128 Providing Digital Information Effectively - Char Kurihara Aug 31 2022

Greg Bray: [00:00:00] Hello everybody, and welcome to today's episode of The Home Builder Digital Marketing Podcast. I'm Greg Bray with Blue Tangerine.

Kevin Weitzel: And I'm Kevin Weitzel with OutHouse.

Greg Bray: And we are excited today to welcome to the show Char Kurihara, who is the Corporate VP of Sales, Marketing, and Branding at DRB Group. Welcome, Char. Thanks for joining us today.

Char Kurihara: Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here.

Greg Bray: Well, let's start off and help everybody get to know you a little bit and tell us a little bit about yourself.

Char Kurihara: Well, I have been with DRB Group just shy 10 years now, but I've [00:01:00] been in new home construction since the late nineties. I started on the sales floor and then I've been managing and leading and motivating sales teams and marketing teams since around 2000. So, been in a leadership role in new home construction about 22 years now. I got my start in commercial real estate in the Norfolk, Virginia area. I'm from Virginia Beach originally.

Kevin Weitzel: Well, that's the business side of you char, but hey, let me ask you this. I need to know something personal about you, that people will learn about you, the person Char, that isn't about business, on our podcast today.

Char Kurihara: Okay. I'm a bit of a British car buff, and up until about five years ago, I had a 1970 Triumph TR6 and a 1974 MGB. Last year, they made them with chrome bumpers and that MGB, I actually worked two summers in high school and paid for it, myself. Restored it, and drove it all through [00:02:00] college, and that car was my first baby. So, I have a love of British money pits.

Kevin Weitzel: I do too. My second car was an MG Midget a 76. So, rubber bumpers.

Char Kurihara: Rubber bumpers, right?

Kevin Weitzel: Rubber bumpers, but I love micro cars. I currently, I don't drive a British one. I drive a little Fiat, but, yeah. I like little microcars. I always have, I always will. I don't know why. It's just a thing.

Char Kurihara: I would secretly like to have a mini Cooper, but my two sons are 14 and 16, and they're not quite six foot tall, so that's not in my cards yet. I like old British cars.

Greg Bray: Well, that's just a mini Cooper with a sunroof. That's all you need.

Char Kurihara: There you go. A convertible.

Greg Bray: Well, and when you said you restored it. Did you do the work yourself? How did you go about that process?

Char Kurihara: A little bit of both. My father owned a car dealership at that time and I would work and pay for things I couldn't do, like paint the car, but he made me resew the seats. I had to use [00:03:00] the upholstery machine and resew the seats. I had to help put the new top on it. So, when I bought it, it had no tires, no top, and the seats were all torn, but the engine and the body were in good shape. That was the foundation I started from. So, literally blood, sweat, and tears into that car. It was very painful to part with it, but I couldn't take care of it as the kids got older. They need to be driven all the time and I just didn't have time for that.

Greg Bray: Interesting. Well, Char tell us a little bit more about how you went from getting started in home building to the leadership role that you have today.

Char Kurihara: My path was sort of a little bit odd. I was supposed to be an attorney. I worked for a commercial developer in Norfolk, Virginia as a paralegal, and at the end of the summer, the president of the company sat me down and said, you know, we don't think this is the right path for you.

I was upset. I thought I'd failed, and he said, no, you're way too social to be a paralegal. I want to send you to the [00:04:00] property management side of the business. So, I started off as a gopher for property managers. This was in the day of pagers and literally had no title. I just worked. They would drop all their pagers on my desk, about 17 of them. Go to lunch, and then I got to learn how to prioritize what was really an emergency or not because one of those pagers could be a general. The other one could be just the single shop owner, renting a space. That taught me a lot.

So, started in property management. Went into general brokerage in the early nineties. Didn't make it. I was very young. There was a bit of a downturn in the nineties. Some of you might remember that, and I ended up in management at a hotel chain. Large Hyatt Hotels, back in the nineties was a superior hotel chain and did customer service, and was recruited into new home sales and went on the sales floor.

Realized that while I was successful in [00:05:00] making a lot of money, I really missed coaching others like I did previously. So, got recruited by Centex Homes, which is now owned by Pulte, and got an opportunity to grow up in management at Centex. Then just went from there. Been the head of national sales teams for other public builders. This was my first private builder and hopefully my last one.

