Jennice Lee's Thesis Proposal

Title
Marketing in Virtual World
(Thinking about a better title that describes the concept I will be elaborating)


Abstract
This project will be exploring marketing and promotional communication in virtual economy. As the world gets more widely connected with faster broadband network, virtual space is emerging as one of the fastest growing channels for marketing and promotional communications. Many big companies like Krafts, Amercan Apparel and Walmart have recognized the opportunities in the new medium and attempted to generate new type of marketing buzz in virtual world such as Second Life. Although the virtual world economy is rapidly expanding and more people are entering into the cyberspace as avatars with cyber money to spend, only few companies have succeeded in their marketing approach. Also there hasn’t been a thorough study archiving the previous marketing attempts that have been made so far and summarizing the trends. With these focus on mind, I would like to explore the marketing and promotional communication in virtual world through using popular online space such as Second Life or There, and effective application of conventional marketing strategies as well as new approaches.


Description

Genre:
I still haven’t figured out the most appropriate medium to convey my thesis. But ultimately I want to create an interactive archive of marketing approaches that have been used so far in virtual world. Also I want to create a documentary film summarizing virtual marketing trends and suggesting a new type of effective marketing approaches in virtual world.

Statement of significance within contemporary scholarship in field:
Everything is about marketing. All companies put so much effort into finding the most effective way of marketing themselves. Nevertheless there hasn’t been a thorough study on this subject in conjunction with the virtual world. (There are a lot of studies done in terms of e-commerce, but not much on virtual world such as Second Life.) Obviously there has been a lot of buzz on media about this very new idea, and few companies are trying to reach different type of consumer through this new approach. This research will be an informative and through study of marketing and promotional communication in virtual world not only for college students but also for anyone in marketing industry.

Timeline
-Final Thesis proposal: December 2007
-Collecting information, data, articles etc through secondary research: Throughout the study.
-Getting involved in and observing, experiencing virtual economy in Second Life: Throughout the study.
-Archive: September 2008
-Film: December 2008
-Finished Project: May 2009

Budget
Not sure, but less than $500Confirmed

Advisors
Still working on it

Production Resources
Flash
Website
Second Life
Unknown.. not sure..

Presentation Needs
Networked computer
Screen and projector

Prior Related Work
Communication classes
Classes related to digital revolution
Marketing and advertising classes

Research Bibliography
Started to create my own archive