Jennice's Thesis Draft

Thesis Draft


Title: Marketing in Virtual World


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 corporations like Krafts, Amercan Apparel and Walmart have recognized the opportunities in this 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 and summarizing the current trends. With these focus on mind, this project will 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:
Interactive archive of past marketing communications made in virtual world. This archive will be available on-line with space for user feedbacks and discussion forum. Also a documentary film summarizing virtual marketing trends and suggesting a new type of effective marketing approaches in virtual world will be made. This documentary will be a combination of traditional and interactive forms.

Statement of significance within contemporary scholarship in field:
In modern world, everything is about marketing. Companies put so their all possible effort into finding the most effective way of marketing communication. 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, but only few companies attempt 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
Less than $500

Confirmed Advisors
Not Decided yet

Production Resources
Flash
Website
Second Life
Digital Camcorder
Video editing software

Presentation Needs
Networked computer
Screen and projector

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