Browsing by Author "Kuusela, Konsta"

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The Consumer Decision Journey in Car Financing and the Challenges of Selling Private Leasing
(2021) Kuusela, Konsta
School of Business | Master's thesis
Private leasing is a massively popular way to finance automobile purchases in many European countries like the UK or Sweden. In Finland, however, the demand for these types of financing products has been markedly low, with most consumers choosing hire purchase financing contracts to finance their car purchases. To investigate why consumers have yet to adopt private leasing on a larger scale, Ford Finland commissioned this research. The research, financed by the Henry Ford Foundation, used a number of different methodologies to explore the issue in the wider context of automobile financing sales. The end product was a customized report, written for Oy Ford Ab. Through qualitative interviews with dealership, financing company and importer staff as well as consumers, a quantitative survey of consumers, and an analysis of online discussions, insights for how consumers in general view car financing, as well as private leasing and hire purchase financing specifically, were developed, as well as an understanding of the consumer journey in car finance. The most salient insights that emerged in the research included that consumers are hyper-focused on monthly expenses, causing them to see private leasing as expensive. They were also found to be lacking an understanding of the true cost of car ownership, making it virtually impossible to accurately compare different financing options. What is more, sales staff were also found to have a shallow understanding of the benefits of private leasing financing products, causing difficulty for them to sell private leasing products to consumers. Possible solutions to the issues identified in the research were also suggested, including a calculator to help sales staff explain the true cost of car ownership to consumers and to facilitate accurate comparisons.