Advocating Avatars: The Salesperson in Second Life Pierre Berthon, Leyland Pitt, Wade Halvorson, Michael Ewing, and Victoria L. Crittenden Interactive digital media are revolutionizing the marketing landscape. The virtual world is a dominant player in this new panorama, with exchanges in the virtual marketplace approaching $2 billion annually. While virtual, like real world, exchanges require buyers and sellers, there is little or no understanding of this disembodied sales process. The current study seeks to address this gap in knowledge by employing an ethnographic methodology in which researchers incarnate in Second Life to explore the personal selling process. Specifically, the various notions of the “self ” that constitute the avatar salesperson are explored. Findings from this exploratory study suggest a relationship between the nature of the self and the type of exchange. From this, a conceptual model for the study of the virtual selling self is presented, propositions developed, and managerial implications for the virtual sales force suggested.
The customer, whether business-to-business (B2B) or business-to-consumer (B2C), is no longer a passive recipient in the marketing exchange process and is taking an increasingly active role in cocreating and modifying products and services (Berthon et al. 2007; Kim, Baker, and Song 2007; Mollick 2005). As Deighton and Kornfeld (2007) suggest, marketers need to be alert to the many and varied roles that customers play in today’s digital marketplace. Indeed, astute marketers can ill afford to ignore the impact of emerging digital media (Garretson 2008). The rise in interactive digital media has catapulted company and customer contact from the traditional Web 1.0 model to a new post-Web 2.0 interactive world where customers are dictating the nature, extent, and context of marketing exchanges. Types of interactive digital media are varied and include social networking sites (e.g., Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Communispace), blogs, mobile devices (e.g., cell
Pierre Berthon (Ph.D., Brunel University), Clifford F. Youse Chair and Professor of Marketing, McCallum School of Business, Bentley University,
[email protected]. Leyland Pitt (Ph.D., University of Pretoria), Professor of Marketing, Segal Graduate School of Business, Simon Fraser University,
[email protected]. Wade Halvorson (Ph.D. Candidate, Luleå University of Technology), Industrial Marketing and E‑Commerce, Luleå University of Technology, Sweden,
[email protected]. Michael Ewing (Ph.D., University of Pretoria), Professor of Marketing, Monash University,
[email protected]. Victoria L. Crittenden (DBA, Harvard Business School), Faculty Member, Carroll School of Management, Boston College, crittend@ bc.edu.
phones, personal digital assistants [PDAs]), user-generated videos (e.g., YouTube), and virtual worlds (e.g., Second Life). These myriad digital media are now converging and engaging in the sales process. Whereas the majority of sales technology academic research is in the area of B2B sales, we contend that the digital age presents selling opportunities for both B2B and B2C sales forces (e.g., Barrett 2006; Dodd 2008; Grass and Wayment 2007). Seale (2008) suggests that dramatic developments in interactive digital media have revolutionized the sales process, yet Plouffe, Williams, and Wachner (2008) suggest that sales researchers are not focusing on many important and emerging topics and that the selling process using digital media is an emerging topic. The Selling Process and Technology In two separate content analyses of sales articles, the selling process has arisen as a primary area of research interest. Echchakoui and Mathieu (2008) suggest that the selling process is essentially a cash cow for sales researchers, while Plouffe, Williams, and Wachner (2008) found that the selling process encompassed 15 percent of the articles in their content analysis. Combining their content analysis with a survey of sales researchers, Plouffe, Williams, and Wachner report that
The authors express their sincere gratitude to GlobetrekkerBob Lane, Hiro Pendragon, Jenna Fairplay, Rita Mariner, Flipper Peregrine, Kermitt Quirk, and Nyssa Dubrovna for participating in the project. In addition, Laurie Hodge and Russell Reams, Coles DBA candidates, Kennesaw State University, provided useful comments on an early draft of this paper. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, vol. XXX, no. 3 (summer 2010), pp. 195–208. © 2010 PSE National Educational Foundation. All rights reserved. ISSN 0885-3134 / 2010 $9.50 + 0.00. DOI 10.2753/PSS0885-3134300301
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42 percent of sales researchers identified sales technology as a necessary selling process research area. Interestingly, only 29 percent of the responding sales researchers listed sales technology as their primary research area. Much of the technology-focused research in sales has focused on the automation of information processing among employees internally and between salespeople and their customers externally (e.g., Hunter and Perreault 2007), with sales force automation (SFA) and customer relationship management (CRM) systems comprising the primary areas of investigation. SFA research has concentrated on the adoption of and motivation to use SFA technology (Jones, Sundaram, and Chin 2002) and the training and support necessary for successful SFA implementation (Ahearne, Jelinek, and Rapp 2005; Erffmeyer and Johnson 2001; Robinson, Marshall, and Stamps 2005). Moreover, researchers have examined the implementation of SFA systems within a variety of markets and contexts (Celuch, Taylor, and Goodwin 2004; Harris 2003; Jones 2004; Widmier, Jackson, and McCabe 2002). Research into SFA system usage has also focused on technology’s influence on sales performance (Ahearne et al. 2008; Johnson and Bharadwaj 2005; Ko and Dennis 2004). With respect to CRM, Avlonitis and Panagopoulos (2005) report that acceptance of CRM among salespeople is influenced by the perceived usefulness and ease of use of CRM, salespeople’s attitude toward new technological tools, and internal support for adoption of CRM. Ahearne, Srinivasan, and Weinstein (2004) examine linkages between technology usage and performance and find an initial positive effect on sales performance, yet diminishing returns with, eventually, a disabling effect on sales performance. With the advent of interactive digital media, however, companies have begun to employ technological tools and techniques in the selling process—sales force technology for which sales researchers have failed to explore either in the B2B or B2C contexts. For example, Crittenden, Peterson, and Albaum (2010) report that companies such as Zappos, Whole Foods Market, Official, and Dell have utilized social networking sites to sell their wares. Garrett (2009) suggests that blogs are proving useful in priming customers for offerings and then generating sales leads, and blogs appear for both B2B and B2C sellers. Harrah’s Entertainment utilized an interactive slot machine display in New York’s Times Square where people could operate a virtual slot machine via their cell phones and PDAs, thus selling the Harrah’s experience virtually (Garretson 2008). YouTube now offers its own version of home shopping with its click-to-buy links (Liedtke 2008). Companies such as Toyota, Reebok, Adidas, and Dell have sold digital versions of their brands in virtual worlds such as Second Life, and the virtual world is a large marketplace consisting of many buyers and sellers
