EkoStats: Unlocking the Power of Marketing Intelligence
The demand for and interest in energy-efficient homes continue to rise here in North America, and thus, targeted marketing and advertising for products that can boost efficiency are becoming increasingly important. Finding the right market, the right messaging, and the right advertising channels can feel like a guessing game for many building product manufacturers who could benefit from industry-specific home rating data across the entire US.
So what kind of data points and market research would be the most useful to companies trying to market heat pumps, heat pump water heaters, ventilation systems, and insulation? Here at Ekotrope, we put our database of HERS rates homes to the task. Let’s take a look at how EkoStats can help advance these efforts.
What Is An EkoStat?
It’s tough to encapsulate all that our Marketing Intelligence tools can do, which is why we have chosen to use these bite-sized EkoStats to portray how granular one can get with the Marketing Intelligence dashboard. These EkoStats are examples of how this dashboard can be used to help guide targeted advertising campaigns and direct marketing strategies for the products needed in high performance and energy-efficient homes:
Over 90% of Ekotrope rated homes in the Phoenix area use wall insulation.
Denver represents less than 4% of Ekotrope-rated homes, and yet 25% of all homes with a HERS score of 45 or lower are located in Denver.
Idaho has the third-lowest electricity prices in the country, and yet only a quarter of Ekotrope rated homes use electricity for heating.
Of the over 13,000 Ekotrope-rated homes in Indiana, only 8 of them include a heat pump water heater.
Nearly one-third of all Ekotrope-rated homes in Tennessee utilize heating systems rated at just 80 AFUE. These homes averaged a HERS score that is 11 points higher than the national average.
California has the lowest average HERS score at 30.4. The next closest state was Hawaii, at 45.5.
In Minnesota, 96% of Ekotrope-rated homes use a balanced ventilation system, which is 90% higher than the national average of just 6%.
Locating Interest and Opportunity
Stats like the examples listed above show the strengths and weaknesses of each market in the US when it comes to energy-efficient construction. The purpose of these insights is to locate areas where certain products and technologies are already flourishing or gaining traction with builders and homeowners and to locate areas of opportunity.
In Minnesota, for example, balanced ventilation is being installed in new homes at a much higher rate than in any other state. This could speak to a higher need for balanced ventilation systems in the climate region, or perhaps a large concentration of homeowners and/or builders who understand the importance of proper ventilation.
Additionally, data coming from new homes in Idaho shows an opportunity for homeowners to take advantage of the low energy prices by using all-electric heating and cooling equipment like heat pumps and mini-splits.
This information can direct the type of messaging used in targeted advertising, leading to more effective campaigns.
Finding the Right Prospects and Scenarios
Simply locating the right markets is not the only benefit to databases like the marketing intelligence dashboard. Ekotrope has used the same database to create multiple tools that help the marketing efforts of building project manufacturers.
Through Scenario Modeling, a single contractor’s portfolio can be matched up with specific equipment and analyzed to predict its impact on meeting stringent energy codes. Through Ekotrope’s SmartSearch prospecting, you can identify builders that are most likely to benefit from and adopt particular products by defining the criteria according to ideal customer profiles and running a search across the Ekotrope national database of nearly 1 million newly built U.S. homes to identify regions or builder segments that are the best fit.