Rent-to-own News - Tampa study is an 'eye opener' to area RTO dealers

More than a dozen rent to own dealers turned out for the fourth in a series of RTO "Potential Customer" studies in Tampa, Florida, Tuesday, which dealers say yielded a number of "eye opening" insights that will shape a first-of-its-kind RTO Marketing Plan provided for free to attendees at the APRO Convention in Little Rock this July.

Register for the APRO Convention here.

"It was a real wake up call, an eye opener to tell the truth," said Rueben Flores, a Premier Rental Purchase dealer with one store based in Bradenton, Florida. "There seem to be lots of things we take for granted that the customer is blind to and amazingly didn't know.'"

The Florida Rental Dealers Association, in conjunction with APRO, organized the event at the Plaza Research Center where participating dealers from seven different RTO companies witnessed as two groups of potential customers carried on moderator-led discussions of rent to own and candidly shared their impressions of the transaction, why they do not consider rent-to-own and most importantly, what would motivate them to consider rent-to-own.

Of particular focus was the group's experience with other means of financing purchases such as using credit cards. Flores said he was surprised by the focus group's lack of knowledge of rent to own advantages such as no credit checks, free delivery, the ability to return the item at any time, early purchase and reinstatement options.

"When they started to compute how much it would cost to own something by making the minimum credit card payment for years and years, you could see it started to dawn on them like 'wow, this (rent to own) may be a good way to do it," Flores said. "I'm really looking forward to this marketing study at convention, to seeing ways we can really incorporate these kind of educational things into our marketing materials."

The Florida study is one of four recent studies conducted by APRO and state associations across the country this year. Others were conducted in Texas, Ohio and New York.

The studies offer RTO dealers some of the most profound insights on how to reach the 50 million non-renting Americans who fit the industry demographic.

The results of these and all APRO "Potential Customer" surveys over the past two years will be compiled into a specialized RTO Marketing Plan by Jill Adams McDonough -- an award-winning developer of PR and marketing programs. The marketing plan will be provided for free to those attending the APRO Convention in Little Rock July 11-14.

For more information on the studies contact APRO Public Affairs Director Richard May at rmay@rtohq.org or 800/204-2776 ext. 104.

Register for the APRO Convention and your free copy of the final RTO Focus Group Marketing Study here.