representing both individual and business needs and desires (Tuten 2009). The Virtual World Business Model It is estimated that 100 million users populate virtual communities, with the average participant spending 20 hours a week in the virtual environment (Tennesen 2009). It is also predicted that 80 percent of active Internet users and Fortune 500 enterprises will participate in virtual worlds by the end of 2011 (Gartner 2007). The virtual world is dominated by two types of immersive environments: (1) role-playing games such as World of Warcraft and Halo and (2) social communities such as Second Life. Essentially, members of the virtual world create avatars (representations of themselves) and engage in interactive experiences inside the virtual world. These experiences using avatars can be gamelike (e.g., earning points by eliminating enemies) or social exchanges (e.g., dating, sharing ideas, purchasing products). An online search of virtual world exchanges provides almost limitless examples of both positive (e.g., meeting new people, educational opportunities) and negative (e.g., discrimination, rudeness) virtual interactions. The current business model for virtual social communities is fee based. For example, it costs nothing to join Second Life, download the software, create an avatar, and inhabit Second Life as an avatar. However, for those wanting to do more than just interact with other avatars (e.g., want to own property in Second Life for building structures), a premium membership is available for a monthly fee. In addition, Second Life operates with the Linden Dollar. A popular early marketing activity in virtual worlds was advertising, where customers could browse virtual stores prior to purchasing in the real world. Due to the interactive nature of the virtual world, companies can gauge customer reactions to new products even prior to product release. Other firms use the virtual world to create gathering places for employees and customers to exchange ideas. Whether used for advertising or social gatherings, a considerable amount of exchange via the selling process occurs in this virtual world. The online currency (Linden Dollar) is used to facilitate transactions in the virtual world. For example, residents of the online community need to buy virtual clothes and property for their avatars. Second Life residents already spend an average of 100 Linden Dollars annually on clothes and property (Kharif 2009). The net worth of the virtual marketplace is an estimated $1.8 billion annually and is expected to increase dramatically as the next generation of Internet users goes beyond gaming (Lin 2008; Tennesen 2009; Williamson 2007). Yet there is a dearth of understanding of the virtual consumption process.
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Consumption in the Virtual World Currently, virtual consumption is a significant component of activity in communities such as Second Life. Residents of virtual communities create their own branded products and services or purchase branded products from companies operating on the site (e.g., Nike apparel, Toyota automobiles). The following statistics provide a general idea as to the level of consumption activity in virtual worlds (Fitzgerald 2009): • $200 million—amount of virtual goods purchased in the United States in 2008, • $992 million—microtransactions or sales of virtual goods worldwide in 2008, • $1.8 billion—estimated microtransactions or sales of virtual goods worldwide estimated for 2009, and • $408 million—amount of venture capital invested in 2008 in 40 companies that rely on virtual goods for at least part of their revenues. Current virtual world exchanges occur largely in the B2C context, and there are unexplored opportunities for aspects of the B2B sales process to be initiated. The virtual marketplace is expected to open new exchange venues in the near future and may offer a competitive alternative to reality. From a B2C perspective, the virtual world may satisfy the communicative and symbolic purposes of consumption (Lin 2008); from a B2B perspective, the virtual world may create opportunities for initiating an engagement process that can ultimately be consummated in the real world. As the sale of virtual and nonvirtual products and services in the virtual world increases, a major concern for marketing researchers is how to begin to understand the virtual exchange process. While research has begun with respect to the use of avatars in selling to real-world consumers, our understanding of the selling process within the virtual business community is still embryonic. Although their research agenda focuses specifically on B2C sales, Crittenden, Peterson, and Albaum (2010) call for researchers to begin to examine the role online avatars will play in the development of effective sales approaches. We contend, however, that the use of avatars in the selling process is context independent. That is, avatars can facilitate the sales process in both the B2B and B2C markets and in both the real and virtual worlds. As an exploratory study, the intent of the current research project was to examine both the individual and interactive behaviors of salespeople in a virtual world. The overall purpose was to better understand the selling process in the virtual world: What occurs in the everyday process of buying and selling in the virtual world? In capturing this process, we used the different aspects of “self,” as defined by schools of psychology, as the foundation upon which to explore the vir-
tual world of exchange. Thus, the following research questions guided the framework for understanding selling in Second Life (established convention uses the terms Real Life [RL] for the real world and Second Life [SL] for the virtual world hosted by Linden Lab, which is the environment in which the current research occurs): RQ1: What is the cognitive notion of “self ” in Second Life? RQ2: What is the relationship between RL and SL in the selling process? RQ3: Is there a relationship between the different types of “self ” and the products sold in the virtual world? Self and Selling The exchange process between the salesperson and customer (e.g., personal selling) is perhaps the marketing function most closely associated with self. Personal selling (whether B2B or B2C) typically involves two or more people in a highly intimate, self-centered exchange. Thus, it is aligned closely with personality, persona, and the projected self. Indeed, the boundary between what is sold and who is selling often tends to collapse. Essentially, customers may buy who is selling as much as what is being sold. The online sales process via generally acknowledged e‑commerce methods (e.g., online order processing) is an exchange via a human and a machine. That is, whether purchasing copy paper in a B2B exchange or novels in a B2C exchange, the customer clicks through various Web pages and places an order with no personal interaction with the seller. The “person” behind the machine’s actions (i.e., the seller) is an unknown entity without appearance or voice. The sales act becomes human indifferent. However, the person and the exchange process in the virtual world once again become a human activity and the personal self and selling self become particularly pertinent given the unparalleled plasticity in the construction of a salesperson’s identity. That is, the virtual world allows the salesperson to look and be whatever he or she desires. In a traditional one-on-one sales context, salespeople are defined by their physical body (gender, age, appearance, etc.), the sales context (face to face, trade show, telephone, etc.), and the content of what is being sold (company, products, services). With the advent of the Internet, however, these conventional demarcations, particularly with respect to the physical characteristics of the salesperson, are called into question. To paraphrase a classic 1993 New Yorker cartoon about the Internet—nobody knows you are a dog (or a 21-year-old, middle-income Caucasian female named Jane Smith residing
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in Boston, Massachusetts). On the Internet, Jane Smith can be anyone, or indeed anything, she wants to be. Freed from the trappings of the physical, the mind is at liberty to inhabit multiple roles and construct virtual identities, basically an assortment of selves.
