Wow, A lot of feedback - I logged onto the forums just a few moments ago for the first time today and had to read through all of this. That gosh darn day job always keeps me away for longer than I think it will
Anyway, thank you to everyone for your thoughts. As you all may or may not know by now, I run a Project on Calypso called The Entropia Revival Project. The Revival is focused around re-developing Calypso's community and economy. It's been a big undertaking but we're really making some headway and a lot of fronts, and pretty soon we'll be positioned to start working on some really big things.
That being said, the malls (in my opinion) are an extremely important and currently very unstable business. For all of the thoughts that I've gotten here, I think its safe to say that the broad points are:
- Some things are simply broken, like the notifications and product placement. Those things, though frustrating, seem to be more annoying to some than others. Still, this hinders business by making customer retention difficult
- The auction, it's success, and it's placement have a major impact on the mall shop economy. Mall placement in-world is also very important, and as a result some malls have exploded while others have died.
- The main problem on Calypso is a lack of consumer interaction with the market. I'm sure this comes from a number of factors, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the big reason is lack of funds in the newer player demographic and poor active-user counts on world at any given time.
Now, I know that some of those things are impossible to change. However, there are some things on that list that we, as players, have the power to make a difference on.
Juliane, you said your problem is marketing and advertising. If you're on the first floor of the mall, you probably (recently) got an email from me talking about just that (I'm working on emailing that entire mall right now). I think that a lot of people share that view - but how do you market a mall, and what do you do?
Well, I've had six years to think about it (with a visual merchandising background) and I think I have a few ideas.
For starters, the malls have a major advantage over the auction of not having auction fees - meaning that they can undercut the auction in prices.
That could (at least on Calypso) be our angle. The shops in the PA mall should market towards new players. With the proper signage in-shop and good marketing and community interaction to drive newbie traffic to the mall, the "visual representation" of the items can be a great asset. If shop owners pulled together on this one with me, we could create an environment in the mall that sells people items and educates them on the items they're buying. I've already seen this tactic used in the Twin Peaks Mall - and from what I can tell, it works.
If anyone is interested in learning more about what The Revival is doing, you can find my blog linked in my signature. I have a lot of things I want to do with Calypso to drive business through increased trade and community interaction - but here's my question for all of you:
Would you be willing to work with someone to help market your shop based on your area, to try and drive traffic, if the cost was manageable? I think that a collective effort on the behalf of the malls and shop owners is what we need right now. Specifically, I would like to start in Port Atlantis, as this mall, in my opinion, has the most untapped potential. If someone were to manage the mall to try and drive profitability for everyone, through proper store placement in the mall to avoid unnecessary competition, product themes and placement in-store, signage design and brand marketing, everyone would reap the benefits.
So, thoughts?
And Thank you all again for your responses.