Focus Groups and Interviews Exploring Consumers' Reactions to and Perceptions of Reverse Mortgage Advertising

Reverse Mortgage Advertising Study:
Guide for In-Depth Interviews

Section I: Introduction (5 minutes)
My name is ___________ and I work for a company called ICF International. We are a research
company that conducts interviews and focus groups on behalf of different organizations across
the country. For this specific project, we are working on behalf of the Consumer Financial
Protection Bureau. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is an agency of the Federal
government whose role is to make markets for consumer financial products and services work
for Americans — whether they are applying for a mortgage, choosing among credit cards, or
using any number of other consumer financial products. Today, we are going to be talking about
reverse mortgages. I want to be clear up front that I am not an expert in this topic—you can ask
me questions, but I may not be able to answer them. This interview will take about 60 minutes,
and you may take a break and step out at any time.
Have you had an opportunity to read and sign the informed consent document? Do you have any
questions about it?
I’d like to remind you of a few things that were on that document.
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We will be videotaping this discussion, to make sure we don’t miss anything that you
say.

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Behind the glass, there are people observing this interview from both the Consumer
Financial Protection Bureau and my company, ICF International.

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Nothing that you say in this discussion will be attributed directly to you. Your name will
never be used in any of our reports.

Do you have any questions before we begin?

Section II: Previous Understanding of Reverse Mortgages (5 minutes)
1. Have you ever heard of a reverse mortgage before?
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Where have you heard of a reverse mortgage?

2. What is a reverse mortgage?
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What else do you know about reverse mortgages?

3. Have you ever considered getting a reverse mortgage?
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What do you think are the advantages of a reverse mortgage?
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What are the disadvantages?

Earlier I asked you to describe a reverse mortgage. These are financial products that can be very
complicated, as we may find out as we talk today. But at its most basic level, a reverse mortgage
is when (show on flip chart):
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You own a home.

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A bank lends you money, either in a single lump sum or through monthly payments.

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When you no longer live in the home, you or your family pay the bank back with interest.

This is different from a “regular” mortgage because a regular mortgage is usually used to buy a
home, and you pay the money back to the bank every month. Here you already own a home, and
in some cases the bank sends you a payment every month.
4. Now that you know this, do you have any questions about reverse mortgages?
Answer any basic questions that show that the participant is confused about the basic nature of a
reverse mortgage. If the participant has other questions about the advantages or disadvantages
of a reverse mortgage (e.g., “Does that mean I don’t have to make any payments back to the
bank while I have a reverse mortgage?”), do not answer them. Instead, say that you’ll probably
be talking about that later, and you would like to wait. The goal is to ensure that the participant
has enough basic sense of what a reverse mortgage is to participate in the conversation, without
discussing any of the claims or other issues that might arise from one of the advertisements.

Section III: Previous Exposure to Reverse Mortgage Advertising (5 minutes)
Great—thank you.
I wanted to know more about any advertisements for reverse mortgages that you might have
seen.
5. Have any of you ever seen any advertisements for reverse mortgages?
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Where have you seen these advertisements? Probe to see if any participant have seen
advertisements on TV, radio, online, in print, or through direct mail.

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How often do you see these advertisements?

6. What do you remember about the advertisements you have seen for reverse mortgages?
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What do the advertisements typically look like?

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What kinds of things do they typically say?

7. Do you remember any specific advertisements for reverse mortgages? Which ones, and what
do you remember about them?
8. Have any the advertisements you have seen made you interested in learning more about
reverse mortgages, or made you consider getting one?
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What was it about these advertisements that you found particularly interesting or
attractive?

9. Based on the advertisements you have seen and the information you have been given, do you
have any questions about reverse mortgages? If so, what?
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Was there anything about any of the advertisements you have seen that you have found
confusing?

Section IV: Review of Reverse Mortgage Advertisements (30 minutes)
Now that we have talked about some of the advertisements you have seen in the past, I’m going
to show you an example of an advertisement for reverse mortgages. After I show you the
advertisement I will ask you some questions about it. Show participant the advertisement, either
in print, on TV, or in audio format (for radio advertisements). If it is a TV or radio
advertisement, play it twice for participant.
The following set of questions will be repeated for each of the four advertisements that are
shown to the participant.
10. Would this advertisement make you any more or less likely to pursue a reverse mortgage? If
so, why?
11. Did you learn anything new from this advertisement about reverse mortgages?
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Was there anything that surprised you? If so, what?

12. Is there anything about what the advertisement is saying that you don’t understand? If so,
what?
13. What do you think were the primary messages of this advertisement—what was it trying to
tell you?
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According to this advertisement, what are the advantages to getting a reverse mortgage?

14. Who do you think this advertisement is targeting? Probe to ensure that the participant is as
specific as possible.
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What makes you think that the ad was targeted towards that audience?

15. Is there anything in this advertisement that you don’t believe is true, or that seems like it
could be misleading? If so, what?
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What makes you think this information might be misleading?

16. [For all advertisements except the first] Is there anything that seems different about this
advertisement, compared to those that we saw earlier?

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After the participant has finished discussing the first advertisement, collect the advertisements
(if in paper form) and tell the participant that you are now going to show them another
advertisement. Repeat Section IV with each of all four advertisements to be shown.

Section V: Comparison of Reverse Mortgage Advertisements (5 minutes)
Put enlarged versions of all four advertisements in front of the participant. Use screen shots for
TV; for radio advertisements use a short description of the ad.
So here are the four advertisements that we have looked at (go through each of the four
advertisements to make sure participant remembers them).
17. What do you think are some of the similarities between these four advertisements? Probe for
similarities in terms of messaging, target audience, images, content, or claims made about
the product.
18. What did you see as the primary differences between these advertisements? Probe for
differences in terms of messaging, target audience, images, content, or claims made about
the product.
19. Which of these advertisements would most make you want to get a reverse mortgage? Why?
20. Which of these advertisements would least make you want to get a reverse mortgage? Why?

False Close and Conclusion (10 minutes)
Moderator will excuse him or herself and tell the participant that he or she is going to speak with
the observers to see whether they have any follow-up questions. If observers have follow-up
questions or topics to revisit, the remainder of the interview will be spent addressing those
questions or topics. At the conclusion of the interview, the moderator will thank the participant
for their assistance and lead them to the front desk.

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