Investment propertyBuilder"s Marketing Campaigns Benefit More Than Meets The Eye
The half-page weekend ad in the local newspaper"s real estate section. The
Hansel and Gretel procession of signs with indicators leading carloads of
curious "drive-bys" to the model home sales office door. The college
student standing on a street corner with a huge double-fisted arrow in his
hands rocking to an unknown headsetted beat, while directing Sunday traffic
to a developer"s subdivision. These are but a few of the ways builders try
to lasso potential buyers for a look at their new home communities. Some
builders and developers, however, are coming up with some innovative "behind
the scenes" approaches to make a name for themselves, apart from the usual
weekend marketing campaigns.
Schools are a hot topic when shopping for a new home. A quality district can
clinch a buyer"s decision. So, when the Coppell, Texas operation for Newmark
Homes discovered that its 87-home Forest Cove Estates would be situated near
one of the area"s top-ranked elementary schools, the builder decided to see
if Wilson Elementary would be interested in creating a joint effort to
cultivate prospects.
The school"s principal, Julie Combs, saw an immediate benefit. She wanted
parents to have the right information about the school, and she saw that the
builder could use Wilson as a selling point. At first, she asked for a $1,000
contribution to buy some software she had been eyeing for a new reading
program. In return, Combs supplied the developer with newsletters to
distribute to prospects. As an added bonus, buyers were afforded the
opportunity to meet the principal and to be taken on a tour of the school.
Parents soon became the ones spreading the word about both the school and the
builder"s new community, according to Newark"s marketing director. In the
pre-sale mode, the builder could account for 43 per cent of the sales as
being sourced to moms and dads of students who already attend Wilson
Elementary.
In terms of advertising budgets, the cost to the builder to participate in
the growth and future of the area"s elementary school is a drop in the
bucket, and the rewards are, without a doubt, the most effective and
long-lasting type of referrals known to the industry - word of mouth.
East West Partners, in Midlothian, VA, found another way to spur buyer
interest. Commemorating its silver anniversary, it decided to give away
$50,000 in a raffle, with proceeds to be split between a lucky winner and a
local charity. By the time the builder drew the winning names of the
individual and the charity, more than 5,000 people had toured the model homes
at East West"s planned community, Hampton Park.
The charities in the running for the lottery money were determined by
in-person voting at the various builders" communities within the
master-planned area, and the $25,000 winner would be the most-voted-for
charitable organization. The local charities, in turn, promoted the event by
spreading the word of the contest to their supporters and arranging carpools
to the builders" communities. Philanthropic groups held pool parties, ice
cream socials, and pony rides at the new communities to help get out the vote.
In the end, the American Cancer Society of Richmond received the most votes,
and a school teacher took home $25,000 of the $50,000 prize in the customer
portion of the drawing.
Aside from funding the cash prize, the master developer, East West, partnered
with builders and vendors by sinking $100,000 into an advertising blitz for
the event. Everyone involved felt they came out winners, and prospects were
introduced to the new community, whose exposure may not have been as profound
without the effort.
There is no doubt that communities, schools, and charities can work together
to benefit one another, when mental "paradigm shifts" such as those
described above take place. For the trade-off of slick, expensive marketing
and advertising campaigns, builders and developers can become members of
those "thousand points of light", benefiting both themselves and their local
communities, to become a coveted household word after all.
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