G.J. Gardner Homes, drive $700 Million in sales by researching whether to pursue a new concept.

Aaron GJ Gardner Homes
Aaron Ng, Former Marketing Manager, G.J. Gardner Homes and Chief Evolution Officer Primal Agency

G.J. Gardner Homes were looking to optimise their growth strategy and understand which initiatives and target audiences to put their time, effort and resources into. In the hyper competitive building industry, refining your approach can be the difference between winning Millions of dollars of new home builds or losing out on potential clients to competitors.

We utilised our deep experience of high involvement relationships, customer journey mapping, concept testing and usage and attitude research to implement a program of qualitative research that uncovered what potential buyers wanted at each stage of the purchasing decision, and tested whether a new concept would align to their needs.

The research showed which concepts and audiences merited further investment. With this knowledge G.J. Gardner confidently rolled out a new concept which directly drove $700 Million in new sales in the first year.

About G.J. Gardner Homes

G.J. Gardner Homes are one of the leaders in the new home building industry, operating in both Australia and New Zealand.

Goals for working with 10 THOUSAND FEET

In order to drive future growth of the business G.J. Gardner Homes required a better understanding of their core customer and the market in general.

In particular G.J. Gardner needed an in-depth understanding of the path to purchase and decision making process, as well as understanding motivations of their traditional core customer as well as an expansion audience that could open up an untapped market opportunity.

G.J Gardner also needed to test the appeal of a new concept, which would take significant financial investment but could have a significant pay off on conversion rates with potential customers.

Solutions

Utilising our deep experience of high involvement relationships, customer journey mapping, concept testing and usage and attitude research we implemented a program of qualitative research that uncovered what potential buyers wanted at each stage of the purchasing decision and tested whether a new concept would align to their needs.

The qualitative research work involved segmenting the target audiences into core and expansion target audiences. We conducted a series of focus groups and depth interviews with customers and non-customers. We also visited multiple display homes in different states to conduct intercept interviews with potential customers to be able to understand the hearts and minds of consumers at each stage of their decision making journey.

We harnessed our tool kit of qualitative techniques and reporting frameworks to synthesize hours of conversations with customers into an actionable insights report.

To bring key stakeholders on the journey, we also provided a succinct edited video to bring the customer voice to life when presenting to the leadership team and master franchisors.

Result

Our reporting made complex concepts easily digestible with frameworks that could be used to understand the market and evaluate key opportunities. The reporting was highly actionable and gave the G.J. Gardner leadership team the information and insights they needed to make informed business investment decisions.

“10 THOUSAND FEET’s research gave us the confidence to refine and implement a new concept which drove $700Million in additional sales in one year. The research enabled us to get buy-in from our stakeholders and push forward quickly so we could outperform the market.

For the next three months I referred to the report every week to help inform our decision making across a range of initiatives and know team members who still refer to the research to this day before making key decisions.” Aaron Ng, Former Marketing Manager G.J. Gardner Homes and Chief Evolution Officer Primal Agency.

G.J.Gardner Homes’ experience working with 10 THOUSAND FEET

“10 THOUSAND FEET’s team guided us every step of the way. These guys know their stuff and are the best in the business. They took the time to understand our needs and crafted a research design that was bang on.

They were super professional in keeping us informed every step of the way and turned the research around quickly to meet our strategy planning needs.

They were able to bring new ideas to the table while also crystalising what our focus areas should be. They made a significant difference to G.J Gardner Homes. We had team members who were sceptical about research from other agencies, but really valued the work of 10 THOUSAND FEET and bought into the decisions we made off the back of the research.

I can’t speak highly enough of their work and now that I am at Primal Agency I have recommended them to several clients.” Aaron Ng, Former Marketing Manager G.J. Gardner Homes and Chief Evolution Officer Primal Agency.

G.J. Gardner Homes’ time investment

Briefing and discussing the research design: 2.5 hours

Input on discussion guides and socialising the guide with internal stakeholders: 3 hours

Assisting in fieldwork to get customer details and access to display homes for 10 THOUSAND FEET:   45 minutes

Being presented results by 10 THOUSAND FEET:  1.5 hours

Having a second presentation session with a broader group of stakeholders: 1 hour

Embedding results into strategy and tactical decision making: 1 hour

Total time: 9.75 hours.