Creative Class

While many think that tattoos and piercings are typical of all creative class members, Martha Stewart and her empire embody many elements of the creative class theory — from a focus on design and supporting the creativity of customers to building a career  that allows for one’s passion to play a central role. According to a new WSJ article (sub required) by Michael Corkery, creative class Queen, Martha Stewart has been very effective in using her creativity to sell homes in a weakening housing market. From the piece…

"All across the country, home builders are gasping for air as sales
plunge, inventories rise and profits disappear. But in one small corner
of the housing market, the sales picture is a little brighter: There is
steady demand for houses designed in part by Martha Stewart and built
by Los Angeles-based KB Home.

Here in the Atlanta area, where new-home sales dropped 20% in the first
quarter of 2007, traffic at Martha-KB new-home developments has been
steady. The largest Martha-KB Home development has been outselling the
average Atlanta subdivision 2 to 1, according to SmartNumbers, a
real-estate information and analysis firm, based in Marietta, Ga."

While some core creatives may never be interested in a Martha Stewart home, there are other members of the group who are clearly interested in letting her design a warm, welcoming home for them. (A longer segment of the article is available after the jump).

Posted by David

A longer snippet from the article,

"FAIRBURN, Georgia — All across the country, home
builders are gasping for air as sales plunge, inventories rise and
profits disappear. But in one small corner of the housing market, the
sales picture is a little brighter: There is steady demand for houses
designed in part by Martha Stewart and built by Los Angeles-based KB Home.

"I love all her things," says Menyon Green, a
42-year-old nurse who bought a Martha Stewart-KB Home in this Atlanta
suburb earlier this year. "I just knew this was going to be a good
subdivision."

The Martha homes are a rare source of good news for
KB, the nation’s seventh-largest builder by market value. Last year,
the company’s chief executive left over a stock-option backdating
scandal and two weeks ago KB reported an unexpectedly large quarterly
loss, amid deteriorating markets.

Right now, the Martha homes, representing less than 5%
of KB’s overall home-building production, aren’t large enough to lift
the builder’s flagging earnings. But with the Martha developments
outselling most of KB’s other subdivisions, the company is expanding
the Martha brand to as many as 36 new markets, as soon as it can obtain
the necessary permits and land, a KB spokeswoman says.

Gregory Duriez, KB’s Atlanta division president, says
he is struggling to keep up with demand. "My problem isn’t how can I
sell more Martha homes. It’s how can I get more lots in front of me,"
he says. From March through June 15, the two Martha Stewart
developments alone drew 42% of the people who visited KB’s 22
subdivisions in the Atlanta metro area, according to KB.

But the
success of the Martha-KB venture, launched 16 months ago, could pose a
potential dilemma: how to expand a successful product fast enough to
boost profit, but without weakening the brand from overexposure.

"Right now it’s a unique type of offering," says Rita
Rodriguez, chief executive of Enterprise IG in the U.S., a brand and
design agency. "You can invite someone to your home and say, ‘This is a
Martha Stewart home.’ But if it’s replicated and stamped across too
many odd markets, the uniqueness can be gone. That cache and aspiration
isn’t there and you just become like everybody else."

The Martha-KB partnership is a closely watched
experiment in brand marketing. The conventional wisdom among home
builders was that home-buying decisions were based on two primary
considerations: price and location. While those factors are still
extremely important for home buyers, the success of the Martha homes
shows that branding also matters in some cases. The Martha homes target
a broad market, with prices ranging from $148,990 to about $500,000.

Here in the Atlanta area, where new-home sales dropped
20% in the first quarter of 2007, traffic at Martha-KB new-home
developments has been steady. The largest Martha-KB Home development
has been outselling the average Atlanta subdivision 2 to 1, according
to SmartNumbers, a real-estate information and analysis firm, based in
Marietta, Ga.

The Martha homes are modeled after Ms. Stewart’s
current and former residences in New York, Connecticut and Maine. She
and her design team helped design many of the 64 floor plans from which
buyers can choose. KB heavily markets the domestic diva’s personal
influence: open kitchens and dining rooms suited for entertaining,
plentiful windows to capture natural light, and an exterior trim
available on some homes that supposedly matches the color of Paul
Newman’s eyes. (The actor was Ms. Stewart’s neighbor.)

Some buyers say they are attracted to the Martha homes
because they suggest quality, functionality and class. Others say they
expect the homes will have a better resale value than other homes.

"I have faith that Martha’s Stewart’s name is going to
help market the property later on if I want to sell it," says Melanie
Washburn, a 35-year-old marketing manager at a gaming technology
company in Atlanta, who closed on a Martha home in Fairburn in April.

Currently, in addition to the Atlanta area, Martha-KB
homes are on sale in Perris, Calif., east of Los Angeles; Katy, Texas,
near Houston; and Cary, N.C., near Raleigh. Construction has begun on
Martha developments in Denver, Daytona Beach, Fla. and Lancaster,
Calif., outside Los Angeles. The company says it could extend the
Martha Stewart brand to up to 10% of the homes it builds, which totaled
39,013 units in 2006.

"It’s our version of the iPhone. It illustrates the
power of something different with a brand tied to it," says KB’s chief
executive, Jeffrey Mezger, who has set a clear goal for the company:
"Let’s get these things open everywhere, as fast as we can."

KB and Martha Stewart’s company have been selective
about how they market their co-brand. For instance, plans to build
"mock" Martha homes in Macy’s stores around the country have been put
on hold for now, amid the weak housing market. Neither company will
disclose the financial arrangements of their partnership, but Mr.
Mezger says the company still has higher profit margins from Martha
homes than other homes. Michael Meltz, a Bear Stearns analyst who
covers Ms. Stewart’s company, says it receives a fee of up to $10,000
per house.

Even if buyers pass on buying a home, they come away
with a full dose of Martha. For Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc.,
which is seeing declining viewers, but strong advertising on the
"Martha" television show amid shrinking audiences for daytime TV, the
KB venture is a marketing opportunity. The homes are a showcase for her
bedding, paint colors and magazine, "Martha Stewart Living," which is
displayed ever so subtly in the model homes. A large picture of Ms.
Stewart hangs in the sales office and adorns marketing brochures. One
couple visiting a Martha community near Atlanta told a saleswoman they
weren’t interested in buying a home. They came only to look for
decorating ideas.

That explains, perhaps, why Ms. Stewart’s design team
is so meticulous about outfitting the model homes in the subdivision.
The team tries to pay close attention to domestic details, including
the color of the lentils stored on the kitchen counter, and the
matching colors of the book bindings on the shelves. Buyers can pick
from hundreds of different options for their own homes."

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 11th, 2007 at 2:31 pm and is filed under Creative Class Consumption, Housing, Lifestyle. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.