim turkey], prim food)

Mental activity (Games, random scripted eye candy, combat)

Overcoming interference (Your own skybox, all by yourself, no boss, no worries...)


Positive aspects of your product to emphasize

Profitability (A lot of people are in SL to make a profit)

Time-saving (Gawds, I hate lag, so if your product doesn't bust my sim, I just might buy it.)

Effort-saving (A lot of businesses take a few hundred steps a day to run. Cut down the time to execute these steps, increase people's profits and free time.)

Recommended by others (When in SL Rome...)

Easy to get (I hate having to flip through 10 pages of a vendor... make it accessible and it's often an easy sale!)

Easiest thing to do/easiest way to do it (Again...)

Cost (Market competition is tough!)

Pleasantness (SL can very often be a fun place, so selling into that desire for a nice time can pay well.)

Usefulness (My favorite item isn't something complex... it's a Bubble Bee I shrunk down that flies like butter. In second place? My mega-buttoned Tardis!)

Protection (Shield and anti-griefing are viable markets.)

Reputable maker (Branding is alive and well in SL. Word of mouth works wonders!)

Means of selling you can use in an ad campaign

Commands ("Enjoy ______ ... ") ("Use _____ ...") ("Protect _____ ... ")

Exclamation ("THE AMAZING 4-PRIM BATTLESHIP!")

Rhetorical question ("You don't want to be griefer bait, do you?")

Dilemma ("Will you leave your spending money out in the open, free to spend as you want... or will you put it into a secure, stable fund that pays for itself in a half-year?")

Inspiring generalization (think of any ad campaign that gets away with simply calling something "cool")

Picture of satisfaction (from using your product)

Picture of dissatisfaction & loss (from using someone else's!)

Complimentary argument ("If you want ________ [success, low lag, lots of friends, an organized inventory, etc.], here is our product.")

I know these notes are off the beaten path, but it was just a little something I wanted to bat around the Internet for Second Life businesspeople who are stalled for advertising ideas. Let me know how you liked it by posting a comment!

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