Home builder taps into women's market

According to the National Association of Home Builders, women make 91 percent of the decisions related to buying a home, and one local builder has that demographic very much on his mind.

Home builder Sam Bradley is taking a different approach to building the 2009 St. Jude Dream Home, a four-bedroom luxury home that will be raffled by the Home Builder's Association's Charitable Foundation to raise money for St. Jude Children's Hospital.

Bradley, of Homes By Sam Bradley, has tapped into training provided by the Woman-Centric Matters brand of Nebraska-based Design Basics.

On Oct. 1, he brought company representatives to Springfield for a four-hour seminar presented to all of the subcontractors, suppliers and affiliates of the Dream Home project to introduce women-centric principles.

"All of the building that I do from this point on needs to be specifically women-centric in the design," Bradley said of his desire to use the St. Jude Dream Home as a starting point for focusing on women in his work.

How women view homes

Paul Foresman, who presented the Springfield seminar, said the Woman-Centric Matters approach to home building and remodeling hones in on four lenses women use to look at homes: entertaining; storage and organization; flexibility for changing life stages; and destressing, which focuses on areas that foster relaxation as well as eliminating elements that cause stress.

"We design lots and lots of floor plans," said Business Development Director Foresman from the company's home office. "We had recognized that even when most of our customers were traditionally male general contractors ... we were decidedly missing (women's) feedback, (and they are) generally responsible for choosing the home that's going to be purchased and the design."

An article in the January 2003 issue of Forbes led to an "a-ha" moment for Design Basics President Linda Reimer, and ultimately to the Woman-Centric Matters brand, Foresman said.

That article compared Lowe's to Home Depot, and in particular, how Lowe's focus on women as the decision makers pushed it ahead of its competitor.

"We recognized that often, ladies were influencing which designs were going to be built, whether it was the builder's wife or somebody who worked in the builder's offices," Foresman said.

And just as there are four key areas that guide what women want in their homes, Foresman said Woman-Centric Matters covers four aspects to reaching that demographic: design; products used in building or remodeling in terms of required maintenance; the systems or policies used by the builder; and sales and marketing practices.

Keying in to communication

An important aspect of the Woman-Centric Matters approach is geared to communication, and knowing what to say - and to whom.

"Too often, us guys ... think that when a couple comes in, our customer is him," Foresman said.

"We gravitate toward carrying on a discussion with him, not intentionally disrespecting her, but the majority of our body language and conversation says we think we're dealing (just) with him."

Realtor Greg Adkins was among the attendees at the Oct. 1 Woman-Centric Matters presentation, held at the HBA office.

"I think this approach to home desing, building, marketing and sales has been overlooked for a long time," said Adkins, who is on the board of the HBA Charitable Foundation and the Dream Home committee.

"There are a lot of companies marketing ... to single women, because they have come a long way in how they buy electronics and all kinds of consumer products, but no one has addressed the fact that especially in home sales, 91 percent of the decisions are made by women," added Adkins, who also is chairman of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Springfield and part of Adkins Family Group at Coldwell Banker. The seminar's targeted plan for reaching the female demographic particularly resonated with Adkins, who called it a breakthrough in marketing homes.

Even though women-focused designs can be incorporated into existing homes via remodeling, Adkins said it will be difficult for existing homes to compete with homes designed originally with women in mind.

What women want

Elements of women-centric design are as simple as pullout wastebaskets hidden in a base cabinet next to the kitchen sink. Another important issue from a design standpoint is point of entry.

"We've found that women really dislike coming into the home through the garage and into a laundry/mudroom," Foresman said.

"With that becoming our primary entrance into the home, neighbors come in that way, and friends and extended family."

The women-centric approach creates a drop zone in the rear foyer of the home.

"It's an area that's about 3 feet wide. It's going to have a recharging center for all of those things we have to plug in ... and a place for my car keys and the mail," Foresman said. "As our homes are being designed to be more and more open, with the kitchen being more of an entertaining space, we had to come up with new solutions for managing clutter."

In terms of entertaining, another key design feature can be a work-in, rather than walk-in, pantry. Those work-in pantries, some equipped with sinks, countertops and small appliances for food preparation, allow women to fix food out of sight of guests.

In the master bathroom, "we've found that given the choice between a Whirlpool tub in the master bath, along with a standard shower, or a deluxe spa shower system for the same amount of money, the majority of women will forego a tub at all," Foresman said.

That's a trend that home builder Bradley has seen.

"As a remodeler, I've done several bathrooms where we've actually removed the Whirlpool from the master bath because they never used it, and put in a nice walk-in shower, and in the area that was once used as the shower, taking that out and putting in linen storage," Bradley said.

Putting the concept to work

Bradley, who completed an intensive two-day training seminar with Woman-Centric Matters, can license the brand and logo in his marketing materials.

"For those people who do that, we have exclusive products, services and home plans that are available," Foresman said.

Bradley said he was turned on to the idea of focusing on women's desires in the home after attending some of Foresman's seminars at previous International Builders Shows.

Bradley noted that all of the Woman-Centric Matters elements are incorporated into the St. Jude Dream Home, from a drop zone and organizational cabinets in the home's rear or secondary foyer to outdoor living areas and design of the master bathroom.

"It's just a total concept throughout the whole home," Bradley said.

The 2009 St. Jude Dream Home is located in the Lion's Gate subdivision in south Springfield on Farm Road 186, also known as Steiner Road.

Bradley said the home, now under construction, will be worth at least $350,000 and have four bedrooms, three bathrooms and 3,384 square feet of living space. Raffle tickets for the home will go on sale in March, Bradley said, and the winner will be named in June during HBA's Parade of Homes.