Today I visited three businesses. The first was Costa Cruise Line. Since I was on many Costa Cruises in the past and had a first-hand experience on the ships, I thought this might be interesting place to start.
The lobby area, sports and pool decks were the only areas I found accessible. The pools, hot tubs and sports areas were nice but I was more interested in visiting staterooms and was disappointed when I could not. I left after 1/2 hour since there was not much else I was interested in seeing.
The second site I visted was Dolce & Gabbana. The spacious showroom had very large, beautiful photos of male models in designer clothes. The photos were hung in 2 rows and I had to fly up to see and read the ones on top. I wandered around and found myself in some other showroom that had photos of models in all stages of clothing or non-clothing. I became very anxious because my 13-year old daughter was looking over my shoulder watching me. There was no indication this was not D & G until I exited the area and found a sign for other “mature” products and areas. The D & G showroom was presented nicely, but I think it should have been easier to navigate and at least give some indication that it was near another showroom that was obviously not D & G.
The third site I visited was Hublot Island, which is in the shape of a giant “H”. It is the home of a RL Swiss luxury watchmaker. The welcome area sports signs for places where you can teleport to. I teleported to the main salon area, which was a very large, high-ceiling space with huge photos of the watches displayed on the wall. The graphics were beautiful, detailed and realistic – I was able to touch them. Scattered in the center of the room were black pedestals with sample watches on them that I also touched. One pedestal held a catalog in the shape of an actual book, another one housed a computer monitor with a “click here” that brought you to a Hublot web page.
I teleported back to the welcome area and next entered a Sports & Media area. It was still set up for the presentation that was held recently introducing Hublot to Second Life. There were certainly plenty of room for all of the invited press and guests to sit on the two large balconies and their spiral staircases. Next I walked through the underwater glass tunnel to the diving area. There were many colorful specimens of fish, jellyfish, a whale, dolphins, and plant life visible through the glass walls. The tunnel ended at a display of waterproof diving watches that were also on pedestals. Several large photos of these specific watches (similar to the others) were hung on the wall, as well as, miscellaneous diving equipment (props) scattered about adding “color” to the theme. As I walked back to the main area, I noticed a whale and many more schools of colorful fish swimming about.
Outside the welcome area, I visited the marina, which had a catamaran moored to the dock. I was tempted to go on it, but time was running out and was only able to admire it from the distance.
I think Hublot Watches in RL (website) and its presence in SL give it an edge over other well-known Swiss luxury watchmakers. Before joining SL and exploring business there, I vaguely recall hearing about Hublot Watches. Now as a SL member, I “discovered” a RL business in a virtual world. The large, detailed product photos and sample watches gave me a taste of the of the watches and the company. The presentation of the photos and watches on pedestals, The presentation of the paper catalog as a book and website on a computer monitor were intuitive and an excellent way for new SL members as myself to recognize easily.
I like this site because it was informational and easy to navigate. The central welcome area was easy to get to and easy to teleport to other areas. The large detailed photos showed me the different models available and the sample watches showed me the quality of the product.
I think businesses that want to have a presence in SL should remain true to their product, show it in the highest light, inform people the same way as in RL and make it easy to navigate around in. If people have a positive experience in SL (as I did with Hublot), then they may explore the product in RL. It works the other way around too – If people are used to a RL presence and the company also has a SL presence, then it should convey the same message in the same quality. People expect a certain thing or level of quality from a company. If it’s not delivered, then they will be disappointed, even in a virtual world which in turn may effect it RL.
