The Gartner analyst group has released some research on what it calls "Generation V" (Generation Virtual), and says that in 10 years, the largest influence on all purchases will be the virtual experience associated with them. Gartner states that by 2015, more money will be spent on sales and marketing online than off, with this Generation V driving the trend.

Said Gartner analysts, "Generation V is the recognition that general behavior, attitudes and interests start to blend together in an online environment. The idea of Generation X (and later Generation Y) was conceived as a way to understand new generations that appeared not to have connections to the culture icons of the baby boomers. Marketers use the categories of baby boomers, Generation X and Generation Y to segment the population for targeting products and services with a focus on age."

However, Gartner notes that this generational divide breaks down as more tech-savvy baby boomers are going online at the same time and in some of the same spaces as their younger counterparts. "Customers will hop across segments at various times of life for various reasons and are likely to act like several generations at any given time," the analysts add.

Gartner principal analyst Adam Sarner explained, "For Generation V, the virtual environment provides many aspects of a level playing field, where age, gender, class and income of individuals are less important and less rewarded than competence, motivation and effort. For example, an 11-year old individual can be the leading "go to" person for advice on how to upgrade/hack a digital video recorder (DVR) for more recording space. An unpopular office worker can be a highly revered, accomplished 40th-level half-elf in World of Warcraft. The opportunity for reputation, prestige, influence and personal growth provides a powerful social draw for the masses to spend more time in a virtual world."

With the amount of time spent by all age groups online, Gartner recommends, "Companies will need to shift from collecting personal data about individual customers toward collecting more-complete and more-relevant data around online customer behavior and influence on others," Mr. Sarner said. "Companies will need new processes, new skills and a restructuring of how data is collected and used as they shift from demographic to psychographic insight. If companies follow a truly persona-centric approach, they can use the highly relevant information the persona leaves. Although the real person may never be known, far more intimate information of the persona's actions, personality, lifestyle habits and attitudes can be collected and exploited for business goals."

With that in mind, Garner concludes with some recommendations for marketers targeting Generation V:

Companies should organize their products and services around multiple online personas.
Sell to the persona, not the person. A persona will show you how it wants to be treated.
Create virtual environments as a way to orchestrate customer exploration toward purchases.
Shift Investment from known customers to unknown ones. Focus on the influencers within the meritocracy.
Develop and retain or outsource new skills to attract, connect, contribute and gain insight from Generation V and its virtual environment