of the self are unitary, whereas the postmodern is fragmented. The postmodern self is a product of the systems (linguistic, social, historic, and cultural) it inhabits.
Theories of the Self
In the face of the postmodern self, the search for other conceptualizations of the self continued. Indeed, a further notion of the self emerged from the school of narrative psychology. Perhaps the most comprehensive notion of the self to emerge from narrative psychology is that of the dialogical self. This self is constituted by a multiplicity of voices or positions, which can be integrated through dialog, and is seen as an ongoing conversation among multiple voices. The dialogical model acknowledges the existence of power relations in the system it inhabits, yet can become what it wants to become without regard to these systemic attributes if it so chooses.
The self is one of the central constructs of our understanding of what it is to be human and engage in interactive social contexts, including the market exchange process. Schools of psychology generally use the term to refer to the cognitive representation of a person’s uniqueness—that set of attributes that an individual attaches to him- or herself most firmly—and is synonymous with the term identity. Jung (1969) made the distinction between the self, the ego, and the persona, with the latter being the projected self or selves that one “puts on” in different social situations. Historically, the notion of self has gone through a number of different epochs, originating with the traditional self (Richardson, Rogers, and McCarroll 1998). The three epochs of the self explored here are modern, postmodern, and dialogical. Each offers very different perspectives on self. The modern and postmodern establish the poles of the continuum of thesis and antithesis. This continuum, in turn, leads to another notion of self—the dialogical self (Hermans, Kempen, and van Loon 1992). Modern Self Traditionally (premodern), one’s sense of self was prescribed by one’s role in society (culture and religion). Essentially, one’s self was handed down or defined from above. The traditional self bestowed meaning and purpose by providing cosmic order in terms of both secular and spiritual meta-narratives. With the Enlightenment and the rise of modern science, the received teachings of religion and tradition were increasingly questioned and found wanting and rejected. Thus, the self was freed from prescription of both the past and superstition. With the rise of science came the possibility of objective knowledge, and the modern self came into being. Importantly, the modern self is independent of all tradition, language, culture, and community and can be the self that it aspires to be (Dunne 1996; Elliot 2001). Postmodern Self In the twentieth century, the modernist self came under attack from a number of thinkers. Ironically, the self became externally and systemically prescribed in a manner similar to the traditional (premodern) notion of the self. However, the key difference was that the traditional and modern notions
Dialogical Self
Self Becomes an Avatar in Second Life Second Life is the largest and most popular of the Internetbased virtual worlds. Its users, called residents, interact with each other through avatars, which are virtual representations of users’ selves or alter egos. In Second Life, avatars are far more advanced and complex than those used in the research on the effects of avatars as sales agents conducted by marketing scholars thus far. For example, Holzwarth, Janiszewski, and Neumann (2006) defined an avatar as a graphic representation that can be animated by means of computer technology, and their work used relatively simple software avatars and computer graphics to create the impression of a live presence. Wang et al. (2007) used two kinds of simple avatars in their research by utilizing a relatively minimal computer-based cartoon character and streaming video that showed an interactive movie of a human female. When an individual joins Second Life, software is used to create the person’s avatar (personification). The software tools offer an almost infinite number of possibilities. According to the Second Life Web site, “from the tip of your nose to the tint of your skin. Don’t worry if it’s not perfect at first, you can change your look at any time” (http://secondlife.com/ whatis/avatar.php). While essentially a user-created digital representation that symbolizes the user’s presence in the virtual world (Davis et al. 2009), the avatar is an individual’s persona in the virtual world. There is a human behind every avatar, making avatar behavior live and spontaneous. According to Talamo and Ligorio (2001), the identity exemplified by an avatar depends on what a person decides to show about his- or herself. The software tools provide each Second Life participant with a rich repertoire of possibilities and capabilities, but it is up to each person to utilize the tools in a manner that carries forth his or her story and his
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or her multiple selves in the virtual interaction. Nowhere is self-representation more flexible than in the virtual world (Yee and Bailenson 2007). In addition, the avatar has a nickname selected by the person behind the avatar. This nickname may or may not express characteristics of the self, even if the self is unreal (Talamo and Ligorio 2001). Zigurs (2003) argues that behavior exhibited in a virtual environment is different from that exhibited in a face-to-face environment. Bailenson and Blascovich (2004) suggest that avatar interactions are qualitatively different from other forms of communications, such as face-to-face, telephone conversations, and videoconferencing, since avatar interactants possess the ability to systematically filter their physical appearance and behavioral actions in the eyes of their conversational partners. Interactants can amplify or suppress features and nonverbal signals in real time for strategic purposes. Consistent with this thinking, Turkle (1997) suggests that the online environment enables people to create multiple selves. In comprising a “self,” an avatar may be fulfilling multiple self-roles—modern, postmodernism, and dialogical. From a marketing exchange perspective, these three notions of the self have the potential to offer unique insights into the world of virtual selling. Methodology This research project involved the studying of the experience (Clandinin and Connelly 1981), and ethnographic participant observation is a recommended method in studies of online environmental experiences (Boellstorff 2008; Hansen 2009). Talamo and Ligorio (2001) suggest that being connected as a participant in cyberspace research allows the researcher to operate within the culture of the participants, allowing for a survey of emic dimensions. Thus, the researchers are not just outsiders observing the action of others. Rather, as a modernday form of cooperative inquiry (Reason 1981), the researchers are actually participating in the virtual exchange that is being studied. As such, the research in this study was undertaken within the virtual world of Second Life, with both researcher and respondent interacting as avatars. According to Hemp (2006), avatars are useful subjects for marketing research, and Hansen (2009) reports success with the researcher as an avatar in her observational research. Three main principles of qualitative research were adhered to in this ethnographic effort to understand personal selling in SL. First, the focus was on depth or quality of insight rather than sheer number of participants (e.g., Denzin and Lincoln 2000). Second, following Patton (1990), the effort was to establish reasonable coverage of the phenomenon to ensure understanding. Finally, data gathering was ceased at the point of redundancy and when no new information was emerging (Lincoln and Guba 1985).