Greg Bray: Well, Char, help us understand DRB Group a little better. Tell us more about where you're building, the type of product, and what kind of home buyers that you're working with.

Char Kurihara: Okay, well, DRB Group is the corporate entity and we just rebranded five building brands into two. Our main building brand is DRB Homes and we build from Pennsylvania down to Alabama. We build for first-time, first move up, second move up, and downsizers under the DRB Homes brand, and then we have a separate active adult brand called DRB Elevate, [00:06:00] which was formerly Elevate Homes. All the homes were specifically designed by an active adult expert and geared for those that really want that true active adult lifestyle versus a downsizer-immersed lifestyle.

Greg Bray: How then with such a broad area geographically, as well as a broad buyer demographic, I guess, that you're going after, how do you decide the marketing piece of who does what from a corporate standpoint versus the local on the ground marketing teams, and how do you structure those arrangements?

Char Kurihara: Well, here at corporate, we have an in-house ad agency, the DRB Creative Group, and they provide a lot of support for materials, flyers, web updates, E-blast, direct mail designs, website and photography, editing, things like that. I have a digital marketing specialist and her job is specifically, work with outside folks on search engine [00:07:00] optimization, digital marketing efforts related to paid search, related to the social media marketing. I really feel like if that's a company's specialty, and it makes sense, to let them focus all their efforts on that, and then we can focus our efforts on making sure we're getting the results we need.

Greg Bray: You used an interesting phrase there that I don't think we've really heard before. We have an in-house agency. You called them an agency. You didn't call them a department, or my group, or whatever. Why did you choose that word?

Char Kurihara: Because we really do treat each one of the divisions like they're their own account. So, to circle back to your original question, each of our divisions or operations, have a boots-on-the-ground marketing person, and some of them have multiple depending on the size that they are. We believe that real estate has its own local flavor. So, our buyers in north Atlanta and [00:08:00] south Atlanta are very different than our buyers in Pennsylvania up in Pittsburgh.

So, we try not to push out marketing material that is a one size fits all. This is the shot you must use. This is the wording you must use. Because of that, when there are campaigns or things that need to be done, I have account reps, is kind of how we treat our graphic artists that specialize in working with the division on keeping to our brand standards, but making sure that whatever the message is it's appropriate for that division, that operation, that community or that message that they're trying to get across. So, we treat them like clients and they get that priority. It's not something that we take for granted.

Greg Bray: Do you take it to the level of budgets and charging where you almost have to have like a profit center for your agency in-house, or is that a little bit beyond where we're at?

Char Kurihara: No, we don't take it to that level. We do hold ourselves accountable to metrics [00:09:00] for the divisions, making sure that they're seeing the return. Just like most home builders, there's sort of a corporate allocation charge, and I would say that most of our division presidents feel like they're paying us enough. I don't think any of them would think that they're underpaying.

Greg Bray: So, from a strategy standpoint, then do you find that your divisions are pushing ideas and strategy up to your in-house team, or is it going both directions, or is it more corporate saying, hey, you guys should be trying this, or you should be trying that if you haven't thought of it yet?

Char Kurihara: It's both. We have weekly marketing meetings, and what we'll do is we'll collaborate and we'll say, hey, we saw this. This worked for our Greenville, South Carolina division. Here's a great campaign they did. What do you think? Do you think this would work for you? We leave it to them to say yes or no because it may or may not. So, there's a lot of back and forth, and then there's certain things that are [00:10:00] non-negotiable. Where it'll be, okay, this is what we are doing. This is how we're doing it, but I limit those. I would say we're more standardized than centralized. If that makes sense.

Greg Bray: It's a good phrase, more standardized than centralized. Awesome. So, approximately then when you look at those various activities everybody's doing, where does digital fit compared to some of the more traditional marketing activities from a percent of effort that's going on?

