How do you market to the Virtual Generation?

Marketers used to have it easy. For over half a century, all of these demographics are conveniently defined by age. There were the Baby Boomers--those born between 1946 and 1964. They had the unique advertising/marketing Coming of Age experience of being raised with television sets in their homes.

Then there was Generation X -- the flannel-wearing, cynical, overeducated but underachieving slackers born between 1964 and 1980.

And most recently Generation Y (1981 and 1995) or the Net Generation, defined by their high workplace expectations in terms of starting salary, flexibility, vacation, and preferring communication through technology such as email and IM.

But what happens when you get the following:

• the Gen Y colleage student that spends there winter break on Facebook
• the Gen X casual gamer parent getting in a puzzle game before putting their kids to bed
• the wired senior leading the "silver tsunami" of Baby Boomers online

Welcome to Generation V, where general behavior, attitudes and interests start to blend together in an online environment.

According to Gartnet, by 2015 more money will be spent marketing and selling to multiple anonymous online "personas" than marketing and selling offline. So you have to ask yourself now -- How is your company:

• getting the attention of a prospective customer in a more and more crowded space?
• selling to a face-less person who defies age categorization and whom you may never know?
• maintaining relevant conversations with your existing customers to improve your service/product?

In essence, how are you leveraging the online medium to Engage, Entice, and Evolve your online relationships?