Larkfleet Homes
The importance of laser-focused target marketing, in delivering qualified and ‘sales-ready’ potential buyers to Larkfleet Homes’ show homes.
The challenge
The main goal of our client was to influence motivated potential house purchasers to visit Larkfleet Homes’ show homes on specific sites in the East Anglia region.
Due to the competitive nature of the housing market, we needed to find ways to differentiate and position a small, regional house builder brand in areas already dominated by other, more established, larger developers offering similar product.
Buyers are only too well aware of the competition between builders, making price and value for money the biggest sales drivers. Maintaining quality of build, whilst meeting tight completion deadlines and delivering to rising housing demand is an ongoing challenge.
Another potential barrier to sales was persuading the target audience to buy new rather than existing homes.
These situations are often addressed by offering added-value ‘extras’ such as free flooring or cash-back upon purchase, alongside government-led initiatives such as Help to Buy, designed to both attract and make affordable the new-build proposition to the potential buyer.
However, these initiatives are now considered to be the norm and no longer exciting or compelling, making it even harder for brands to clearly define their offering.
Margins are tight, and ROI is crucial – so there is little room for manoeuvre. Overcoming the ‘better the devil you know, than the devil you don’t’ mentality wasn’t going to be easy.
This meant it was time to take a more intelligent approach.
Our approach
Insight and strategy
At OM customer insight is key. The basis for any campaign designed for business growth. Our particular mantra is to ‘understand the customer, better than they think they know themselves’. The Larkfleet offering was in need of renewed perspective. It was time to get ‘laser focused’.
OM undertook market research, including an online survey and in-depth calls with recent buyers and house-hunters, with the aim of establishing their challenges, needs, key focuses and preferences.
With this intel we are able to define how the Larkfleet brand could be better positioned against other larger, competitive brands located nearby and educating their audiences of their brand values and community-centric ethos.
Content-focused marketing for results
OM works closely with the team at Larkfleet and its other media agencies, to deliver an ongoing multi-channel marketing campaign incorporating the latest intel and understanding.
OM is regularly crafting meaningful and informative search-optimised content – attracting and directing traffic to the Larkfleet website. This is further supported through additional social media channels and proactive media relations activity.
Larkfleet has a long-standing relationship with the team at OlsenMetrix, who provide PR and communication services across the entire Larkfleet portfolio. Their ability to get to the heart of who we are and how we operate has meant that we can concentrate on delivering our core business objectives, while they focus on raising our brand profile, building relationships and managing our reputation.
Helen Jones, Director of Marketing – The Larkfleet Group of Companies
Impact & Value
A clearer understanding of the target audience and a stronger value proposition has meant that the regular crafting of content is better aligned with the audience’s needs – and is more effective in helping to inform them, answer questions and provide valuable insight as they move through their decision-making journey, and ultimately, visit a Larkfleet show home.
