How to crack the consumer market

Fresh research suggests selling to consumers very much depends on targeting potential customers properly. No surprise there, we hear you say. But just who, in today's modern family, should companies go after?

This is where some ordinarily humdrum annual research from messaging company Pitney Bowes starts to get interesting.

At home, who is the CIO, who is the CFO, and who is VP Communications? The results here are perhaps not too surprising either. (It turns out that mum is the comms expert, dad still typically holds the purse strings, while the 15-year-old son/daughter makes sure the IT works.)

However, with this knowledge in hand, it's up to those pedaling goods and services to get through to the right person. Typically they don't.

As information overload and the amount of ways to receive data increases, customers are becoming more demanding. They all want to be in control.

Indeed, 60 per cent of those surveyed said they would be more receptive to offers if they could choose the place, time and form of communication. For example, just over 80 per cent of us still prefer phone calls to email (only three per cent prefer this option).

And the problem is not just how we are bombarded but what we are bombarded with. Unsurprisingly, 75 per cent of respondents claimed information is not geared towards them - over 65s receive information on nappies and dog owners are sent marketing bumph about cat food.

The lessons are clear. Those in sales must hone the CRM processes and technology, and work out whom they need to talk to. And remember, addressing correspondence to a Master or Miss may just be necessary.

Of course it could also entail another type of permission-based marketing.