Char Kurihara: Well, I'd say 85% of what we do is digital. If you are in the active adult brand, there's still an arena for direct mail. Some of our markets like Charleston, South Carolina is a big billboard market. While they're not easy to measure all the time, we still do billboards in some of our markets, but the majority of our efforts, just like most, are spent on reaching the digital customer before they know about DRB Homes, [00:11:00] trying to grab them when they're doing the searches on, should I remodel? Getting them to our website or getting them to see our paid ads. It would be very foolish in this day and age not to spend a majority of your money on the digital efforts.

Greg Bray: When you say that a particular market is more billboard friendly, that's kind of interesting to think of the idea from a geography standpoint. I get potentially a particular demographic might react to direct mail more or less than another, but a geography that's more billboard friendly versus another. Help me understand how that kind of evaluation is done to determine that.

Char Kurihara: Well, we were billboard heavy when I took over. We did some test runs with specific PURLs and URLs and things like that, and we found that we were actually generating leads from these billboards. As digital progressed, as we got more [00:12:00] tools, as we offered more resources, as newspaper faded out, we decided to move away from those billboards, and we saw some of our lead generation in certain neighborhoods, more of the resort neighborhoods, obviously, drop off. So, when we added it back and tested it again, we realized it was generating leads. So, you know, when you have a call to action or a way to specifically track in Google Analytics to see if it's driving traffic, even though it might not be the popular new thing of the moment. If it's working, it's working.

Greg Bray: So, the heart of the answer is you tested it.

Char Kurihara: Yes. I didn't believe it. I didn't believe it. I didn't want to believe it because they're so expensive monthly. So, we tested it to see, and absolutely it was working.

Kevin Weitzel: What I can tell you from the motorcycle industry, is that what works with Harley people is different than what works with what they call crotch rocket, you know, your Honda, your [00:13:00] Suzuki and Kawasaki clients. Completely different. It's amazing that the older tech works with those older buyers, and it hasn't fallen off.

Greg Bray: But I think though, to what you said though, Char, is you didn't just go with billboards the way billboards are done. You put special URLs on those billboards. You put special ways to drive them for a particular offer, from what I'm hearing you say, to try and connect it back to digital as well, and to your available tracking tools. Did I understand that correctly?

Char Kurihara: Yes. That's what we did. To speak to what Kevin said, certain markets where it's more of a retiree market, what we would call old-fashioned types of advertising do work, still work, and there's still some markets where we've tested newspaper and newspaper works. You have to test. You have to see. You can't just jump on every trend. Although we are trying not to fall behind. There's so many new opportunities and new things that are out and about for digital marketers to use.[00:14:00]

Kevin Weitzel: I'm gonna have to carefully phrase this question to not offend. I have been criticized for some of my comments sound a little offensive to people that live in the sticks, but when you're saying that, not just from age demographics, but also geographical demographics. Like people that live in the sticks, literally live in the sticks, live out in the boonies, we are still building homes for them. So, you do market to them differently, and would that be a condition where you would have to change the methodology and how you reach those people, people that are in the boonies versus the people that are in the major metropolitans?

Char Kurihara: We do have quite a few rural markets. I may have answered that question differently five years ago, Kevin. I don't think for the geography of the billboards that applies more for our resort and our beach markets, like Charleston, Delaware, the Delaware beach area, Eastern Shore of Maryland, but for the more rural areas, good signage and digital marketing works.

When [00:15:00] your desire is to own a home, having a quality home at a price they can afford and making sure they're aware of it. They still search the same way that the metropolitan folks do. Which is Google, realtor.com, referrals in from Zillow, but five years ago, maybe not. Five years ago, I would say in our Eastern panhandle of West Virginia, further out, we did have more billboards because that was more widely accepted. We did a lot more newspaper. Now, it's as digital there as it is in Pittsburgh.

Greg Bray: This is Greg from Blue Tangerine, and I just wanted to tell you how excited we are about our upcoming event, The Home Builder Digital Marketing Summit. It's coming up September 21st and 22nd in Phoenix, Arizona. Now, this is an event that you do not want to miss. We're gonna be talking about websites, SEO, analytics reports, how to use social media influencers more, how to improve your online reviews, how to [00:16:00] really do everything you need to do to start selling homes online.

Again, The Home Builder Digital Marketing Summit on September 21st and 22nd in Phoenix, Arizona. Go to buildermarketingsummit.com. Click register. Please be sure to join us at The Home Builder Digital Marketing Summit.