The Avatar Researcher An avatar is truly a digital persona that is customized according to the user’s imagination. Avatars can be humanlike, animal-like, cartoonlike, or anything in between (Rich and Sidner 2009). Four individuals on the research team developed their own avatars for the purpose of the research project. Collectively, the avatar research team ranged from gray beard (a member in SL for several years) to neophyte (two team members were entirely innocent of the virtual world). The fourth researcher had been a member of SL for a few months. The fifth researcher on the team did not enter virtual reality, so as to maintain outside validity on the data analysis. The four research avatars were: • Mazambaan Kelberwitz—Mazambaan is a black Jewish guy. He is muscular, with yellow hair. He wears pink shorts and yellow boots, with a green jacket. He looks like Mr. T on the A‑Team but is less aggressive. He sees himself as quite intellectual and genteel. • Sipho Kabila—Sipho is a black guy of southern African descent. He is in his late twenties, has a shaved head, and wears tight collarless sweaters (which accentuate his physique). His role model is Jamie Foxx, to whom he bears a fairly strong physical resemblance. He is, however, somewhat introverted. • Wad Halberstadt—Wad is a hirsute young white avatar who looks to be in his late twenties. He has dark features and possesses the face of an inquiring mind with especially penetrating blue eyes. Wad is the kind of guy that people will take seriously, while simultaneously relate to easily. He has an athletic build, with spiky hair. He dresses in any really cool clothing available in SL, providing it is free. • Owl Haiku—Owl Haiku is a fairly nondescript white avatar that people tend to see in different ways. Describing himself, Owl quotes the words of the haiku: “No one travels / within this body but you, / this digital Rorschach.” Wad Halberstadt’s first task was to identify salesperson avatars within the SL domain and then obtain their agreement to participate in the interview process. Establishing credibility for the research avatars and the research project was critical to the project’s success. Thus, the following information appeared in Wad’s profile: SL: I’m an explorer in this amazing virtual world. I seek to understand how it works, what people get out of their in-world experience, and to determine whether I can do business here. RL: I live in Australia and I’m a Ph.D. candidate with Luleå University of Technology in Sweden. My topic is Second Life
200 Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management and I’m researching a number of issues, including personal selling, brand communities, brand equity, and word-of-mouth.
7. Nyssa Dubrovna—a pinup female avatar who sells pole dance performances and an escort service.
Wad had learned very quickly about nonverbal cues utilized by experienced avatars in SL. After being laughed at regularly in the early days when presenting as a “newbie” using only the basic choices made when creating an avatar for a new account, Wad carefully selected his wardrobe for this research project so as to be taken seriously by the avatars he was approaching for the study.
After developing the avatar researchers and identifying the avatar subjects, a script of potential questions to guide the field interviewing process was developed. These questions allowed the avatar researchers to probe the sales process in SL and question the nature of the avatar identity as related to self and relationship in virtual embodiment.
