Electrolux moves into Second Life new product development

While the business community seems to have accepted that we are not all suddenly going to live a virtual existence through Second Life, the online environment is still yielding some interesting initiatives.

Electrical manufacturer Electrolux has developed a programme to solicit ideas for making virtual life easier. This scheme – the Electrolux Innovation Grant Program in Second Life – is based on the company’s real-life programmes, where company researchers are sent into consumer homes to study them and work out what new products Electrolux could develop to improve their lives.

The first grant-winning proposals created by this new team are:

1. InfoFez: a special hat that you can wear. When you are wearing it, it whispers relevant information to you about the location you’re standing in. You will only see each fact one time, unless you reset your InfoFez. (This is designed to solve the “Notecard” problem; notecards are a primary mode of information distribution in Second Life and can be disruptive.)

2. The Teleport Cabin: a cabin that provides you with a brief,
carefully-selected and compelling list of destination themes (i.e,
“Art”). The user pushes a button within the cabin that says “Art” (there are a handful of other macro-categories) and is instantly transported to a random venue in the category. (This is designed to solve the arrival/search problem for new users in Second Life, who are often at a loss for where to find the most compelling in-world content.)

3. The Box Template: Second Life content creators need to create boxes for their virtual goods when stocked in a virtual merchant’s store. This currently involves the complexity and cost of working with imagery and programming scripts that originate outside of SL. The Box Template can be quickly, easily, cheaply and attractively configured by a Second Life entrepreneur.

We like this concept here at Brand Strategy. It is a fun, unusual way to highlight the way that the brand thinks about its consumers. It brings attention to the fact that Electrolux obviously monitors very carefully what consumers might need in their homes and it also gets onside the kind of smart thinkers who could develop future product/services for the brand. Since the electronics and appliance industry constantly skirts the issue of commoditisation, this is an interesting move that gives Electrolux a slightly more cutting-edge image than it previously could lay claim to….

What do you think?