The Answer to "If You Could Have Anything What Would You Want?"

"If You Could Have Anything What Would You Want?" Isn't that the question that we would like to know as marketers? What would you want if you could have anything? Answers to this question would really help us determine what consumers want before they know what they want. Well, I think that we are finally getting closer to an answer to that question.

If you haven't heard about it by now, Second Life, created by Linden Labs is a virtual reality world. The thing that sets Second Life apart from other VR worlds is that real money is transacted here. The currency of Second Life, Linden Dollars, can be converted to US Dollars (at a rate of L$267 to US$1). Also, anyone can create any objects in Second Life and OWN them. I'm not going to go into some of the specifics of Second Life since a lot has been written about it online. However, as I mentioned in the February 15th Marketing News since "the barrier to entry is almost nothing, and if the thing takes off it is nothing but upside to almost everyone," people can create anything in Second Life. And there's the answer to our question. If you could have anything what would you want? People are creating these things in Second Life. Sneakers, Clothing, Cars, Housing, etc.

And because the barrier to entry is virtually nothing except for creativity you can really have anything that you want. Second Life could be a great place to start honing the collective imagination of its inhabitants. Sure, there are some limitations since you can't really die in the virtual world and you can't experience everything except for sight and sound, but its a great place to start. Imagine Second Life as a type of constantly morphing Wiki of creativity.