232 Generational Marketing in Home Building - Sara Gutterman Aug 28 2024

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, Sara Gutterman, who is the CEO and co-founder of Green Builder Media. Welcome, Sara. Thanks for being with us today.

Sara Gutterman: Hello, Greg and Kevin. Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.

Greg Bray: Well, Sara, let's start off by just helping people get to know a little bit about you. Give us that quick background overview about yourself.

Sara Gutterman: Sure, I am a native from Colorado. I went back [00:01:00] east to do my undergrad. I got the opportunity to live abroad a couple of places, came back to Colorado to go to business school. I started my first business actually, when I was 21. So, learned enough to get very dangerous and then went back to business school. Went into venture capital. I was in Boulder, Colorado at the time, with a midsize fund.

It was kind of 90s and early 2000s. We invested mostly in telecom infrastructure, some biotech deals. But because we were in Boulder, Colorado, we also invested in some organic foods and natural products companies, like Horizon Organic Dairy, which a lot of people know as the largest organic dairy company in the world now.

Kevin Weitzel: I buy Horizon.

Sara Gutterman: Fantastic. Good. I do too. I'm glad to hear that. We also invested in the Whole Foods of Europe and then sold it to Whole Foods. So, during that timeframe, I got to learn from some people far smarter than me about how to create companies that were simultaneously sustainable and profitable and had kind of a [00:02:00] multiple bottom line in terms of their priorities and their areas of focus.

 In 2004, I met my co-founder of Green Builder Media, a gentleman named Ron Jones, who is considered to be one of the OGs, original gangsters that is, of green building here in the U.S. He's been a green builder for about 45 years and we decided to fuse his building industry expertise with my business growth and development experience and we started Green Builder Media in 2005. So, we'll be 20 years next year, which is very exciting for us.

At Green Builder Media, we do a lot of different things leading with our media and communications channels. We have a whole suite of demonstration projects. We do events. We have something called Cognition Smart Data, which is our market intelligence and data services. We also have Cognition Academy, which is training and education, and curriculum. And then, we're also now offering high-quality carbon offsets to the marketplace, because we really feel [00:03:00] that in order to get to a net zero carbon built environment, we really have to have those carbon offsets to kind of reach that last mile of our climate goals and objectives.

Kevin Weitzel: All right, we're at the portion that everybody knows is coming, which is where I ask a personal thing about you. But because of that intro, I have two pre-questions because you just glossed over two really fantastic things. First pre-question, your alma mater, where was that?

Sara Gutterman: I did my undergrad at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. And then I did my MBA from CU Boulder because I didn't want to take on any more student debts and I wanted to go in-state.

Kevin Weitzel: I can appreciate it. Number two, living abroad. Where'd you go? Where was it?

Sara Gutterman: So, I studied at Oxford University and then I studied also in St. Petersburg, Russia at the University of St. Petersburg. And then after college, I lived briefly in Paris. Then I've also just had the wonderful opportunity, just because I've been blessed and have a [00:04:00] wonderful family that love to travel to be able, to travel and spend time really all around the world.

Kevin Weitzel: That is freakishly fantastic. And you did it a better way. I stepped foot in almost 83 countries and that was all with the Marine Corps. So, it was definitely nowhere near like Paris or Oxford. It was more like the armpit of this country, the armpit of that country. It was not fun. All right. So, now we're going to get back into the flow of the show, which is, I need to know, and our listeners want to know something interesting about you that has nothing to do with work, nothing to do with the home building industry, just something specifically about you.

Sara Gutterman: So, I live at 9,000 feet in the Colorado Rockies, in the San Juan Mountains near Telluride. Anything that has to do with a mountain, I am in. When I'm not working or hanging out with my husband, I try to play outside. So, I'm an avid runner, hiker, biker, mountain climber. I like to just sit by the river and watch the water go by and, you know, hang out and like, watch leaves drop from trees. You know, anything that has to do with trees, rivers, [00:05:00] flowers, you know, whatever that is, count me in.

Kevin Weitzel: I love it.

Greg Bray: So, I have a question. When they build homes at 9,000 feet, do they install like those oxygen masks like they have on the planes, you know, just in case?

Sara Gutterman: They pop down from the ceiling fans. Yeah, absolutely.

Kevin Weitzel: Well, while you're framing this wall in, if the altitude pressure changes.

Sara Gutterman: Very cute. Actually, the thing that we suffer from here more than anything is because we're at 9,000 feet, the homes here, no one has air conditioning, right? We don't really have a cooling load. But more and more because of the increasing frequency and intensity of wildfires because of drought across really the Western half of North America, and the changing jet stream. Like right now, today as we speak, we have wildfire smoke here from the 300 fires that are burning up in Canada because the jet stream now brings it down this far south. So, we have to close up our [00:06:00] windows.

But then it just so happens that the reason why the jet stream is coming down this far south is because there's a hot air system that is just kind of stalled over California and Utah. So, it's bringing a heat dome as well. So, we kind of have this really terrible combination of the heat dome, plus the wildfire smoke. So, we've got to keep the house closed with no AC. So, we struggle a little bit with that more so than the oxygen because you acclimate to that.

