Gartner (News - Alert) says that soon marketers will not be able to use the traditional ways of selling to customers, based on demographic information. This will become irrelevant in the online world, especially with the emergence of “Generation Virtual.” In order to engage customers and remain relevant in this new world, organizations will need to develop new skills and techniques.

 

Generation Virtual or Generation V is not defined by age, gender, social demographic or geography. According to Gartner it is based on demonstrated achievement, accomplishments and an increasing preference for the use of digital media channels to discover information, build knowledge and share insights. Marketers have realized that general behavior, attitudes and interests have begun to blend together in an online environment.

 

Adam Sarner, principal analyst at Gartner, said in a statement that conventional wisdom has focused on customer identification as the foundation for one-to-one marketing campaigns. However, faced with the reality of Generation V creating anonymous online personas, and the sheer power of their growing influence in an online environment, companies are driven to change their methods of acquisition and relationship building.

 

Sarner emphasized that CRM-focused companies and particularly their marketing departments must take notice of this change and engage with online personas. Businesses that do not adapt and attune to the needs of Generation V will have to face the wrath of 'virtual mobs' and a mass exodus. In the future, customers' true identities will have less importance, and companies will have to make efforts to understand the role or persona that customers are playing at any given time and treat them accordingly.

 

Gartner believes that providers of third-party customer data, business intelligence and analytic tools will shift toward consumer applications. These providers will eventually equip the companies with automated, artificial intelligence and self-learning "persona bots" to find out customers' needs and desires.

 

The research firm offered the following recommendations to CRM-focused organizations:

 

* Companies should collect persona data for product development, customer feedback, loyalty management, customer segmentation, campaign targeting and persona group customer satisfaction management. They can use this data for marketing and selling. In addition, this data will provide insight into how customers want to be treated.

 

* CRM-focused organizations should migrate from product-based segmentation toward wants-based segmentation.

 

* By developing a mutually beneficial relationship with its customer base through data collection and communication companies can enable the valuable flow of information between the customer and the company.

 

* Companies must focus on social sciences, anthropology and game design, skills. These will attract, connect with, contribute to and gain insight from personas and virtual environments. Although few companies currently employ people with these skills, they will be vital to understand how personas interact, to draw insight from cultures, and to create engaging virtual environments in the future.

 

* Persona bots—automated, personality-infused, self-replicating, virtual representatives—will be used as a tool to facilitate life events in an online environment. By 2017 the persona bot is expected to be mass-adopted with more than 20 million active persona bots in the U.S. alone.

 

Gartner predicts that to fully engage with Generation V, companies will have their own automated bots for critical relationship handling, such as sales, customer service and marketing. Also , key drivers, such as 24/7 presence and the capability to communicate domain expertise, will assist customers navigate their way toward purchases.