Summary
An industry-leading, Web-based company that specializes in financing and servicing new and used vehicle loans for customers with less-than-perfect credit wanted to develop a targeted advertising campaign with their primary customers. Online, Time-Extended™ depth interviews were conducted to provide an intimate understanding of the consumer relationship with the service and reveal key drivers in the auto loan decision-making process. The learnings from the interviews have been used as a foundation in forming messaging for television advertisements, as well as for exploring new communication strategies to better suit changing customer needs.
Strategic Issues
A struggling domestic economy and job market left many consumers in tough financial situations. Growing jobless rates in the U.S. left many unable to maintain existing cost-of-living expenses, which was often accompanied by newly damaged credit histories. This created a greater demand for financial services and loans for consumers with damaged credit and, therefore, attracted more lenders to compete for this growing segment’s business.
Previously, the Web-based, vehicle financing company had been enjoying a considerable amount of success with relatively little competition. With more lenders entering the space, it became more difficult to grow either the number of completed online credit applications or the conversion of applications into new loans. It was more important than ever for the Web-based, vehicle financing company to gain an in-depth knowledge about the process consumers follow when seeking vehicle financing and what triggers may exist that cause them to apply for credit with, and subsequently select, one provider over another. In turn, this made it difficult to develop a solid communication strategy with targeted messages aimed at accumulating new customers.
Research Objectives
The purpose