Blog

9.9.08

Meeting today with a client to begin designing a new product, we got to talking about what type of elevations we might put on these homes.

Until recently a more modern style had been performing very well. Of interest to me was that his sales staff had begun to report an increase in the number of potential buyers looking for a more traditional feel vs. a modern one. This seemed to be backed up by a number of recent sales of more traditional product by competitors in the same development despite a consensus of opinion that the competitors more traditional product appeared inferior and unexciting inside and out.

This got me thinking about our current emotional climate, the economy and its affect on our psyche as a society - particularly how it affects what we will spend money on. It occurs to me that this recent jump in requests for traditional facades and the shying away from more modern facades is no coincidence.

I believe that if the perception of a gloomy economy persists, (increased unemployment, word of layoffs and increasingly difficult to obtain financing) consumers tend to hunker down in many ways.

Those groups which are typically attracted to more modern designs ....''Authentics'' and ''Trenders'' (entrepreneurs and younger people) are two of the most vulnerable groups in our current economic crisis.

what we, consumers, find subconsciously familiar is a primary factor in what causes us to begin the buying process. It would then make sense that, when uneasy, we subconsciously look for something familiar.. We turn to comfort food.

Watch the catch phrases embraced by voters from either party this year ( comforting whether substantive or not) and I think my point is made.

So while I may be disturbed by any trend that moves us backward ( its not my opinion that counts here), as the producers of a product for sale, this may be a time to consider the impact of our current times (even the negatives) on what we produce and how it will sell. This will continue to mean more than a low price per square foot.

This is a business. In this business, we also win or loose by a democratic process. Our ultimate success is dependent on making our potential buyers comfortable enough to vote for us with their dollar. As we pass through and emerge from this economy, I believe that our industry can and will continue to move ahead in a progressive manor IE: responsible use of land, products, resources and energy, while winning that vote.