Thomas Novak, co-director of the Sloan Center for Internet Retailing at University of California Riverside, gave a presentation entitled "Consumer Behavior Research in Second Life: Issues and Approaches" during last Association for Consumer Research Annual Conference in Memphis. Professor Novak described the current state of research on consumers in virtual worlds and delineates the future persepectives for this highly promising area of marketing research. Research in Second Life is suitable to analyze a wide variety of marketing related topic, such as product choice, branding, decision making, merchandising, virtual consumption, peer and social influence, relationships, time distortion, flow experiences, group behavior, word of mouth, avatar vs. self personality, impact of Second Life on real life, and many others. According to Novak, many research approaches can be easily adapted to a Second Life setting, among which he lists qualitative interviews and focus groups, ethnography, surveys, experiments, clickstream and other unobtrusive behavioral data, content analysis, social network analysis, and even fMRI.
The Sloan Center has begun the development of eLab City, a sim in Second Life created for the purpose of studying consumer behavior in virtual worlds.
Very intersting material for marketers!
Future Marketing Prospectives in Virtual Worlds
Consumer Research in Second Life
Trend Themes
1. Consumer Research in Virtual Worlds - Disruptive innovation opportunity: Developing new research methodologies and tools to understand consumer behavior in virtual worlds.
2. Marketing in Virtual Environments - Disruptive innovation opportunity: Creating innovative marketing strategies and campaigns targeted specifically towards virtual worlds.
3. Virtual Consumption - Disruptive innovation opportunity: Exploring new ways to engage and monetize virtual consumers in virtual worlds.
Industry Implications
1. Market Research - Disruptive innovation opportunity: Integrating virtual world research methodologies into traditional market research practices.
2. Advertising and Marketing - Disruptive innovation opportunity: Developing innovative advertising and marketing strategies tailored for virtual world environments.
3. Virtual Reality Technologies - Disruptive innovation opportunity: Building virtual reality technologies and platforms that can facilitate immersive marketing experiences in virtual worlds.