Spring Issue: Marketing Strategies for 'High Performance Homes'

Unless prospects understand how these amenities will improve their lives, they will be reluctant to pay for them. So how do you communicate their advantages to buyers who are confused by what constitutes quality construction? How do you get buyers excited about—and willing to pay for—esoteric subjects such as energy efficiency, good indoor quality and less maintenance? How do you accomplish those formidable tasks without talking down to buyers or making them feel stupid? (A sure way to kill a sale.) We turned to Sara Lamia for answers. She formed her own consulting company 11 years ago, Building Coach (Fort Collins, CO), after going through the new home buying and building process and thinking, “This is it? This is the best process we have?”

Lamia now coaches buyers and builders on the process, bringing far more satisfaction to both parties. She is a contributing editor to Green Builder Magazine and is the author of Housebirth: Your Guide to Buying an Energy-Efficient, Healthy New Home That Pays You Back.

Jettison The Green Description
Lamia finds that builders and contractors often drop the reference to “green” in their marketing materials, since it brings with it some negative connotations for many home buyers. She suggests using “high-performance home” instead.

“What do you think of when you hear high performance? Sports cars, of course. That’s a concept that’s immediately accessible and understood by everyone, both men and women.”

Lamia says builders need to understand that there is a vast difference between building these homes and selling them. “These are two different things. Consumers buy what they understand and get excited about. The challenge is to connect with mainstream consumers, not only those shopping for new homes, but those thinking of buying used homes. “When they understand that these high-performance homes are so much better for buyers, for their families and for their planet, these homes will, indeed, sell like hotcakes,” she says.

According to Lamia, there are five main ingredients to a successful marketing campaign for high-performance homes—plus one secret weapon.

1. Start By Romancing The Buyer
You need to woo consumers with seductive marketing materials. In sales terms, this is known as stressing the features and benefits. Don’t talk technical, unless you’re talking to an engineer. Instead, focus on what this technology allows in the buyers’ lives—more time, happiness, money and freedom.

Choose images from the scores of stock image photography services to illustrate how living in a high-performance home will make happy families even happier.
• Show how their children will be safer and more comfortable.
• Illustrate how the savings in energy costs enable homeowners to go on vacations or pursue their favorite hobbies.
• Demonstrate how a family is happier and healthier with cleaner indoor air.
• Show that quality construction has created a far quieter home, a place of refuge where they can relax as never before.
• Display families at play. “Less maintenance means more play time,” Lamia says.
• Demonstrate the strength of your building system with before and after photos of homes that survived storms.

“Buyers don’t buy until they’re emotionally connected. Make that connection for them, with captions such as ‘Our home survived and so did we.’”

Buyers have less and less time, which means they don’t read. They skim material instead. So in your brochures, website and other collateral marketing materials, use few words, employ simple charts and make it visually enticing. Use “bridge” concepts—metaphors that make your homes’ advantages familiar. Buyers may not understand what housewrap does, but they understand what a warm coat does. So use that imagery in your marketing materials.

2. Provide A Fun, Green Experience For Home Shoppers
Recently, a cabinet manufacturer timed home shoppers as they toured model homes around the country. What did they find? Shoppers spent an average of eight minutes and 58 seconds in the model home, with less than two minutes in the kitchen. Buyers, in other words, are amateurs who don’t know what to look for. “Most of what adds value in your high-performance homes is behind the walls and can’t be seen—unless we display it,” says Lamia.

Tap into buyers five senses—see, hear, smell, taste and touch—using your model home or retail sales center.
• “Stake your claim.” Make it a Western theme, and explain how your homes use passive solar orientation to reduce heating and cooling costs. Invite them to try on a floor plan.
• “Take a look under the hood.” Show buyers what smart building is with visual product displays (comparing what you offer to what the competition offers), with push button recordings or “talking walls” that explain why improved insulation, air handlers, quiet exhaust fans and insulated ductwork creates a high-performance home.
• “The elegant essentials.” Have demonstrations of your plumbing, lighting and wiring that show why your homes are so much better. “Have an area where buyers feel the intense heat of halogen, then the cool of fluorescents. Have tech buttons to play with. There should be no shortage of product manufacturers who’d love to show off their stuff at no cost to you,” she says.
• “Make the product selection process enjoyable.” Borrow tactics from Barnes & Noble, which is seeing sales soar compared to the low-cost Internet competition. Make the experience enjoyable by providing a nurturing atmosphere and a knowledgeable staff able to provide thorough answers to questions, Lamia says.

3. Use The Internet To Lure Tech-Savvy Home Buyers
Don’t know what search engine optimization is? Take the time to find out and then set your site up for keyword searches, including high-performance homes, green homes, build green and more. Your website should download quickly, be easily navigable and have no broken links, since this will negatively reflect on your ability to build homes effectively, Lamia says.

4. Differentiate From The Competition With Easily Digestible Charts
Start with simple concepts that buyers can immediately relate to. If they need more information, you can certainly provide it. “Funnel buyers from simple to more complex. You get five seconds to build trust. Don’t make buyers feel stupid with a complex charts and graphs,” Lamia says.

5. Earn & Display A Certified Green Label
Mount it by the front doorbell. “Calvin Klein could tell you about the power of a label. The way to show off the value of a high-performance home is with a label,” Lamia says. “Your best marketing tool is your existing buyers, who may not have completely understood what they were buying before, but have become knowledgeable and are proud to show off their new home. Help them by providing a designer label—and don’t charge them for it.”

The Secret Weapon
The green wave is growing. “Are you riding it or do you have your back to it? Up to 64% and growing, according to McGraw Hill’s recent survey,” she says. Some forecast that within 10 years all new homes will have green features. It also gives you a great way to not only differentiate yourself from the production builders, but also from the used home market.

But the real secret weapon for green builders? Hollywood! How would you like to have Cameron Diaz, Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, Edward Norton and scores of other A-listers on your team at no cost? You can if you build green. They are already on board, touting its advantages in scores of articles and video news clips.

“Don’t underestimate the power of superstars. If their voices create enough positive press about green building to bring buyers to you, then send Hollywood a big kiss!” says Lamia.

Need help marketing your high-performance homes? Oh, yes you do. Contact Sara Lamia at sara@buildingcoach.com or 970-402-2600.