The Avatar Sample The underlying purpose of this experience was to examine the personal selling behaviors within the virtual world of SL. Four criteria, consistent with traditional one-on-one selling (physical body, context, and content), were used to assure breadth of coverage in the initial round of salesperson sample selection. These four selection criteria were avatar incarnation (human, animal, cartoon), offerings sold (both sellers of virtual creations and sellers of Real Life products), ownership of creation (both sellers of their own wares and sellers of other avatars’ offerings [B2B and B2C]), and dependent/independent wares (sellers of wares independent of the avatar and sellers of personal service wares [B2B and B2C]). Following the above sample selection criteria, 72 salespeople were approached as potential subjects for further in-depth discussion. Of these, 20 salespeople were selected for further detailed discussions. From these 20 interviews, seven representative salespeople were selected (and agreed) to continue in the project and engage in more exhaustive discourse with the researchers. Those not included for further analysis were dropped from continuance due to a variety of reasons (e.g., spent very little time in SL, felt they were too new to SL, did not have an interest in pursuing a potentially time-consuming research project). The seven participants in this in-depth phase of the project were: 1. GlobetrekkerBob Lane—a male avatar resplendent in a large white Stetson hat, who sells real-world holiday and travel services in Second Life; 2. Hiro Pendragon—a cool male avatar who creates and sells Samurai swords and other virtual offerings; 3. Jenna Fairplay—an attractive Asian female avatar who sells a range of Second Life items from clothes to land; 4. Rita Mariner—a furry in the form of a curvaceous female rabbit who sells land and is the owner of Club Cutlass; 5. Flipper Peregrine—a suave male avatar who creates and sells toys, music, and games (including the popular Gogomodo Trivia); 6. Kermitt Quick—a purple gecko who creates and sells Second Life games such as Tringo;
The Analytical Process Following the personal experience method of storytelling (Clandinin and Connelly 1981), the interviews within SL were interactions that captured the story about, and behind, a person selling in the virtual world. The researchers both lived the stories and interacted in the storytelling process. Data from this ethnographic research project were field texts kept by each of the four on-site researchers. The field texts were created collaboratively at times among the online researchers and at other times individually. Permission to use SL avatar names was granted by the seven avatars whose comments and stories appeared in the field texts. These field texts were transformed into research texts by the research team so as to derive meaning and social significance. Patterns, narrative threads, and themes were derived from the research texts. Each member of the research team reviewed the research texts individually to draw opinions and conclusions. Then, the team came together to compare notes and discuss findings from the study. As an exploratory study, this personal experience method allows for interesting and provocative findings. Findings A number of thematic insights emerged from the discourse with sellers in Second Life. These three emerging themes evolved around (1) appearance, personality, and identity as related to the virtual self; (2) the distinction between the “made up” and the “real” self; and (3) the theories of self as related to different types of products exchanged in the virtual world. The first two emerging themes focus on the avatar and the personal self, whereas the third emerging theme converges on the role of self and products sold in the virtual exchange process. Each of the three themes corresponds to the research questions that guided the ethnographic study. RQ1: Appearance, Personality, and Identity of Self When speaking of the virtual self, avatar subjects often made the distinction among appearance, personality, and identity. As mentioned earlier, the notion of the self is sometimes confined to the cognitive representations of a person’s identity. In SL,
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appearance is a cognitive choice because people literally create themselves into virtual beings. Appearance is the physical or visual manifestation of the SL self. Physical appearance includes identifiable variables such as species, gender, clothes, hair, and stature. The visual manifestation is further elaborated by the fact that people often use voice synthesizers to create new vocalization. Personality comprises the mental, emotional, and social characteristics of an individual in SL. This personality is independent of RL physical embodiment. Finally, identity comprises the mental image a person has of him- or herself, and the avatar is the self-image in SL. Appearance In terms of appearance, three distinct types of self emerged— real self, the idealized self, and the fantasized self. The real self is where a person’s SL avatar is a reflection or copy of the RL person; there is a high degree of correspondence between the SL self and the RL self, with the SL self merely a mediated version of the RL self. The real self maps closely with the notion of the modern, unitary self. In discussing appearance, real self avatars commented, “My Second Life self is essentially who I am in Real Life” and “I try to give people as close a representation of what I look like in Real Life.” Indeed, the objective appears to be to reincarnate as closely as possible to the true physical image. While the intent here is not to examine the individual psyche, Horney (1991) might postulate that the real self avatar is an accurate portrayal of one’s RL self and exhibits an accurate description of his or her capabilities in the virtual world. In contrast to the real self, the idealized self is the perfected version of a person’s RL self. This idealized self has the appearance that the person wishes he or she had in the real world. In this representation, avatars consistently referred to their SL selves as corresponding to “me in my prime,” “when I was in college,” “before I had kids,” and a “thinner, taller, and better dressed me.” The avatar self may actually be the model in place to assist the RL person in meeting certain personal expectations as to what they should still be (Engler 2009). Or maybe the idealized self is merely a way to relive a long-lost youth. This idealized self is consistent with the dialogical self wherein the self extends through time and space comprising both one’s past and future. Finally, a group of respondents identified a radically different or fantasized self. With the fantasized self, all visual correspondence to the RL self is lost. The self becomes a new artistic creation or a metaphor for some deep aspect of the self. This fantasized self is likely hidden or invisible in RL. Or the fantasized self may simply be a radical disjunction from the RL self. The fantasized self may even be exposed in SL as a furry avatar, which is an animal totem of an alternate self. Revealingly, the most common sentiment on a person’s
