Child's play?

Norrath has a population of about 12,000 people - although up to 60,000 can be there at any given time. The nominal hourly wage is set at about US~$3.42 an hour. Each day the population grows. People come from all around the world. The Norrath-project is called EverQuest.

WELCOME TO A NEW TWEEN REALITY

Like the tidy town in The Truman Show, Norrath is not real. A group of software engineers in San Diego began building a vast, virtual world with the vision of creating a place people would prefer to live in. Inspired by the popular role play game Dungeons and Dragons, their plan was to build an environment large enough to accommodate nearly 500,000 visitors a year. They named their world Norrath and floated it off the California coast.

But why bother? Norrath could be perceived as a silly game similar to the science fiction worlds created in movies like The Matrix and Total Recall. Perhaps not. Professor Edward Castronova from the Economics Department at the University of California, Fullerton estimates that revenue from online gaming alone will grow to over US~$1.5 billion in 2004.

In short, EverQuest represents an entire world with its own diverse species, economic systems, alliances and politics. It's possible to choose from a variety of races and classes, customize the character, and begin the quest in any number of cities or villages on a number of continents.

Shortly after the launch of EverQuest its players began trading the game's internal currency, the platinum piece or PP as they call it, for real dollars on Internet auction sites. The problem got so bad that Sony requested these sites stop trading. However, as in the real world, the trading simply relocated. Today there is still an official exchange rate between EverQuest's platinum piece and the US dollar, and the deals are steadily growing.

A MARKETER'S DREAM?

It's important that marketers pay attention to the virtual-world phenomenon, because virtual worlds may soon become one of the most important forums for human interaction, alongside the telephone and e-mail. It's also possible that virtual worlds will introduce many changes in the way organizations communicate in the real world Virtual worlds are flourishing and their growth seems likely to continue. They already represent an area of Internet commerce that is booming while other sectors are faltering. The attraction of virtual worlds lies in their ability to replicate the physical and economic world of earth - with slight but significant changes in the rules. These changes, such as granting people the freedom customize their appearance and take on whatever skills they desire, are sufficient to generate a society that is hugely attractive to thousands of people. About 22 per cent of Norrath's citizens express the desire to spend all their time there. More and more are signing up.

WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF VIRTUEL BRANDING

Already now 24 per cent of all tweens globally use the Internet as their primary tool to communicate with their friends - ahead of face-to-face communication and the telephone. And 21 per cent state that the Net is the easiest way to find new friends. But the most surprising statistic to emerge in our survey showed that it was the Chinese tweens (44 per cent) who considered the Internet the easiest way to make new friends, compared to 11 per cent of tweens in the United States. So it's not unusual for tweens to have more than 40 Net friends in their address book.

THREE GUIDELINES FOR TARGETING TWEENS

1. One target-group description is never enough!
When formulating a marketing plan aimed at tweens, it's important to remember that you will need more than one or two fixed descriptions of this group. By the same token, one or two good strategies will not be enough. In order to be somewhat effective, you will need to have at least eight descriptions of your target group, with just as many marketing approaches for the brand you wish to launch. You must be prepared to run several different campaigns in the same region appealing to different tween audiences. This may be confusing, but the interesting fact is that tweens will easily understand that their favourite brand takes on a different tone of voice according to who it is talking to. The golden rule is to ensure that the core values of the brand remain consistently the same.

2. Building virtual brands in virtual worlds
Building a virtual brand in a virtual world presents a dream scenario for marketers, because in a virtual world you can track every action, dialogue, purchase and behaviour pattern. Any product used to enhance an avatar's role, would itself be virtual, so there would be no need for warehousing or inventory management.
On the other hand a host of new challenges are very likely to present themselves - challenges that are yet to be worked through. First, there's the challenge of positioning a brand in a virtual community.

