Girl Wonder speaks about Marketing: And you are...?

I was glancing through the fashion feeds a day or so ago when I spotted an item about a new store opening. I love finding new shops so my interest was piqued. I read and then reread. Apart from one odd phrase that was linked, there was no mention of a store name. Nor was there a description of what this store would sell – it was just a couple of paragraphs of gushing about being so happy to open the shop. I examined the picture that accompanied the story only to see a pastel building and an impossible to read scripted sign.

Now, if I had been logged in to SL at the time I could have clicked the linked phrase and hoped that it would turn out to be a SLURL. But at the time I was not.

So, there is a new shop out there and I would love to visit it but I have no idea what it is called.

That, my friends, is a marketing FAIL.

These are thoughts from my typist (who happens to be a marketing professional in RL):

• Your business' name is gold. Remember that and you are way ahead of the game. And I mean both in reputation as well as recognition.
• Say your name, use your name, put your name on everything, repeat your name, and never send a Plurk or Twitter about your shop without the store name in the first sentence!
• Put signs on your store -- especially the outside! Do not assume someone knows what store they are in. I cannot count the number of times I have had to click on a wall or piece of merchandise just to find out where I am.
  
• Think long and hard about changing your brand name. Change it and you could see all of the goodwill you have built up with customers disappear. (I will write about this more later -- it can be done in such a way as to minimize the damage.)
• Put the name of your business on your profile. Make sure you have your employees put it on their profiles too. Put it in the 'about' section on the 2nd Life tab and make a pick (preferably the first one) for it.
• Label your merchandise so when it gets into someone's inventory they know exactly what store it is from so they can come back to buy more or tell others where they bought the item.

I hope this gives you some ideas. IM me with questions.

And now I have linked a little ditty to help you remember the importance of your business' name. (I couldn't embed this, sorry...grrrrrr.)
That's not my name!

I am going to start writing little marketing advice pieces every once in a while to give back to the creators in SL who make the things I love to buy. (I will think of a clever name for this feature.)

I hope this starts your week out well!!