furry avatar was summarized succinctly by Rita Mariner when she said, “I am a furry at heart in Real Life.” According to Condon (2010), the tendency to use metaphor is generally characteristic of good communicators. This raises the question of whether the selling process is instinctive in the fantasized self. This fantasized self, a dramatic disjunction with real life, coheres with the postmodern view of self. Personality In terms of personality, a similar tri-fold typology emerged— the natural, the expressive, and the managed. In the natural personality, the avatar’s personality appeared to be a direct correspondence of the RL self. Indeed, the archetypal comment summarizing this personality was, “my personality is the only thing which carries directly into Second Life.” The expressive personality was the full articulation of the self that, because of constraint of context (e.g., social, economic, physical), was not manifest fully in RL. As noted by one expressive personality avatar, “My Second Life personality is the true me in Real Life which cannot be expressed . . . [when] I have to pretend to be someone I’m not.” According to personality type research, an expressive personality type has a strong selling instinct (Sacco 2007). Finally, the managed personality exhibited itself in the avatar that hid emotions or even presented diametrically opposite emotions to those being felt. As Jenna Fairplay observed, “Second Life allows me to hide my Real Life mood and display whatever I type as my mood.” The three personalities correspond to the three theories of self. The natural personality is a manifestation of the modern notion of the true or authentic self as evidenced by the respondents seemingly contentedness with their own personalities and lack of desire to present differently in SL. That is, they appear to already be in RL the self that they aspire to be. The expressive personality is a play on the oppressed–expressed dichotomy and is consistent with the postmodern notion that context defines or delimits the self. Respondents in this grouping appeared to be delimiting themselves in RL so as to be the self expected by the real world. As avatars in SL, these systemic constraints or restrictions were felt to be removed. The managed personality corresponds to the dialogical notion of the multiple self that retains the modernist notion yet allows the self to disregard systemic restraints if so desired. The self could be what it aspired to be, yet only if and when that self wanted to show itself. Identity To gain deeper insight into the self in each avatar, subjects in the virtual world were asked the following question, “If you were to liken yourself to a film or TV character (or even
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multiple characters), who would you be in Second Life and in Real Life?” All but one avatar responded in one of two response types—unitary and multifaceted. The unitary response was along the lines of “I am myself; I don’t really identify with another character.” Moreover, no distinction was made between the SL identity and the RL identity. In contrast, the multifaceted response elicited character identities in both SL and RL. Indeed, the range of identities was dazzling. For example, Flipper Peregrine saw himself as a heady mixture of Zaphod Beeblebrox and Ben Franklin (Zaphod Beeblebrox from The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, briefly President of the Galaxy, was voted “Worst Dressed Sentient Being in the Known Universe” seven years in a row; Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States). The one outlier on these two identity categories was Rita Mariner, who perspicaciously articulated a third type of identify—the creator of selves. This avatar saw himself (Rita, a female furry in SL, revealed that he was a male in RL) as Walt Disney. This is essentially a second-level identity, as a part of the psyche that creates new selves. Identity mapping (description of self in the virtual world) onto the theories of self results in the following. The unitary identity is consistent with the modern notion of self. Multifaceted resonates easily with the postmodern notion of multiple of selves. Interestingly, the creator corresponds to the dialogical notion of the emergence of higher developmental levels of self (Hermans and Hermans-Konopka 2009; Valsiner 2004). RQ2: Which Is the Real Self? Each avatar subject provided unique insights into the relationship between the selling self in RL and SL. Indeed, the following vignettes elicit cause for questioning which life (Real or Second) is fabricated and which is authentic. As well, one would think that the direction of causality or hierarchy between RL and SL would be clear. That is, SL is nested within RL. However, the data on order is ambiguous. GlobetrekkerBob Lane observed, “I like Second Life because I can go to work as I am. I don’t have to dress up.” Traditional thinking would presuppose that SL is phony. But, in reality, the question might be whether RL is phony because people have to dress up to engage in personal selling. This paradox is obvious among other avatars. Personal selling in RL may be more constraining than personal selling in SL in that people tend to put on faces or persona more in RL than in SL. One of Rita Mariner’s friends, Valkyrie McGill, observed, “My Second Life personality is the true me in Real Life which cannot be expressed . . . [where] I have to pretend to be someone I’m not.” According to this avatar, “This is much more the REAL me than you will ever see in Real Life!” It appears that the traditional real and imaginary dichotomy is inverted. In the real world, the personal selling self cannot
be the real personal selling self. But, the personal selling self can be real in the fabricated world of SL. In terms of causality, one would assume that SL is a function or product of RL. That is, the RL self is in control of the SL self. However, avatar subjects revealed that SL creations take on a life of their own. Hiro Pendragon noted that his SL self, which started as a joke, came to drive and shape his RL self. He said, “Hiro . . . the name was a gag, not a reflection of who I am or what I wanted to project . . . [now] my avatar’s name has contributed to the image of me to people who’ve interacted with me in Second Life, to the point where I’m known as ‘Hiro’ to many of my [RL] colleagues.” RQ3: The Theories of Self as Related to the Type of Exchange As seen in the analysis of the research texts and suggested by Philip Rosedale, founder of Linden Lab, an avatar is a projection of some aspect of the creator’s self (Hemp 2006). Sales researchers have examined personal selling exchanges related to self in the real world. Byron, Terranova, and Nowicki (2007) studied the selling exchange with respect to a salesperson recognizing emotional expressions of customers and found a positive correlation between the salespersons’ recognition ability and job success. Cheng (2008) examined personality traits that lead to successful salespeople. Findings from this cooperative online inquiry suggest that the three theories of self do exist in SL. As described below, these cognitive notions of self manifest in the characteristics of the exchange process and in the various types of products offered for sale in SL. Modern Self With the modern self described previously as real, natural, and unitary, this cognitive notion of self emerged most strongly when selling RL products or services in Second Life. The two major characteristics, derived in the research, about the modern self were authenticity and integrity. As stressed by GlobetrekkerBob Lane, authenticity is key to selling real-life holiday packages in the virtual world because the customer has to be reassured because real money is exchanging hands. To this end, Bob’s body and clothing (jeans, cowboy hat) were direct reflections of his real-world physical appearance. Bob wears a Stetson in SL because he wears one in his RL sales job. As he says, “Customers might not have remembered me by name, but they could always ask for the guy in the cowboy hat.” Bob also stressed the critical role that interpersonal trust plays in the virtual exchange process. Thus, implicit selling cues such as personality and identity need to be as familiar and consistent with the real world as possible. In Bob’s situation, customers interacted with him in both the