I love the way though, Char, that you keep saying the word test. Right? You keep saying the word test. Sometimes we get caught up in the, oh, well we have to be digital just because it's cool. Now, granted, let's be clear here. I'm all for digital.

Char Kurihara: Right.

Greg Bray: I don't sell billboards, but there are reasons that some things have worked and they may still work in the right situation and we need to not just throw it out just because it's quote, old fashioned or not cool or whatever the phrase of the day is, and Kevin, the term is rural community, not boonies.

Kevin Weitzel: Not the booties or the sticks? Yeah.

Greg Bray: But Char, you mentioned how things have changed over the last, five years or so. What are some of the ways that you're seeing buyer expectations change, your sales process [00:17:00] evolve as this digital transition has been happening?

Char Kurihara: I think instant gratification is way more of an expectation. I would say five years ago if you got back to somebody within two to 24 hours, it was okay, and now if they can't get the information nearly immediately, you have not grabbed their attention, you lose them, and very rarely will they come back. We can do retargeting and chase them around the websites for six weeks or so, but often if you don't have the information they want then and there, they're gone.

Just recently, we waited to let the technology get a little bit more advanced and we've added DRB, D, R, B, DRB, our AI chatbot to our new website to make sure that when folks are searching at 10 o'clock at night, and we don't have an online person available for them or live chat 24/7, [00:18:00] that there's a resource that can answer a majority of their questions. You know, most of the starting level questions DRB can answer and it makes the customer feel safe because they don't have to engage with somebody to get the information. It makes them feel comfortable because they are getting the information.

I think I led off before we started recording saying that years ago when I was the one that trained our sales process, it's a customer-based agenda, and I think I take the peas and carrots, peanut butter and jelly approach to sales and marketing that they go hand in hand. If you approach your customer from a marketing standpoint with it's your agenda. Let me give you the information to help you make an informed decision, and then they come into a sales center and they're greeted with that same approach of, hey, what are you hoping to accomplish today and how can I get you there? That [00:19:00] feels like authenticity, and that's what we're striving for. That's what I think most people want.

Now I'm gonna date myself, flash bang type. Um, I am over 50, in my fifties just to clarify. You know, around digital and how flashy can we be? When you buy a home, I think that customers want to see, feel touch still and flash isn't as important as understanding what they're really getting into. Pricing, transparency, how do you build, what comes when they purchase the home, what does it really look like, what does it look like behind the walls, what do you do differently? All those things are things that, once they get past the area, the community, the amenities, what's the HOA fee, that really matter to a customer because we're selling the next stage of their life as they see it.

What do I want? There's a reason I'm dissatisfied where I am and there's a goal I'm trying to achieve or a way I see this [00:20:00] bettering my life, and there's a lot of fear involved. So, anything we can do to take out the uncertainty and the fear, both with our marketing and our interactions with them, I think gives them the comfort to move forward that they are making truly an informed decision versus getting sold.

Greg Bray: That was some great insight Char, and I have a question about DRB. I think that's great that you named him.

Char Kurihara: Well, I can't take credit for that. Cindy Blackmeyer, my Director of Branding, we were trying to think of a girl's name because we were told that they respond to female names better, and she's like, what about DRB, Darby? You know, I was like, I like it.

Greg Bray: I think it's great. So, do you find yourself in your sales meetings, like talking well, DRB said yesterday that, or Darby informed us that. You know, so, I mean, does Darby get a seat at the table in your planning discussions?

Char Kurihara: Well, DRB's fairly new.

Greg Bray: Okay.

Char Kurihara: She came out in June with the new [00:21:00] website because our new custom website had the capability to integrate with our CRM. I don't actually lead sales meetings. I do lead the sales leaders. We have monthly calls and we're talking about what's working and what's not working. We're talking about, both sales and marketing and so far DRB's return on investment's been solid. We've been getting leads that we wouldn't normally get. DRB will eventually get a seat at the table.

