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Tomorrow’s Marketing Approach to First-Time Home-buyers

Posté par Luis Paez le August 28, 2009 – 1:47 pm

dans Database Marketing, Marketing Strategy, Real Estate Marketing

Real Estate professionals know that today’s market is challenging, but as the market shifts the best thing to do is to learn from the most recent industry data, and focus your marketing on those prospects that will become tomorrow’s clients. But how do you locate those prospects? Recently, Campbell Communications released survey results of data collected this past spring that tells us how the market is moving.

Purchases by Homebuyer Type

The above graph shows that 43% of those buying homes today are first-time home buyers – slightly ahead of the percentage cited by NAR’s 2008 Profile of Homebuyers and Sellers, which reported only 41%. So, if investors and current homeowners are more skittish about buying property today, it gives us a good occasion to focus in on marketing to first-time home buyers, as the stats show that segment is growing this year. Knowing the “type” of buyer may help you gear your collateral and creative a bit, but it doesn’t help you target your demographics & direct marketing toward this buyer.

For this, we have to dig into the characteristics of buyers. NAR makes a point of identifying two interesting stats that we can correlate to actionable demographics:

About 25% of first-time buyers identify themselves as non-white
20% of recent buyers are single women

While it’s true that the converse statistics are larger (75% identify themselves as white; 80% are not single women), NAR includes these as main summary points because they represent a growing shift in the demographics of today’s home buyer. A post on the National Association of Homebuilders website backs up this view saying “virtually every analysis of the demographics shows that in coming years, half or more of first-time home buyers will be from minority or immigrant groups.” In addition, they cite a Harvard study which found that “unmarried women accounted for 30 percent of the growth in homeowners” in past years. All these reports indicate that historical ways of marketing directly to home buyers need to be revised (or at least adjusted by the above referenced proportions) – from the message & offer down to the targeted demographics.

Unmarried women

This is the simplest group to market to, just based on the fact that gender & marital status are basic demographic points that most list companies gather fairly well. So choosing your demographic list selects on a direct mailing is pretty straightforward. What will require more work is thinking through your message. What are the true needs of single women with regard to a home purchase? What are their main drivers? Thinking through these questions will clarify your message and also bring up topics for you or your staff to consider when marketing & communicating with these clients.

Minorities & Immigrants

Though often thought of in the same breadth, to truly tailor your marketing to these distinct groups, we need to dig a bit deeper. While it’s true that immigrants are positively affected when companies market to their minority group, in most cases you can segment immigrants vs. American-born minorities and market to each group more successfully. If you do not have the resources to segment your marketing this far down, then focusing your marketing to a dominant ethnic group makes the most sense. Notice that I say a “dominant ethnic group.” This will be different in every part of the country, so it requires some research on your part.

If you have access to a special market-centric report provided by your broker, that may be your best resource. However, as for the freely available information on a market-by-market basis, some people like to use Wikipedia, but I find more comfort in relying on data provided by the U.S. Census. They have a great FactFinder website that gives a high level overview of the demographics of major cities in the U.S. I’d recommend doing your search by the city, and not the zip code to better understand your area’s demographics as a whole. If your market is a metroplex, like the Dallas-Fort Worth area, then doing several searches is probably necessary. Here’s one example breakdown using the city of Dallas as an example:

From the U.S. Census Bureau, 2005-07 Survey

In this example, it seems that African-Americans and Hispanics are the two larger minority groups. There is also the category “some other race” that is 16%, enough to warrant more investigation. Clicking on “show more” will get you that detail.

Whichever minority groups are large enough to focus on, the main point is that these percentages can serve as a good way to accurately allocate marketing dollars to attract first-time home buyers. By using your own city’s demographic breakdowns, it will take much of the guesswork out of figuring out the right targeted demographics for your own marketing.

The Direct Marketing Voice Links 6-9-2009

Posté par admin le June 9, 2009 – 12:57 pm

dans News & Trends

6 secrets of buyer behavior in a recession

via www.directcreative.com Six things that are particularly important to remember now: * People love to buy. They love to discover wonderful new products and experiences. In America, and increasingly around the world, people see commerce as a natural and appealing activity. * People make buying decisions emotionally. They decide based on a feeling, need, or emotion. That’s why intangible benefits are generally the key to persuasion. For any given promotion, you should ask yourself, “What is the emotional hot button here?”

en•ovation group » Driving the Message Home

via www.en-ovationblog.com Customized mailings help a New England car dealership nudge sales higher. When customers walk into a Prime Motor Group auto dealership to check out its vehicles, they may not drive off with a new car – but they haven’t heard the last of the dealership’s pitch either. Rather, as part of an aggressive follow-up campaign, Prime Motor dealerships get their messages back in front of customers within days, this time in the form of a cutting-edge and highly personalized mailing that is winning rave reviews for its immediacy and detail – and winning the dealership business with its savvy.

