AARP Uses a Hybrid Research Approach to Better Understand . . . Young Adults?
Event coverage of the following session from QRCA’s 2011 “Symposium on Excellence in Qualitative Research” in Chicago: “AARP Targets 25-34 Year Olds?!?” Kristin Schwitzer of Beacon Research and Diane Ty of AARP use a three-phase hybrid research approach to tap into the mindset of young adults and inform development of AARP’s revolutionary initiative targeting this new audience.
AARP = Seniors, retirees, and 55+ . . . right? What could AARP have to offer young adults? Does the AARP stand a chance with this dramatically younger audience? That’s what AARP wanted to figure out as it had a strategic initiative to introduce its brand to future constituents.
Some initial research using a private online community of 400 young adults and monthly phone calls with sub-groups indicated there was interest in the concept of a new financial planning web site for young adults that was sponsored by AARP, but there were going to be some challenges: 1) how to handle branding when AARP was so strongly known as a 55+ brand, 2) how to engage this hard to reach audience, and 3) how to get senior stakeholders at AARP to support this effort?
Speakers Diane Ty and Kristin Schwitzer
Kristin Schwitzer of Beacon Research developed a three-phase research study with AARP to inform the development of the www.LifeTuner.com web site and to address these issues:
- One-on-one usability interviews (25% in-person and 75% remote web-enabled with webcams) to get “blink” reactions to the LifeTuner alpha site, including several branding approaches.
- Online quali-quant branding study – Over 200 one-on-one online interviews across four consumer segments. While 40% of the questions were traditional quantitative questions to get the metrics senior management needed, 60% were open-ended qualitative questions with probing to get the insights the team wanted to really understand the quantitative results and to provide further design direction. In this round, it was confirmed that revealing the AARP sponsorship too early or too prominently could definitely turn away potential visitors. Diane used video clips of young adults talking about this issue to help convince senior management not to have the AARP logo above the fold. Instead, the bottom of each screen now includes:
AARP helping people of all ages make smarter choices today for a better tomorrow. © 2008-2011 AARP. All rights reserved.
- One-on-one usability interviews (100% online) By the third phase, they used all online remote webcam interviews to get consumer feedback on the latest version of the web site and early designs for interactive credit card and retirement planning tools.
The outcome? Diane reports that this research gave AARP the confidence to move ahead with the now award-winning and highly acclaimed LifeTuner.com web site. In addition to providing valuable insights on branding and feature development, it proved to be very helpful from an internal PR perspective to help make senior management comfortable with this revolutionary marketing initiative.
