Welcome to the second issue of Insight Inbox, the industry's newsletter! This month, we turn our sights to 'Design Centers'. This is very timely, as many of you were part of the innovative sparks at Summit 07 this past month. The group that assembled here in Austin managed to look past the industry challenges and hone in on the immediate opportunities we have to increase margin and delight our buyers by taking more of a 'retail science' approach to our businesses.
It is very clear that some trends are crystallizing in our industry:
- Builders are moving away from viewing the options selection process as a necessary evil and are moving towards seeing it as a significant margin opportunity.
- We are moving away from rows of carpet samples to high end 'retail' design centers, and many builders are achieving or enhancing this 'retail' experience via Envison and other online experiences.
- Enlightened Builders are using their design approach/centers, product choices, and customer portals not only in the post-contract/close phases with their buyers, but also as marketing vehicles to actually help sell homes. We are reaching a tipping point where consumers expect that they will be given an online portal to assist them in the biggest purchase of a lifetime.
In this issue, we pull some of the best snippets from the Summit and combine them with some insightful articles from other experts in the industry. Here are some highlights:
- Marketing genius Gary Hoover founded a pioneering book superstore chain (BOOKSTOP, now part of Barnes & Noble) that caused a paradigm shift in the retailing industry, and more recently founded the company that later became Hoover's, Inc. In his keynote address and retail science lectures at the Summit, Gary challenged our thinking around being 'retailers' versus acting like 'realtors' or just 'construction companies', and helped us figure out how to create a paradigm shift in our industry.
- Lisa Kalmbach, Snr VP of Design Centers--KB Home shares her views on how best to retail products to buyers, both by implementing Envision as well as incorporating educated integrators into the design process.
- Jane Meagher shares product trends as to what is hot, and learn from educational pieces from Square D on the safety/value of electrical upgrades as well as how Via Bertolini has made granite more affordable through supply chain efficiencies.
We hope this issue sparks some new thinking for you all as you plan for '08, and if nothing else, we hope this helps you realize that there are some great, immediate opportunities for upsides in our industry! We challenge you to be one of the builders who taps into these upsides!
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