Are group gifts doomed? « Highly Opinionated

Are group gifts doomed?

23Dec07

Good group gifts make me feel loved. When I get a notification to accept something other than a notecard or landmark a little frisson of excitement runs through me. Or it used to.

The Rise of the Free Loaders

With the advent of the freebie collectors and the blogs that tell them how to get every freebie in SL I don’t feel so special. Now that I know there are people who have never even been in a designer’s store just joining the group for the stuff then leaving again it doesn’t seem like I’m getting something to thank me for being a client.

If I was a profit driven content creator I’d be paying very close attention to my best customers. Every month I’d be downloading the sales data and grouping it by avi to really understand who is driving my business. I suspect there are a relatively small group of people spending a lot of Linden on a few designers. These people are the one’s to target the freebies at, perhaps by starting an invitation only group for them.

Maybe group gifts are meant to give free loaders a taste so they will come back and buy? But if that’s the case why not put the freebies in the store so at least they have to visit once? Treasure hunts are good for the free loaders too and they’re fun.

Another way of making me feel loved, if designers didn’t want to crank up Excel and crunch the numbers, could be greater use of gift with purchase. The RL cosmetics companies are masters of this, perhaps designers could restrict their exclusive gifts to people who spend a certain amount in one go.

In RL designers are very focussed on looking after their best customers: front row seats at the shows, gifts, exclusive salon previews for mega clients only. I don’t see any of that differentiation in SL. Sure the major fashion bloggers get showered with stuff, the same way magazine staff do in RL and SL celebrities get free stuff for the same reason RL ones do, but I don’t see any parallels in SL with the way major couture clients are treated in RL.

Credits (all freebies)

Halter, pants & sheer silver top: CKS Designs freebie outfit, shirt with black collar: Mischief group gift, shoes: from aLady island, necklace: Miam Miam Christmas gift.
Skin: Tuli: Le Zoo opening gift, hair: Philotic Energy group gift, Eyes: caLLie cLine group gift, lashes: aLady