MULTIPLE ONLINE PERSONAS: THE CHOICE OF A NEW GENERATION

BILL IS A GEARHEAD.

If you want to sell a car to Bill- a professional in his early 40s - you need to come at him with specs first. Don't talk to him about cupholders and fold-down rear seats. When you find Bill, aka TrakBurner115, in the Edmund's CarSpace.com forums, talk to him about horsepower and foot-pounds of torque. Tell him how many other car enthusiasts are salivating for the same vehicle.

Stone is a headbanger. He likes the dark poetry of bands like Tool and System of a Down and Deftones. Selling anything to Stone- clothes, jewelry, music, memberships- means selling a statement. It has to skew young, smart and aggressive. Stone, who also goes by NecroticOnei on MySpace and Bonita Gorel on Second Life, wants to see what other metal fans are sporting and to show off some of his own gear.

Similar impulses impel Frumunda on Fark. com, Cahmortis in World of Warcraft and plain-vanilla William Sylvia on Facebook.

All the individuals mentioned above have traits and desires unique to their online personalities. They all communicate in ways specific to their virtual environments-ways businesses need to understand if they want to reach all of them.

The difficulty? They're all the same person.

Such is the dilemma- and the opportunity- of what Gartner has termed Generation V (for virtual). Unlike previous demographic containers like baby boomer and Gen X, Generation V is not defined by age, gender or geography Instead, it is based on achievements, accomplishments and a growing preference for digital media when it comes to learning and sharing.

Like William Sylvia, many of these new-age consumers create multiple, often anonymous, personas in order to control their environments and manage the flow of information, according to Adam Sarner, the Gartner analyst credited with coining the term Generation V. Plus, the segmentation of their personalities makes them feel good.

An unpopular office worker can be a highly revered, accomplished player in an online fantasy game, Sarner notes. An 11-year-old boy can be the resident DVR hacking expert in a TiVo forum. With these different personas, consumers seek out ways to enhance their reputation, prestige, influence and personal growth in the virtual world, he explains.

"Having different personas online is no different than real life," says Sarner. "People act differently when they go to a doctor than they do at a football game. We need to recognize that people have a different set of desires while onAmazon.com or Second Life."

In these virtual realities, Sarner says the members of Generation V "believe in active participation Ln global communities ... a conversation rather than a communication. They strongly believe in the benefits of collaboration; that Sve' is more powerful than 'me.'"

In studying Generation V, Gartner has found that:

* Traditional ways of selling to customers using demographic information will become irrelevant in the online world, which has its own merit-based system using personas that conduct transactions and spread influence anonymously

* Companies need new skills and techniques to remain relevant in the online world. They must target a customer's multiple personas, collect data on their relationships and find new ways to engage customers.

Providers of third-party customer data, business intelligence and analytic tools will shift toward consumer applications, eventually arming companies with automated artificial intelligence, selflearning "persona bots" to seek out customers' needs and desires.

The Generation V movement is a by-product of what Gartner terms "the consumerization of IT," which combines affordable hardware and consumer-oriented Internet services with the desire of users to get involved in participative online interactions.

The motivation for online interaction can be found in Abraham MasloVs famous Theory of Human Motivation, Sarner says. In 1943, Maslow ranked human needs from most basic to most complex. Once fundamental needs such as food, clothing and shelter are met, people seek less tangible things like love, belonging and, ultimately, self-actualization. Online communities satisfy such higher-level needs for those who can't always find them in the real world.

"Is this a fad? No way The drivers are too real, too human," Sarner says. "The Web is a more and more immersive environment. People are drawn to it because it appeals to man's innate nature to fulfill self-actualization. People are spending so much time online completing real-life functions, if you are not part of that conversation, you are not relevant. Companies must figure out how to connect to and harness that powerful emotional draw" Within 10 years, Sarner predicts, the key influence on all B2C purchases will be the online experiences associated with them and by 2015, more money will be spent on marketing and selling to multiple, anonymous online personas than on marketing and selling offline.

Companies need new skills and techniques to remain relevant in this new world, says Sarner, who urges customer relationship management practitioners and other IT business leaders to explore the behavioral traits of Generation V to understand how Gen V members express themselves and to figure out ways to incorporate that knowledge into business models and strategic plans. Gartner is so convinced about the importance of understanding Generation V that it's making social networks and virtual worlds a key track at its annual Gartner Symposium/ITxpo in Las Vegas this month.

Sarner recommends that companies look at their own products and services and ask, "'Where do I fit on the hierarchy of needs?' Build multiple virtual environments that let people explore and fulfill their life goals. The savvy marketer will create environments where people can explore and be creative, while the underlying reality is that they are driving folks to products and services. It's about selling the experience."

Because the rules around Generation V are tied to the human condition, "businesses are starting to get it," Sarner adds. "They feel like part of Generation V themselves. It all rings true to them. They just need to know how to leverage it."

And the way to leverage it, Gartner recommends, is to:

* Determine your company's role in providing access to knowledge, social status/reputation, and achievement or responsibility Organize and target online products and services based on the customer's journey toward self-actualization.

* Sell to the persona, not the person. Collect psychographic data to understand online persona behavior and interactions with others.

* Shift investments from known customers to unknown ones. Create virtual environments as away to orchestrate customer exploration toward purchases. Focus on the influencers.

* Develop and retain- or outsource- new skills to attract, connect with, contribute to and gain insight into personas.

* Develop strategy, process and technology around relationships with persona bots as tools of mutual exploration.

Even doing all that, selling to Generation V is not guaranteed. "There's often an imbalance in what we do online now," Sarner says. "We ask people for personal information without offering much in return. Before you build out your virtual world, you have to make sure everything is in balance. There's a yin and yang that needs to be constantly maintained."

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"People are spending so much time online completing real-life functions ... if you are not part of that conversation, you are not relevant." -ADAM SARNER. GARTNER

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