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The rent-to-own retail sector puts a new spin on the classic \u201cneed vs. want\u201d consumer equation. It\u2019s designed for consumers who don\u2019t have the financial resources to immediately pay for big-ticket purchases (and who don\u2019t want to pay the interest that can accrue with buy now, pay later services or credit cards), but who are comfortable with making relatively small monthly payments.<\/p>\n \u201cOur appeal to customers is not just affordability but also flexibility,\u201d said Carla Dodds, Chief Marketing Officer at Aaron\u2019s <\/strong>and BrandsMart USA, <\/strong>both part of The Aaron\u2019s Company<\/strong>, in an interview with Retail TouchPoints<\/em>. \u201cWe don\u2019t look at [customer interactions] as one transaction and we\u2019re done. Okay, you bought a refrigerator last month; how about a couch? You needed<\/em> a refrigerator, but you wanted<\/em> a couch.\u201d<\/p>\n The ability to fine-tune and personalize customer communications so that they meet both these \u201cneed\u201d and \u201cwant\u201d states <\/strong>has been a key benefit of a pilot program leveraging technology from Zeta Global. The program centralized Aaron\u2019s formerly siloed customer data as part of reaching its overall goals: to acquire new customers and to provide Aaron\u2019s executives with a better understanding of its total addressable market.<\/p>\n \u201cTraditionally Aaron\u2019s has focused on returning customers, but we noticed that our customers were aging over time,\u201d said Dodds. \u201cWe wanted to understand who the new customer is, including truly understanding their customer behavior as well as how it parallels to existing customers\u2019 behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n The results after just eight<\/strong> weeks have been impressive: during this period, Aaron\u2019s gained nearly 2,400<\/strong> net-new customers, and perhaps even more importantly, reduced its customer acquisition costs by 33%<\/strong>.<\/p>\n These results would be impressive for any retailer, but they\u2019re particularly striking given the complexity of the rent-to-own sector. \u201cThe typical retailer is more \u2018want\u2019-driven, but we\u2019re dealing with the symbiotic relationship between \u2018need\u2019 and \u2018want,\u2019\u201d said Dodds.<\/p>\n For one thing, that means the competitive landscape can differ markedly from customer to customer, and also from product category to product category. \u201cWe have direct competitors in the rent-to-own space, but [our competitors] could also be Home Goods <\/strong>or a marketplace or even a garage sale<\/strong>, as well as Walmart <\/strong>and Amazon<\/strong>,\u201d noted Dodds. \u201c<\/strong>It also depends on the category \u2014 our biggest categories are furniture, appliances and electronics, and for the latter our competitor could be Best Buy<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n Dodds admitted that Aaron\u2019s had previously lacked the ability to centralize customer data in ways that allowed for much personalization: \u201cWe didn\u2019t have a true CRM [customer relationship management] solution, but by partnering with Zeta Global, we\u2019re able to bring all the data together in a more centralized way, which allows us to personalize in new ways and across channels<\/strong>,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Aaron\u2019s had been working with Zeta Global solely on its email outreach, but is now expanding the relationship to include several other marketing functions, a move that will be completed by early 2026.<\/p>\n Prior to this expansion of the relationship, Aaron\u2019s also had operated many of its customer touch points in silos; for example, direct mail operated separately from social media marketing. \u201cWe wanted to work on perfecting our targeting and messaging as part of a direct mail test with Zeta, but then we got to looking at whether that has enough interchangeability to give us multi-touch attribution (MTA) versus a last-click look,\u201d said Dodds.<\/p>\n She added that MTA data is vital, noting that when a customer is in a \u201cneed\u201d state (the frozen food is melting!) they are likely to only need three to five <\/strong>\u201ctouches\u201d prior to making a purchase, versus five to seven<\/strong> for a \u201cwant\u201d state (a couch would be more comfortable than these folding chairs!).<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re looking to create a dynamic view of where [customers] are in their life stage, as well as how they\u2019re engaging not only with our marketing but also our products throughout their lifecycle, and that becomes fundamental,\u201d said Dodds. \u201cZeta has been a huge partner in helping us understand how things came to be within the lifecycle of each customer segment, so we can optimize how we speak to the customer and be more relevant<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n A key customer insight for Aaron\u2019s involves the relationship between price and value.. \u201cCustomers always say [purchase decisions are] about price, but we\u2019re seeing some customers putting value over price,\u201d said Dodds. \u201cHistorically Aaron\u2019s has been very promotion-driven,\u201d which appeals to price-conscious customers, but \u201cnow we\u2019re learning how important it is to be very concise in our \u2018value\u2019 messaging versus being promo-heavy at the beginning. We talk more about the value of the products themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n Dodds and her team exemplify a \u201cmore modern approach\u201d to marketing, according to Ed See, Chief Growth Officer at Zeta Global in an interview with Retail TouchPoints<\/em>. \u201cPeople think a marketer\u2019s job is to run a campaign, but their job is really to find profitable customers<\/strong>,\u201d he said. \u201cYou want to eradicate waste and target your \u2018likelies\u2019 so that you\u2019re getting the profitable customer at the top of the funnel.<\/p>\n \u201cMarketers want to know what moves each customer segment: Who do I reach? How do I reach them? and, What the heck do I offer them?,\u201d See added. \u201cWith AI that\u2019s super powerful and allows for precision at scale. The question becomes, am I leaving the \u2018data breadcrumbs\u2019 so that I know what [these customers] do.<\/strong> That way the CMO and team will know what they need to move to manage penetration by segment and also ensure the customers they land are the profitable customers they want.\u201d<\/p>\n Dodds is equally enthusiastic about the Zeta Global relationship, and sees big things ahead. \u201cThis year we\u2019re really just testing, but we definitely have goals for next year, including determining how we amplify to get better reach, continuing to improve the relevancy of the content and meeting the customer where they\u2019re at, across as many channels as possible,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re also looking for improvement of our MTA and MMM [media-mix modeling], better utilization of our spend and continued optimization of cost per acquisition.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.retailtouchpoints.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Carla-Dodds_Aarons-399x600.jpg\")
Personalization and Multi-Touch Attribution Create Dynamic View of Customers<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Adding New Dimensions to Aaron\u2019s Marketing<\/strong><\/h3>\n