death. And if you are over-invested in "infrastructure" (in SL, tier, stores, advertising, staff" when your sales start dropping, it's tough to turn resources to developing untried product lines.

you are busy doubling down and cranking out more product to support that infrastructure. You don't HAVE the resources (time) to learn something new. Hostess couldn't afford to throw too much effort behind

new "healthy" product lines when they were struggling to support all those factories and distribution centers.

the nice thing about SL is that it's a LOT easier to do a radical turnaround. dresses not selling anymore? don't need to tear down the factory to build airplanes instead.

and there's the issue of "brand". It's tough to get out from under being the kind of twinkies, I'm sure.

heh, yeah, brand recognition is very sticky in SL as well. like, i'm still the victorian footwear brand lol.

right, if you don't own a sim, and aren't invested in the rental spots (ie: you have a relationship with the sim owner and don't want to bail), you can afford to take the hit sales wise while you figure it out.

some big brands that have folded in recent years couldn't though.

that was supposed to be king of twinkies. lol

if you are dependent on your income from SL, that's a real problem. If you can't afford not to have a release for a few months while you develop new lines, you can't move forward.

it fascinates me how much the SL economy does mirror the real world, for all the artificial aspects of it.

i'd say some of it depends on the target audience. the fashion crowd is all about the newest latest, but during times where i took very long SL breaks, the roleplay crowd has been great for sustaining sales

jackalennui: but i still own so many pairs of your footwear, and still buy regularly, because it's very well made, and is quality!

so loyal buyers will still buy, but what do they buy when they have everything they want from a particular creator?

and if you're operating in SL in a way that can't sustain a 50% drop in sales - i'd say that alone is reason for serious concern. SL is already so unpredictable seasonally.

yes, absolutely, and that also has a real world analog. A business isn't sustainable when I one week work stoppage is enough to put you under.