Greg Bray: I think it's great when you start talking about DRB like part of the team. That'll be awesome. You talked though about buyers wanting more transparency, more information faster. Has there been anything over the last year or so where you discovered, hey, you know what, we need to add this to the website, or we need to make this more readily available based on the feedback we're getting from customers, that you hadn't initially thought they cared about or wanted to know?

Char Kurihara: That's a great question, Greg. I think really what we were ahead of the curve doing is back in [00:22:00] 2018, before the 2020 pandemic, we had already added interactive floor plans. At that point in time, the top 100 builders, there were only about 65% of them with interactive floor plans. Matterport tours have been something that we've had. It's not relatively new.

I think one of the industries that I look to Greg is I always kind of watch the car industry. It might be because of my love of old British cars, but I always look at the car industry and they usually are the industry that starts evolving the buying process. They were one of the first ones to have 3D virtual tours of their cars and all the glamor shots and the slide shows.

We have made it a point of making sure that we have virtual tours for almost every plan we offer. We try to have an interactive floor plan for every plan we offer. We have some new plans that may not have one yet, but it's in process and we try to have real [00:23:00] photography of every home once we have it built. I think those things are not new and flashy by anyway, shape or means, but I think they're critical to helping the consumer decide whether or not they wanna buy a home from you.

One of the things that I've seen a lot of builders head toward are the like video chats. They're heading towards video chats and there's a lot more reels on Facebook, social media. We're doing some reels. We're trying to be there on social media for our customers, but I don't think there's anything that I would say is revolutionary. I would say, adding the AI assistant is probably the most new, fun thing that we've done recently.

Greg Bray: Awesome. Well, thanks for sharing those details. When you think about the future then, is there something that you're watching or a trend that you're keeping tabs on that you think, oh, we might need to engage with this, or we know we need to, but it's, you know, a year or two away still?[00:24:00]

Char Kurihara: We know we need to, and it's probably a year away, better integration of text marketing, SMS, marketing, voice shots, to be able to, share maybe a company-wide promotion with a large range of our prospects. That's something I think that we need to have added, and we're moving toward a different internal tool that will integrate with our CRM system so that we have better, integration is the key word there. Right now, we have the ability to text customers, but it's double work. We have to cut and paste. It's not as integrated as it needs to be.

So, the VP of information technologies is in charge of that, not me. So, that's why I said we're about a year away, cause he's got a lot of initiatives on his plate, but that's important. I'm seeing a lot of builders have interactive site maps on their websites. We have those available once the consumer is [00:25:00] inside our sales office, but I don't have it on the website, and I've had several philosophical debates let's call it, with different operational leaders on that particular element of digital marketing.

My thought is instant gratification. Customer needs to know what homes are available, when are they available, how can I configure this home, what is the pricing relative to what I can afford, and they need to be able to see an overall layout of the community and they need to be able to see what home sites we're offering in that community.

One of the reasons I don't do an interactive site map on the website is imagine you're looking at a two-dimensional piece of paper, cause that's what it is, and it's showing you a particular piece of land and based off of not ever having been to that community, you think that one piece of land is the best looking piece of land in that community and it's [00:26:00] marked sold. Do you, in this age of instant gratification, call to find out if it's indeed sold, or you just keep looking and you move DRB homes aside, and we get knocked off your list and you go to the next one?

Sometimes people make assumptions about, the community or the home sites we're offering based off of a two-dimensional rendering. When they got out there, what looked like the biggest piece of land may have the biggest easement on it. It may have a big drop-off in the backyard. So, I refused to put an interactive site map on the website because I don't want folks to miss out on a wonderful area, community amenities, and home because they made a judgment call because they thought they were informed.

Kevin Weitzel: So, let me play devil's advocate on that one because I'm actually the opposite consumer of what you just described.

Char Kurihara: Mm-hmm

Kevin Weitzel: I'm the guy that calls up and says, hey, I'm interested in lot 42 because I don't wanna live near the playground. I don't wanna live near the pool cause I don't wanna hear a bunch of kids yapping and [00:27:00] flapping while I'm trying to sleep because I have crazy hours. I see that it's just, you know, you say, well that lot's not available. Okay, it's not available to buy. What about the lot next to it? Oh, that one's sold too. Well, I wanna see that that's updated in real-time or I rule you out as a consumer.

