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Building Green in a Black and White World--Chapter 1

The following is an exerpt from the book Building Green in a Black and White World.
Section 1; Chapter 1; Part 5; Conducting Your Own Market Research

David Ritchey Johnston
January 1, 1900
HousingZone

Conducting Your Own Market Research

National consumer trends can give you valuable information about how to direct your marketing. In addition, knowing the characteristics and desires of the people in your area and knowing who is a target buyer for your homes will help you focus your marketing efforts and create homes that will sell. Collecting and analyzing data can seem less than appealing and where to start and what questions to ask can be overwhelming. This section offers you pointers on where to find research that has already been done and how to do your own market research. These pointers should make the process simpler and hopefully, even enjoyable.

From Your Desk

To get started, you don’t need to leave your desk. Several valuable Internet sites provide useful data. An excellent source is the U.S. Department of Commerce Bureau of the Census Web site. At , you can find statistics on averages such as individual and household income, household size, number of children and age, among many others. The information can be broken down into areas as specific as zip codes and even individual streets. If you don’t have Internet access, your can contact the Census Bureau by calling (301) 457-4100 or by faxing (301) 457-4714. Data from the 2000 census should be available by 2001.

Whereas the census is only updated every ten years, The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development publishes a quarterly report on housing market conditions and trends and on housing needs by region. You can access this information on the Internet at or call (800) 483-2209.

Other useful resources for national and regional information on various topics:

The U.S. Department of Labor: Employment trends, wages, occupational groups, and consumers. Web site: , Tel: (301) 202-5767
American Demographics Magazine: Online information, magazine subscriptions, book orders, marketing tools directory. Web site:.
The National Association of Realtors: Information on price, size, and age of homes on the market broken down on a town-by-town-level, as well as information on quality of schools, crime levels, and cultural amenities. Web site: .

Other places to contact include your local Chamber of Commerce, local HBA, city and county departments, public and private universities, neighborhood associations, and the state department of commerce. Your lender and title company can likely provide you with information on areas of building activity, volume of activity, and prices. Another great source is the media. Newspaper, television and radio stations all have research departments. Media researchers have extensive databases available to them. They know how to analyze the data and can often provide you with complete consumer demographics quickly.

Research that Requires Legwork

Statistics provide reliable and scientific information about your potential buyers, but personal contact with people in your buyer profile can give you a better sense of what your buyers want. In addition, individual contact gives you the opportunity to ask specific questions and to understand the reasoning that underlies people’s choices.

Visit neighborhoods that are either near to where you are building or similar to the kind of neighborhoods in which you are building. Start by simply taking an audit of the neighborhood: How many one- and two-story houses are there? What kinds of cars are parked in the driveways? Is the neighborhood lively during the day or deserted by commuters? Are the lawns and exteriors of the houses well maintained? What evidence is there of kids in the neighborhood?

Colleen Edwards, president of a San Francisco advertising firm and author of From Good Market Research to Great Marketing (Home Builder Press), suggests asking some of the following questions:

What do you like best about your home? Why?

What would you change in your home? Why?

What rooms do you use most? Would you change their design or size in any way?

Did you modify your home with any options or upgrades? How satisfied are you with them?

How do you use your front yard? Your backyard? How would you change one or the other if you could?

If you could make one room in your home bigger, even at the expense of making another room smaller or losing it completely, which would it be?

Which would you modify to gain that space? Why?

Where do you or your spouse commute? How long does it take?

Where do you shop?

If you have children, are they in public school? How satisfied are you with the school(s)?

If you were going to give me one piece of advice about building new homes in this area, what would it be?

While you are there, knock on a few doors. Ask residents questions. Weekends are generally a good time to find people at home.

Since you are focusing specifically on marketing the green components of your homes, ask questions relating to these features such as:

Are there many energy efficient features in your home?

Were any of your appliances chosen for their water or energy conserving features?

On average, what do you pay per month for energy?

Do you know if any of the paint, cabinetry, carpet, etc. in your house was chosen to protect indoor air quality?

Which environmental features of a home are most important to you: the level of indoor air quality, the level of energy efficiency, or the conservation of resources used in building it?

Have you added any environmental features to your home since you bought it? Which features?

Another possibility for gathering input from homeowners and potential buyers is to host an information social. This kind of an event is easy to put on and can give you a valuable opportunity to receive feedback on the homes you are planning. Simply announce the event and its purpose, either through an ad in the local paper, calling some of your contacts, or sending out a direct mailing. Ask for people to make reservations. Hold the event in a community gathering place such as the local civic center and provide beverages, hors d’oeuvres, or dessert. Display drawings of the neighborhood, individual homes, floor plans, and information about the environmental features and their benefits. An information social provides a relaxed atmosphere for you and your staff to discuss your homes with people who are interested in green building. It is also an opportunity for you to both sell your homes and to get good ideas from potential buyers.

Classroom There are many other places and ways to get a feel for the green market. Be creative. Maybe host an interior decorating class in one of your model homes. Not only will this bring people into your homes, it might also get them thinking about what they could do stylistically in a new home that they can’t do in their current residence. Think about other industries that are targeting the same type of consumer you are. What approach are they taking in their market research and advertising? Understanding who your buyers will be and what they want is powerful information. That knowledge will give you the ability to build homes that will not only sell, but make your customers happy over the long term.

Tom Hoyt, of McStain Enterprises says, "We have in our mission statement"‘Design and build visionary communities that integrate the aesthetic, physical and emotional needs of our customers.’ Traditionally, we were focused on the physical needs, which you can determine through conventional market research. You can find out what size a kitchen needs to be in today’s world and what pieces it needs to have in it to satisfy peoples needs if they are busy working or if they are staying at home. What is much harder to do is to understand what the deep seeded emotional and aesthetic needs are. We draw a parallel with a piece of art or a great piece of music. The customer doesn’t tell the artist that they want a certain line weight or particular colors, and then expect to come up with a great piece of art. They rely on an artist to create that. You have to understand how a piece of art pulls all those elements together, which makes the difference between a bunch of colors and lines and a real piece of art. Doing this with homes is the professional responsibility of the builder and designer.'

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