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real and virtual worlds. Moreover, integrity in SL, just as in RL, leads to repeat business. GlobetrekkerBob Lane also dealt with the conventional problems faced by salespeople in the same way in both RL and SL. One of the dilemmas that a RL salesperson faces is distinguishing between browsers and serious customers. For example, in his real-world job, Bob might spend time with a retired couple planning the holiday of a lifetime only to discover that the couple was just browsing. Unfortunately, a customer simply wishing to purchase a business-class plane ticket has to wait impatiently and possibly leave the queue. In RL, Bob uses helpers who keep the customer occupied while waiting to be served. Bob also makes use of helpers in SL. These helpers are paid in Linden Dollars. Depending on the exchange rate of Linden Dollars to U.S. dollars, Bob might be paying about $0.15 per hour for assistance. Postmodern Self The data suggest the beginning of a shift from the modern to the postmodern self in the move from selling real to virtual offerings in SL, with the characteristics of the exchange process focusing on emotions and power. A number of SL sellers commented on how the buyer’s emotional behavior toward the seller is very different in the virtual world. According to Jenna Fairplay, there is “none of the face-to-face courtesy” in many SL buyer–seller interactions. Jenna went on to comment that “people will take out their . . . frustrations on you if you don’t make them 100 percent happy!” This sentiment was echoed by other sellers as well. For example, Flipper Peregrine stated, “People in Second Life expect a lot more. I think that the emotional ties . . . are different. I have seen people threaten to sue over things that cost less than USD1.” This suggests that there is an emotional disjunction between the buyer’s real and virtual selves. Even though a buyer may have an emotionally mature self in the real world, the virtual self regresses to a more infantile state, which may be due to the fact that it might be easier to be nasty to another person when not meeting physically in a real-world embodiment. There is a schism between selves, as postmodern theory would suggest. Sellers in the SL also alluded to the role that power plays in the virtual world. Indeed, the role of power and loss of agency is a key insight of the postmodern view. People are not simply free agents; everyone is (at least in part) determined by his or her past and the power relations of the inhabited context. At first blush, this is a strange observation for the virtual world. People often think of the SL as an escape from the real world—a place where existing forces and pressures of physical embodiment, family, social position, and institutional role hold no sway. However, a number of sellers disabused this notion. Nyssa Dubrovna, who works in virtual clubs as a pole
dancer, comments, “Some clubs expect you to work shifts and call in if you can’t work. Like a Real Life job . . . people forget it’s supposed to be fun here.” Nyssa is implying that SL can be as constraining as RL. The role of power and loss of agency is echoed by Hiro Pendragon. He, like his alter ego Juanita, has been critical of the organization running the virtual world. “I’ve been critical of Linden Lab on a number of things . . . especially facial expressions, which I’ve blogged about, brought up in various meetings with Linden Lab, and had a face-to-face discussion [pun intended] with the former CEO. It is, like it is for the Black Swan in the novel Snow Crash, a low priority for Linden.” Indeed, a number of other avatar subjects expressed exasperation with Linden Lab. While the avatars love the SL, they feel powerless and unheeded by the organization that they depend on for their existence. Complaints ranged from issues of performance (e.g., SL running very slowly), cross-world compatibility fees, and the overall sense that Linden Lab is not listening to the people who constitute SL. Dialogical Self The idealized appearance, managed personality, and creator identity as the dialogical self highlighted the role that the narrative (dialogue) plays in making sense and integrating real and virtual selling selves into a coherent whole. This self also emphasized the role of community or multiplicity of voices/ positions in the choice as to what self to become. One interviewee was particularly intriguing from a theoretical perspective. Nyssa Dubrovna, unlike other avatar participants in the research project, was selling neither reallife nor virtual tangible products. Nyssa was selling a virtual performance (pole dancing) and an escort service, the essence of which was conversation. In a more fundamental way than the other sellers, her product was her “self.” In the real world, Nyssa is married, monogamous, a teacher, and the mother of four children. Pole dancing and an escort service are very different from the activities of Nyssa’s RL. Yet, despite the claims of the postmodern perspective, Nyssa did not dissociate her real self from her virtual self. Indeed, she established a good dialogue between her RL husband and her varied selves. The narrative, which weaves the selves together, is summarized in her words, “Most things in Second Life are accepted, not deviant . . . it bothers me the way people really consider Second Life to be Real Life. It gets too serious . . . people forget it’s supposed to be fun here.” Nyssa’s narrative is further extended with her choice of alter-egos, which are actresses Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman and Lisa Edelstein (Cuddy) in House. Thus, Nyssa is flirtatious as well as strong and independent. A similar narrative integrating different selves was expressed by Jenna Fairplay, “I’m Donald Trump in Second Life and Ivana Trump in Real Life.”
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Finally, the dialogical self theory stresses the importance of others in the construction of the self. The role that others play in creating the selling self in SL came across in a number of interactions. For example, Rita stressed the importance of the two communities of the Sunweavers and the Sunweaver Islanders. The Sunweavers is an invited-only group of volunteers who help Rita sell her virtual property. The Sunweaver Islanders is the group who rents property on the island. Ookami Dragaonash, a Sunweaver, observed, “I wouldn’t say we are so much volunteers as a giant adoptive family that loves to help each other.” A Conceptual Model to Guide Future Research and Practice An interesting contribution of the current research in the virtual world is that it rebuffs the traditional thinking about the depersonalization of selling inherent in the Internet. E‑commerce can be person-to-person and not just a personto-machine engagement. Selling in SL requires personalization, essentially putting “self ” back into online selling. As an exploratory study, the intent of this research was to provide insight into the selling self in SL. In achieving this objective, a triumvirate of theories of the self was mapped into SL so as to examine various aspects of self from a theoretical perspective. The qualitative research presented here makes a theoretical contribution by framing a conceptual model (Figure 1) for further study of selling in SL. In this model, choices made in the creation of a seller’s avatar are related to the personification of self which, in turn, provide preliminary insight into the type of product that matches with the SL selling self. Future Research Future research should explore the constructs identified in the conceptual model to see to what extent the relationships suggested in this study remain consistent. For example, avatar researchers could seek out individuals exhibiting the now-identified self characteristics of avatars to (dis)confirm the relationships among self-theories and product offerings. Prior to this cooperative inquiry, market researchers did not have a means for categorizing avatars in the virtual world. Although the self-theory categorization might need extension and elaboration, it provides a first step toward structuring a nascent and poorly understood phenomenon. Moreover, it would be interesting to converse in RL with the avatar subjects so as to compare and contrast the SL findings to see if the interpretations of self are restricted to SL or if the same holds for these avatars in RL. Relationships within the model suggest several propositions about the types of products involved in the exchange process in the virtual world. The avatar sellers of RL tangible and