But when we have to deal with the heat and the wildfire smoke, so kind of changes the way we think about how we build homes here, right? We need to have those whole home air filtration systems and perhaps, you know, starting to introduce a cooling load, which is a new need here because of hotter temperatures.

Greg Bray: Well, Sara, it's interesting that you mentioned some of the climate challenges and things there because it kind of seems to tie into this whole green building concept that you guys are promoting and trying to educate on. What got you interested coming out of your venture capital and other business things saying, Hey, I want to be [00:07:00] involved in this type of a mission, related to green building and educating and things around that?

Sara Gutterman: Yeah, Greg, that's a great question. So, because I grew up in Colorado and very close to nature, the concept of sustainability, frankly, is just in my DNA. It's how I was brought up. But when I met Ron Jones, and he had already been building this was, you know, early 2000s so way before green building was cachet. You know, and this was when the boulder was very big and the hill was very steep that we had to push that boulder up.

Fortunately, now the boulder is smaller and the hill is less steep, but he had already been building green homes for 15, 20 years, and had a lot of experience in it. And we really saw a white space just to normalize and streamline the language of sustainability in the building sector. So, when we first started, we could talk about energy efficiency and building science and cost savings from energy efficiency and building science.

Fast forward to today, the landscape has [00:08:00] really changed and, you know, we're able to have a much broader and more robust conversation about things that actually have become very important to not just home buyers, but also to builders. Like resilient building. Right? How do you build homes and communities that can withstand super storms and hurricanes and flooding on the East and wildfires and in the West and then extreme temperatures, cold and hot everywhere.

Healthy home actually became another big topic of focus for homeowners and home buyers during the pandemic and has continued to be top of mind since then. Of course, energy efficiency, partly to save money, but also just to have a more comfortable home. So, we saw this white space, we jumped in on it and we've been trying again to kind of normalize the conversation around green building now for two decades.

Greg Bray: Sarah, it sounds like with all of that, that you just mentioned, we could have a dozen episodes drilling in on some of those very specific topics, but today, one of the things [00:09:00] that really interested me is I saw some of the data that you've been promoting and publishing around generational marketing, and I wanted to maybe focus a little bit on that today. What got you interested in doing that kind of research and how long have you been kind of exploring the idea of generational marketing and the differences between people in their various stages of life?

Sara Gutterman: Yeah, so we've been tracking generational marketing for about a decade now, and this is through our Cognition Smart Data Market Intelligence and Data division. We're able to harvest data on our audience, which is a hybrid trade and consumer audience of early adopter and first mover individuals. But then we're also able to track, we have an artificial intelligence-based technology platform that uses IBM Watson's logic to track trends and areas that are near and dear to us. So, things like energy efficiency and net zero energy, net zero carbon, water, indoor air quality, electrification, et cetera.

We [00:10:00] really came to understand that there's an interesting thing that's happening in the West in general, and particularly here in the U.S., and that is a massive power shift and wealth shift. So, boomers who have held and continue to hold many of the most powerful positions in politics, in businesses, particularly, you know, Fortune 100, even Fortune 500 companies, and in other areas of our society are retiring in droves. And as they do so, Gen Xers are poised to seize those leadership positions. Gen Xers are really at the peak of their careers. And so, they already do hold a lot of leadership positions. But we're seeing that very entrepreneurial and ambitious millennials and even Gen Zs are starting to seize those leadership positions as well.

Each generation is shaped by its own unique historical context. So, things [00:11:00] like cultural events, wars, elections, climate events, and natural disasters, certainly the economy, recessions, times of boom and bust, so to speak. So, we came to realize that each of the generations, and we really look at the 4 main generations. So, boomers, Xers, millennials, and Z's that are impacting the housing market today. We are tracking a little bit traditionalists who are older than boomers, and alphas, we're tracking them more and more. They're younger than Gen Z's and they'll start emerging into the housing scene pretty soon. Not quite yet.

But as we look at the purchase drivers and behavioral patterns of those 4 main generations that are impacting the housing sector, there are trends that track with those historical events that I just mentioned, and also the specific nuances and pensions that each of those generations have. They are translated into their general purchase [00:12:00] drivers and behavioral patterns for their homes.

Greg Bray: I always find this topic fascinating because there's part of me that goes, there's no way we can take such a large group of people that are all individual and all have very unique experiences, and yet lump them together. But then I see things about, I'm Gen X, I see things about it, I go, oh yeah, I do feel that way. Oh yeah, that is me. Oh yeah, that, and I'm like, okay. Then maybe we can. Is it too much pulling large groups together when we're trying to understand, or does it really work across such large groups to kind of put people in these different buckets of expectations and experiences, and goals?

Sara Gutterman: You know, Greg, that's another great question. And really, it's kind of like a bell curve, right? Where you're going to have outliers and you're going to have both ends of the spectrum that may not fit into what the median data reflects., but if we kind of take out those outliers or the ends of the spectrum, and we focus on [00:13:00] the main subset of each generation or the majority, I think that we can gather some insights based on the data that is pretty representative generationally.