Email ‘From’ Line Gaining Importance: Epsilon Study

via directmag.com As a result, a poorly performing e-mail campaign may have less to do with the specific campaign than with the sender’s program overall.

Recession Marketing Example 4 – Openly Addressing the Recession

Posté par Luis Paez le June 3, 2009 – 3:21 pm

dans News & Trends

As part of the recession marketing series here on The Direct Marketing Voice, one of the example’s that you may have read about previously, is the idea of openly discussing the recession in ads. This week Southwest Airlines came out with an excellent series of advertisements on that specific topic. They are now getting much kudos across the board for using this technique while their competitors are completely avoiding the subject. Specifically in the below video, they say “We don’t fly around tough times, how about you?” – which challenges the reader to make a decision for him/herself whether they will be ruled by traditional recession mentality.

Adweek is calling it ‘plucky’ but I consider it just plain smart, as I believe that people in general want to leave the recession behind and get on with their lives. To some extent, companies can both gain new customers and move the focus from recession negativity to that of a healthy approach to the future.

Expect to see this campaign around, as they’re using an integrated marketing campaign consisting of TV, print, Radio, as well as online ads.

Recession Marketing: Focus Less on Price, More on the Big Picture

Posté par Cynthia Fedor le June 1, 2009 – 1:44 pm

dans Marketing Strategy, News & Trends

I think it’s safe to say that this recession has changed the way many people think about earning and spending money – maybe forever. That, in turn, is changing the way marketers are communicating with their target audience.

At the start of this recession, consumers sought out ways to save money – cost was the bottom line. Marketers answered the call by offering price reductions, rebates and coupons. Marketing messages focused on dollars and cents; who or what could save the consumer more in terms of money.

As the recession progressed, the focus shifted to value. Sure, cost still mattered; however, the marketing message concentrated on getting the most out of every cent spent. Marketers needed to clarify the value proposition for cost-conscious consumers who were still willing to spend money but be more selective on what they were purchasing and why.

Consumer behavior and marketing strategy is evolving yet again and some say it’s a change that will last well into the future. As Deborah Wahl-Meyer of Media Link explains in a recent Advertising Age article,

It’s not just about money and things; it’s about meaningful things and relationships. So I think we’re going to see a lot more push toward that.

It seems that, especially for newer generations, value paired with a world-view / lifestyle consciousness will get consumers to act. Marketing messages that describe not only value but also encompass bigger issues such as environmentalism, fair trade, community and the like, may be the new lasting trend.

Need examples of this marketing strategy in action? Just take a look at Starbuck’s latest campaign or go to their website. The banner on their site reads,

…You and Starbucks. It’s bigger than coffee. …A very big difference. Investing in small coffee farms can have big impacts in Tanzania.

So, along with the cup of coffee and the warm, fuzzy happiness one may get from buying from Starbucks, that consumer is also supporting fair-trade beans, healthcare and community in other countries. Wow, that’s a lot for $3.75 decaf!

Toyota dealers in one Canadian market actually increased car sales by telling consumers to drive less. You can read more about the campaign here.

Is this shift in strategy merely a short-term trend or do you think it will change how marketers and consumers communicate well into the future?

Recession Marketing Example 3 – Focus on Value

Posté par Luis Paez le May 27, 2009 – 4:34 pm

dans Marketing Strategy

Our next example in the recession marketing series of posts, is one that everyone is very familiar with – that of value statements. They may appear as dollar amounts in a relative sense to comparable products. They may appear as simple lists of features that aren’t typically included in a product/service. Or the value statement may just recite the obvious fact that there is value. All of these, alone or combined, comprise an approach that focuses “relentlessly on value” as the BillShrink blog outlined.

If you recall the burger joint you may have passed driving in the morning, they may have had a special on their low end burgers calling out “2 for the price of 1“. This is a classic example of focusing on the value that a purchase made at this particular store has for customers. Another related example would be an ad that I recently saw for a website hosting company. The ad basically said:

Web Hosting
Free SSL, 99.9% Uptime, &
Free Domain Name
www.website.net

Even though there was no price mentioned, the value was there. Free goodies and reliable performance focuses squarely on the value inherent in that, and can comprise the entire message, especially on a direct marketing piece. The focus on value often is the hook, and your sales team and customer experience is the clincher. We hope to continue more examples of recession marketing and perhaps next time I’ll post more photos of marketing spotted in the wild.