Fast and Furious: How research drove quick results for National Car Rental

National Car Rental was a brand near the brink of collapse after bankruptcy proceedings in 2003. Dwarfed by competitors with big budgets and the emergence of online travel agencies, the challenge was to rejuvenate a formerly premium brand and make it the stand-out choice of the target audience, the frequent business traveller.

Fast and Furious: How research drove quick results for National Car Rental

Our challenge was to renew National Car Rental, a brand founded in 1947, that had recently been driven to the brink. National Car Rental's share of total renters had fallen from near 20 percent in 1995 to under 10 percent in 2003, when the company emerged from bankruptcy. Dwarfed by brands like Enterprise (near 40 percent share of total renters) and Hertz (near 25 percent), National saw a 40 percent plunge in net income in 2004. Since 2001, National's Emerald Club had lost 30% of its most active...

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