Char Kurihara: The keyword in that sentence is you said I picked up the phone and I called.

Kevin Weitzel: Yeah.

Char Kurihara: That's what I want you to do because if you just told me home site 42 is the one you're interested in, cause you don't want to hear kids and dogs yapping or barking and you want to get your sleep. Then if I've done my job as a sales trainer, that salesperson should say, hey Kevin, I don't have 42, but I have home site 26 in the next phase. It's gonna be about six months from now, and let me tell you why I think that one might be great for you. You're not seeing it on the map now, but it's coming. Can I get you in here, and [00:28:00] can we go take a look at it? You may say yes, and you may say no, but at least I got a chance to talk to you.

Kevin Weitzel: Statement of fact. I love it. That was the trick answer that I was hoping for, but yes. The guys in the motorcycle and car industry, same thing. They're like, oh, we sold these three units and why are they still on the website? These need to be pulled down. I'm like, you got a phone call out of it. Why are you worried about it? You know, it's not bait and switch. You just that one's no longer available. You just sold it. It's sold last week. Yeah, it might have sold last week and it's just, it's too lazy getting off the website, but you've got a phone call. You have been forwarded an opportunity to progress that conversation versus just no, it's gone.

Char Kurihara: Right. I'd rather interact with you and get an opportunity to really explore what's important to you than you o make an assumption and just not even interact with us at all.

Kevin Weitzel: Trick question pass.

Greg Bray: Well, and, and Char I think the heart of the message there, from what I'm hearing, is we've got a balance between they [00:29:00] want all the information. We want to give them as much information as we can, so they can be informed, but we need to make sure that that information is presented in such a way that they are not less informed than they think they are, is I think what you were describing, right? Where we have to find ways to communicate clearly the nuances that go along with, it's not just an either-or type of scenario. There is a nuance to some of it. Especially when it comes to understanding land and lots and some of those things that just drawing a picture does not tell the story, and we all can't read contour lines on maps. We don't know what that means. That's kind of what I'm hearing. Does that seem like a fair statement you?

Char Kurihara: That is an absolutely articulate way to put it. That's a hundred percent what I stand for, as both a sales leader and marketing leader, is making sure you give them enough information, but don't overwhelm them and don't help them think that they're so savvy that they don't need you. It's not a trick to [00:30:00] get them to come in, but it's a service opportunity. You do the customer a disservice when you give them so much information that they don't think they need to talk to anybody or that they think they have all the answers already because they may be missing out on the best opportunity because they're not seeking further information.

Greg Bray: Well, Char, you've been very generous with your time today. We really appreciate it. I think it's been a great conversation. As we wrap up, do you have any kind of last thoughts or marketing advice that you wanted to get out to the world today while you've got a minute with our audience?

Char Kurihara: Well, just to build on what I said a second ago. I think always remember that when you're marketing, obviously, it's your job to sell a quote-unquote product, but if you take a service approach and a customer-based approach to it and you look at how can I best serve, I think you're more likely to have repeat customers, repeat [00:31:00] business, and make that authentic connection.

When you don't chase every new digital marketing avenue and you work with the tried and true ones, and you are open-minded to trying new things, to reach the customer and you give them the information that they want, and the information that they need and you integrate it between your sales and your marketing so that they have an experience. What they see on the website, looks like what they see in the community, feels like how they got treated in the community, then ultimately that's all someone who's building a brand, and that's what I'm working on right now with DRB Homes, wants. So, continue to remember that it's all about the customer. Don't let your ego get in the way. Test, test, and retest, and make sure you're open-minded to new ideas.

Greg Bray: Thank you. Great advice. All of those, and that was way more than one. That was a whole bunch. So, thank you. Appreciate that. Well, Char, if someone wants to reach out and connect with you, what's the best way for them to get in touch?[00:32:00]

Char Kurihara: Usually email. I travel a lot for work. So, ckurihara@drbgroup.com.

Greg Bray: Well, thank you again, Char, for joining us, and thank you everybody for listening to The Home Builder Digital Marketing Podcast. I'm Greg Bray with Blue Tangerine.

Kevin Weitzel: And I'm Kevin Weitzel with OutHouse. Thank you.