Take for example Nike shoes. You will need to pay real money for a pair of virtual Nike shoes which you can only use in a virtual world. How could you justify paying the money?
How would you position your brand in the virtual community? What would possibly justify paying money for nothing? The brand! Is your brand strong enough to enter such test? And how would you differentiate your brand from other competing brands in such world? Will your Nike jump over hot coals? Can they walk on water? Will they help you fly? And then, most importantly, will these extraordinary shoes be compatible with your real-life brand platform?

3. The future is all about branding everything … this includes the language to…
Brands which manage to reinvent old terms and new abbreviations are not only likely to appeal to the tween audience they also tend to own the word - at least for a while. The Commonwealth Bank of Australia ran a campaign based on the question 'Which bank?'. The ads were so strong that after a while the bank no longer needed to answer with its name. The question alone automatically brought them to mind. If the same principle were to be applied to the tween world, it would open the door to some interesting possibilities. In theory your brand name would present itself every time the word was mentioned on the mobile phone display, the chat rooms, or of course in your own ads. As yet there are no established rules; the terminology is evolving so the language is yours to do with what you will!

How far do you go?
Let's dispel a myth. A brand doesn't need to speak in the same tones across every media. In fact, it's likely that you could destroy your brand if you try to force a certain tone of voice on a medium that's not sympathetic with that channel. So for example, you only have eight words at your disposal on a mobile-phone screen. To speak formally means you've out worded your message. So it will need to conform to the quick, simple and erasable style associated with the message carrier. I do not mean to imply that your message can be inconsistent across communication channels. On the contrary, brand consistency lies in core values, key words, and identifiable style - not in copy. By the same token, copy can no longer remain static in every brand manifestation. The range of media at your disposal requires your brand's tone of voice to be flexible.

What are the guidelines?
Whatever we may personally feel about Tweenspeak, its here for at least a while. So it's important we start dealing with it. Your tween campaign should utilize at least five, if not 10, different media channels. Of these, it's likely that 80 per cent will be based on written communication. As such it might be useful to begin considering how to approach your own brand's language. What's your brand's language? Like Coke and the Commonwealth Bank, does your brand have its own slogan or phrase? Would tweens instantly recognize it as yours? Have you spread your brand across many channels? Do you appeal to tween audiences in numerous ways using several different messaging styles? It is more important than ever to exercise as much control as possible over your few branded elements. Language is an inherent part of this. The more
synergy you can create in your language, the better. It's important that you identify certain terms and particular words, and then repeat them across the relevant channels.

In order to reach this synergy there are a number of questions you need to answer:

What sex is your brand?
Is it male, female or neuter?

Which expressions is your brand fond of - and which expressions does it hate?
Does it prefer repeated expressions, which represent its image and opinions?
Witch expressions contradict it?

Does your brand use metaphors?
And if it does, which type metaphors?
Metaphors are effectual for presentation of your brand, its functions and its offers

Can your brand be identified as casual or formal?
Your company's level of formality can be read by simple signs like an e-mail address a.o.
Do you use first name or last name in your approach to a customer?
Can the name of the company without trouble to an SMS-message and a letterhead?

Is your brand witty, specific and direct?
Has your brand a sense of humour?
Can it react on current events, or is it isolated from the rest of the world?

Is your brand visual, or does it rely on words?
Do you have to give thorough explanations to who you are?

Is your brand active in its language?
Does your brand contain a request to act, or does it stand by and leave the acting to the consumer?

IT ALL COUNTS

Building brands in the future has become a much more complex process than it was 10 years ago. The number of new communication channels, a substantial rise in new media alternatives, the appearance of a much more diversified audience, the emergence of interactive medias, the virtual worlds and even a new language is setting the stage for new rules which needs to be followed in order to control the total brand presence. You might not yet be planning to open a virtual world in Mindark next year, or to run a wireless campaign launching your new products. But you should be prepared for this, so you can build your brand platform for the day comes when your brand needs to take the next step. This way you can ensure that your brand is perfectly placed to embrace the many channels and can thus avoid the negative 'nerd' label that can spell death to your brand.