APRO’S media relations efforts continue to gather support from APRO’s membership. What began as a response to negative press has snowballed into a concentrated effort to positively influence America’s perception of the RTO industry.
“Positive media relations are important to the rental industry in order to combat historically negative publicity,” says Richard May, APRO public affairs director. “Positive publicity from the media means a positive image and ultimately positive business. Our challenge is to devise a campaign that will positively influence how and what the population thinks of our industry.”
New for 1999 is a two-tier strategy developed by APRO that is working on a national scale to promote the RTO industry.
The “Why Buy” effort is a news story on the growing acceptance of leasing that is being marketed to the country’s prominent newspapers. Leasing is becoming an increasingly appealing option to the American public for a number of reasons. Customers today lead transient lives and want temporary solutions as well as the convenience of the latest technology. The “Why Buy” effort reinforces that these needs can be met without the hassles of bad credit and without the threat of debt.
At the same time, APRO’s effort to promote a more positive image of the rental industry is happening in small town America. The North American Precis Syndicate, known as NAPS, is marketing a series of articles on the benefits of rental-purchase to smaller daily and weekly newspapers across the country. Catch phrases like “renting-to-own meets your immediate needs” are used as hooks to catch the reader’s eye.
Statistics point toward unprecedented growth of the rental industry in the past four years. Presently, RTO is providing more than 3 million Americans with opportunities. The 1998 APRO Rental-Purchase Industry Survey, conducted by Industry Insights Inc., shows that the annual industry revenue has grown more than $300 million in just one year and more than half a billion dollars since 1995.
“Our future efforts with the media include a customer survey designed to determine customer levels of satisfaction. We are also interested in getting a demographic profile of our customer population to uncover some trends in the market,” says May.
Leasing is predicted to become more prevalent than ownership within six years, according to forecasters. With that in mind, May and the APRO staff will continue to find new ways to reach the public and positively promote the RTO industry.
