The Ultimate Home Builder Review: Spring Offers 2019

Home builders across the country have continued to deliver their biggest offers in Spring. During the 2019 promotional season we have seen four trends emerge in the types of offers builders are taking to market:

• Upgrade Offers
  • Spend $X to get $Y
  • Discount off upgrade package
  • Percentage off any upgrades
• Discount off Product Price Point

Hands down, the upgrade offer ruled this season’s promotional offers and was adopted by many of the key players as their offer of choice.

The Round Up

Sherridon Homes led the charge with the biggest discount, offering $65k off upgrades, limited to the first 50 buyers to drive that all-important urgency. More muted that some of the recent (neon pink) Sherridon promotion creative, the red still gave customers a clear sense that this was Sale Time.

Source: Sherridon Homes Website

Not confining their promotion to Spring, Orbit Homes have been celebrating their 40th Birthday
(hello glitter balloons) by giving buyers up to $60k of premium inclusions with home purchases for over six months. This Spring they offered an additional cooling offer to sweeten the deal.

Source: Orbit Homes Website

Another upgrades offer, JG King Homes were giving away $45k of upgrades for $10k and added in a bonus gift worth $5k for the first 50 buyers for that extra nudge in the right direction. Creatively, in line with their colour palette but also very much indicative of a big promotional giveaway, the simple red shopping tag graphic left no ambiguity as to the fact that this was buy time!

Source: JG King Website

Rather than a fixed discount, Burbank went with the compelling spend more, save more theory with a 50% discount on all upgrades. A very bright pink and orange colour palette helped communicate this offer, with a couple of interior images thrown in the mix for good measure.

Source: Burbank Website

Simonds had a lower discount on their upgrades promotion than some other competitors, offering a $20k discount on upgrades, tying it in to their ‘Good One Gary!’ brand campaign. Very clear with the end date of the offer, customers were kept well aware of the short window they had to take up the offer.

Source: Simonds Homes Website

Coral Homes were a little more specific with their upgrades promo – offering the discount ($40k in QLD and $60k in NSW) on their Elegant Inclusions package. Creatively, they kept clear of the sale sticker approach and let the numbers do the talking.

Source: Coral Homes Website

Bucking the trend this Spring were McDonald Jones, standing out from the rest of the crowd by choosing a price cut promotion. Offering a $45k reduction on the base price of new homes supported by a few familiar faces in their campaign and a hit-you-between-the-eyes price graphic.

Source: McDonald Jones Website

ABC Homes also took the low entry price approach with their ‘Spring Break’ campaign, discounting base home prices for customers – excluding the discount figure from the creative to provide a very competitive ‘from price’ for the First Home Buyer market.

Source: ABC Homes Website

And finally, Carlisle Homes went with a ‘Yes, Its included’ campaign – taking a promotional and very enthusiastic creative approach to their standard inclusions packages.

Source: Carlisle Homes Website

So what can we learn from the 2019 Spring Promo season?

The prevalence of Spring Offers in the New Homes segment has been a reaction to compete further with the typical hype around auction attendance numbers and sales figures in the Existing Homes market. The increasing competition between offers is leading to two schools of thought within the industry.

The Customer Rules the Roost

As consumers’ get savvy to the promotional calendar, it may cause buyers to delay purchasing to take advantage of the Spring offers from home builders. This line of thinking encourages home builders to ensure they have a promotion in market as their prospects may be waiting for a Spring offer to finalise their decision, even if competitors have the edge on the promotional offer.

Blue Ocean Strategy

The second school of thought, is that if a home builder is not able to provide a promotion that competes on discount/value, their promotion may have a better chance of cutting through at an alternate time of year.

Which strategy is going to be the best option? Home builders will need to ask themselves:

1. Is the target audience expecting a promotion in Spring?
2. Does the offer have the cut through to compete in the peak promotional season?
3. Will a more modest promotion have a greater impact where there are less competing promotions available for buyers?