intangible offerings do so because the virtual world offers an alternative venue with practical benefits (e.g., convenience, ease of use, competitive advantage with regard to customer access). To these salespeople, selling in both SL and RL requires both authenticity and integrity. Thus, Proposition 1: The modern self is exhibited in the virtual world via a real self appearance, a natural personality, and a unitary identity. Modern self avatars are more likely to be the sellers of real-life tangible and intangible offerings in the virtual world. Avatars selling virtual offerings (e.g., land, property, clothing, accessories) in the virtual world are preoccupied with issues of emotions and power. Avatar appearance, personality, and identity come across as fragmented, with the avatar seller consumed by issues of customer behavior (e.g., demanding, discourteous). Therefore, Proposition 2: The postmodern self is fantasized in appearance in the virtual world, possesses an expressive personality, and has a multifaceted identity. Postmodern self avatars will likely sell virtual tangible products in the virtual world. A third group of selling selves is best explained by the dialogical theory of the self. These avatars sell themselves in SL, yet are likely selling a created self. This group understands how the avatar self fits within the virtual community and how narratives have to match the targeted community. This suggests, Proposition 3: The dialogical self is depicted by an idealized self appearance and a managed personality in the virtual world. This self is also the creator of identities, basically possessing a second-level identity psyche. Dialogical self avatars will probably sell intangible offerings in the virtual world that are very different from that expected of the self in real life. Managerial Implications The primary findings of previous sales-related research are that the mere existence of an avatar acting as a guide (Wang et al. 2007) and avatar appearance (Holzwarth, Janiszewski, and Neumann 2006) can enhance the customer–employee interface. However, the preliminary findings in this ethnographic study suggest that avatars can actually make online sales a personal selling experience between a buyer and seller. Thus, importantly, this suggests that sales managers have to continually reinforce the traditional selling fundamentals with respect to face-to-face interaction even in the online environment. Selling in the virtual world is not a process that occurs between a buyer and a machine; it is a human-to-human interactive experience. With self as a critical component of
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Figure 1 The Selling Avatar’s “Self ” Selector
an avatar, it is imperative that sales managers understand the self behind each avatar. As such, the sales management fundamentals of recruitment, selection, training, motivation, organization, and control of the sales force remain essential to creating and maintaining a successful sales force in the virtual world. However, interactions in this study may raise as many questions as answers. As far as recruitment, screening, and selection, businesses have three major options: (1) expect real-life salespeople to adapt and sell in the virtual world, (2) recruit salespeople within virtual worlds, and (3) a combination of both. Sales force recruitment, screening, and selection will likely move beyond determining the best option for building the sale force. If the virtual world is used as the community within which to identify potential members of the sales force, employers will have to understand the various selves that are depicted in the virtual world and learn to discern the self that is most appropriate for the company and its products. With respect to sales force training, interesting opportunities and challenges face sales managers. Apart from the usual training requirements of knowledge (product, company) and skills (presenting, handling objections, closing), virtual salespeople will need to learn the necessary skills to sell in a unique environment where potential customers may present differently (appearance, personality, identify) than in real life. A possibly thorny issue might arise in the personal selling pro-
cess in that there could be a tendency to reveal more of one’s private self in virtual selling than that which occurs offline (the private versus public self ). However, from a training program perspective, considerable attention has been focused on using the virtual environment for training programs (Gronstedt 2007; Swanson 2007). Thus, training may be the easiest area to navigate with virtual personal selling. The motivation, organization, and control of a purely virtual sales force will present fascinating issues for a sales manager. For example, how does a virtual salesperson apportion and manage selling time? However, this is not unlike issues that direct sellers run into with independent sales forces. This might suggest that a virtual sales force might work best using the direct selling business model. As far as motivation, since avatars are real people, there are both intrinsic and extrinsic rewards that can motivate. A critical question is how to develop sales motivation tools that will encourage avatars to go after a hard sell in the virtual environment. Importantly, if utilizing a sales force recruited in the virtual world, how does a company manage and control a sales force that has never met in the real world? Limitations The current research is subject to most of the conventional limitations of interpretive inquiry. While a few researchers have
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attempted to study the use of avatars in marketing contexts, this project sought to obtain context and richness necessary to gain a deeper understanding of the self and selling in Second Life. Thus, we had to forego the generalizability that would have come from a large-scale survey and the precision that would have been possible with an experimental design. Convenience was a critical element of the research process, as researchers traversed SL to talk to various types of avatars selling various types of products. Moreover, there is the possibility that biases appeared within the relationship between researcher and respondent. For example, bias might have occurred via the selection of avatar characteristics (e.g., appearance, features, clothing, skin color, etc.). The same biases can exist in RL where, for example, it has been demonstrated that the race of an interviewer can introduce respondent bias (Hendrix 2002) and that numerous other interviewer and focus group moderator effects can have an effect on response (MacDonald 1993). Finally, the relationship between the avatar researcher and avatar respondent was based on trust. The respondents trusted that the researchers were conducting a legitimate sales-related research project, and the researchers trusted that the respondents were providing accurate information about who they were in real life (e.g., occupation) or about their representative avatars (real self or not). There was not any real-time interaction between the researchers and respondents. However, this trust is not unlike that found in the demographic data collected about anonymous respondents in which researchers trust that the data collected is an accurate reflection of gender, income, ethnicity, and education. Conclusion Brown, Broderick, and Lee (2007) note that research in marketing is in an embryonic state regarding the electronic marketplace. This is particularly true for the sales function within marketing. Technology-related research in sales has focused almost exclusively on sales force automation (tracking systems linking the sales force and the customer) and CRM systems (organization and tracking of customers) in the B2B marketplace (Crittenden, Peterson, and Albaum 2010). Companies have not yet been able to proclaim success at using the Second Life branding as a direct response tool for real-world sales (Tuten 2009), but the statistics noted earlier with respect to financial activities in SL suggest that the virtual world is here to stay. In particular, the millions of dollars of recorded exchange transactions by the 100 million residents of virtual communities are a clear signal that SL consumption activity is occurring simultaneously to RL consumption activity. Although there are no indications that RL consumption will falter on the heels of SL consumption, it is not too early
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