Homebuilders Going Green, But is Their Marketing?
At last month’s International Builder Show a major focus was put on “green” building and “green” products. This is a welcome change and one bright spot in an industry hit hard by the recession. Going green is major opportunity for builders and suppliers. Pulte Homes is building a community in Summerlin, Nevada that is light years ahead of where many tract builders are when it comes to energy efficiency. Since the community has opened in early January it has had record setting traffic counts. Furthermore, the homes are affordably priced in the mid-$200’s. The community simply hits the mark.
However, signs are beginning to creep in showing the potential to squander this opportunity like GM did with the EV1. Many builders are only talking about green or energy efficiency as a cost savings measure when they should be talking about green as an aspirational and emotional connection to the community as well. Consumers buy on emotion and justify with facts. The industry needs to appeal to people’s hearts first then their pocket books much like Toyota did with the Prius.
A UC-Davis study found that consumers purchased Priuses for the symbolic benefit and what it communicated to others. Prius drivers wanted to project an image of “socially responsibility,” “environmental stewardship,” and to be seen as “pioneers.” Toyota has been successful in capitalizing on these consumer emotions through their marketing. Even the consumers who said they purchased the Prius for cost-saving reasons could not calculate their savings payback. Further evidence that consumers were more interested in projecting an image of frugality and intelligent consumerism to their friends and family.
The quicker the builders can start appealing to consumers’ green hearts as well as their pocket book the better off they’ll be. They really need to take an emotional and rational approach to their green marketing instead of just a rational approach. The consequence of consumers not connecting emotionally will be price discounting of “green” homes and loss of any additional margin or profit incentive to build more green communities.
More to come on this…
Also see recent Seth Godin post on rationale marketing:
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