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For example, the Good Cents Environmental Home Program has its roots in the Good Cents^TM Program started by Southern Electric International, an electric utility that services Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida. The Good Cents^TM Program has certified 650,000 homes for energy efficiency since 1982. In 1994, the Environmental Home Program started working with utilities across the country. The Environmental Home Program assists builders in their service territory with marketing and media support. The program currently has utility partners in Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Florida, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, and Texas.

Training is available through the program, and the homes are certified using a computer program that weights the environmental features of the home. This rating provides the builder with a score he can use in his sales process. Their marketing support and brochures are some of the best and most beautiful on the market.

One of their builders, Bob Moore, was part of a development called Reynolds Plantation, outside of Atlanta. He built a green demonstration home as one of four open homes at the development. On the opening day of the home showcase, he sold his home on the spot. Because of the green features in the home, and with the support of The Good Cents^TM Program, during the month the homes were open, he sold six additional homes before any of the other builders sold their models.

Your vendors, suppliers, and manufacturers of green products can be some of your greatest allies. They have a vested interest in your success. If you build green homes, and are successful at it, you will be buying more of their products. They also probably have a bigger marketing budget than you do.

Many builders across the country have used their suppliers as marketing allies. The most basic level is to do cooperative advertising. This works in many forms of media. Print ads displaying the logo of your major suppliers, radio spots that include their names or product lines, and TV commercials showing their products, can be prominently displayed in a show home. Often several non-competing suppliers can be included in the commercial.

The Denver Metro HBA Built Green program has taken full advantage of cooperative marketing. For the month before the Green Parade of Homes, the program assembled both builders and suppliers to contribute to a TV ad campaign. They were able to raise several hundred thousand dollars to flood the market with ads for the parade and for the builders participating.

Taking it to the next level, get your suppliers to become sponsors of your project. One of the best examples is the Energy Smart Program in Pensacola, Florida. Builder Philip Russell, as an example, stops construction before drywall is installed and opens the home to the public for the Behind-the-Walls Expo. It has proven to be a very successful marketing strategy.

The demonstration home is made possible by contributions from a "family of sponsors." Most sponsors participate because they find demonstrable value in the public exposure to their products. Russell’s approach has drawn 60 sponsors who have contributed to the success of the Energy Smart^TM Behind the Walls Expo including: Amoco, Pella, GE, Trus Joist MacMillan, IBM, Sears, OCF, Honeywell, and Carrier. "It’s a real win-win opportunity. Anytime we can find a true win-win we’ll be right there," says Bill McNeal of J.F. Day, the regional distributor for Pella windows. "I’m working on weekends for no pay and no commissions because it’s such a good marketing opportunity. I know it will generate future sales."

Sponsoring manufacturers offered seminars to contractors, plumbers, electricians, and carpenters in the appropriate use of their products. Art Southerland from Trus Joist MacMillan taught a course for builders. He says, "Our product, engineered floor joists, is not exposed in a finished home. The Behind the Walls Expo gives us visibility in a unique setting. The environmental focus is important to us. Our mission statement says that we will use no old growth timber in our product. This gives us a chance to get that message across." (See case study in Chapter 7.)

Other builders have worked successfully with their suppliers as well. When McStain built their Greenlee Park development of 180 homes, they invited their suppliers to contribute to their "green building museum." They filled one of the early open homes near the sales office with exhibits and displays for over 40 suppliers of products used in the development. These exhibits were left open to the public for a year. As buyers were introduced to the benefits of green features in the sales office, they were given tours of the products used in the show home. Greenlee Park was one of the most successful developments in the county at the time, in part due to its unique sales approach.

Continue to Marketing Ideas

Would you like to purchase this book?

Building Green in a Black and White World
by David Robert Johnston

Also See:

I. Marketing Strategies Introduction

II. Community Relations

III. Media Relations

IV. Brochures

V. Marketing Strategies

• Develop and Innovative Marketing Strategy
• Marketing Ideas
• Emphasize the Benefits to Buyers

Table of Contents