You're right, though, that whenever you're talking about such large groups of people, you know, let's say, 65 to 73 million people within each of those generations, yes, it is absolutely hard to categorize exactly and have everybody fall into that. But I do think that what we're doing is just trying to showcase what the trends are.

When we share these trends with our builder friends and colleagues and clients with our manufacturer friends and colleagues and clients, they tend to agree that that's the feedback that they're getting, regardless of where they're focusing geographically or, you know, in terms of the profile of individuals within those generations. There's certainly some trends, macro trends that we think are applicable across these different [00:14:00] generations.

Greg Bray: So, what do you see from a marketer's role? How do they use this type of data to be able to connect better? Any immediate examples that come to mind of how somebody targeted a specific generational message?

Sara Gutterman: Yeah, we work with all kinds of builders and manufacturers who utilize this data to craft messages based on the buyer generation and profile. So, with our Cognition Smart Data, we will work with our, again, colleagues, partners, clients, to create a custom report.

So, for example, if it's a large national builder, we can look not just a generational data on a national scale, but then filter that down in terms of, say, region, or even state. So, we can get a little bit deeper into the preferences and purchase drivers for individuals in a generation in a particular region or state. That's where you start seeing the nuances when you start drilling down. But a lot of the folks that [00:15:00] utilize our cognition data craft specific messages.

So, for example, if it's a builder, and they have a millennial home buyer walking into their showroom or a demo home, they will use certain talking points. Whereas if they have a buyer that's a Gen Z or an Xer or a boomer, those talking points will be different. So, we've worked with builders and manufacturers to actually come up with sales sheets based on those generational data sets and preferences.

Greg Bray: When a builder is trying to connect with a particular audience of that nature, have you seen any, like, terrible mistakes? For example, they're trying to reach boomers, and all of a sudden, they're offending them instead because they said something that doesn't apply, or they're connecting with millennials when they meant to connect with somebody else or something. Any thoughts there?

Sara Gutterman: Well, yes, we have, we have. And I'm not going to point to any specific case studies here because that would be embarrassing for the builder. [00:16:00] But we have heard stories where the builder has tried to communicate things, not so much that's been a terrible mistake and offended people, but that it just simply that hasn't resonated. When builders are talking, again, with boomers or with millennials, there are different talking points that they can use that will be more optimized and effective.

So, for example, we worked with a builder that thought that they were building a 55-plus, you know, kind of age-specific community along the front range in Colorado, and as it turns out, their buyers were millennials. And it's partly just because millennials need homes right now, right? Millennials and now older Gen Z's. So, there were just more millennial buyers. But the marketing language and materials that they had prepared weren't really applicable for the people who are actually coming in to view their homes. So, they had to pivot and come up with new materials and sales talking points.

Kevin Weitzel: Wait, you mean so they didn't start off with, do your crickety bones keep you from being able to walk up and down [00:17:00] stairs? Do you find the value of living in a single-level home? They didn't start off with that?

Sara Gutterman: Well, they did, but then that just fell flat on millennials. It was actually as much though about the amenities for folks who were kind of later in their careers or, you know, borderline retirement or are already into retirement, and millennials wanted maybe some similar amenities, but they just wanted to be talked to a little bit of a different way.

Greg Bray: One of the areas that I've seen emphasized here has to do with finances specifically, right? Where if you go after boomers there's a much higher percentage that can pay cash, so you don't have to worry about some of the interest rate issues and some of those challenges right now. Whereas, more of the younger folks don't have the same financial resources, so down payments are an issue, and interest rates are an issue. Is that something that your data backs up or is that just kind of one of those gut guesses that people kind of think is part of that messaging and is maybe a myth?

Sara Gutterman: It is [00:18:00] absolutely true. We do an annual state of the industry survey at the end of the year and then we release it at the beginning of the year. And so, I have some great data from the state of the industry at the end of 2003 that we did that we kind of released the beginning of this year. But, you know, we looked at financial implications of the economy, certainly younger generations were feeling the pinch more. Although, you know, we start getting into boomers, we do see that as folks retire and they're on fixed incomes, they are cognizant of things like utility bills on a monthly basis.

But we saw that millennials and Gen Zs were cutting back more just on, say, monthly household spending and were more impacted by higher interest rates than Xers, who, as I mentioned earlier, are really in the peak of their careers and boomers who hold over 50 percent of household wealth here in the U.S.

Another thing that we saw [00:19:00] is that younger generations and mostly Gen Z's, but to a certain extent millennials were also sitting on the sidelines more because of higher interest rates, because of the fact that they were feeling strapped and that the economy was tight. I think with interest rates and mortgage rates coming down a little bit, instead of in the 7 percent we're going to see it end up somewhere closer to 6% by the end of this year, I think we'll start seeing more movement. But certainly, as we saw home prices explode, that did put some of those younger generations on the sidelines for a little bit longer than they had hoped.

Greg Bray: [00:20:00] Hey, everybody. This is Greg from Blue Tangerine. And I just wanted to personally invite you to join Kevin and me at the upcoming Home Builder Digital Marketing Summit. It's going to be October 23rd and 24th in Raleigh, North Carolina. You do not want to miss this. We're going to have marketing education. We're going to have online sales counselor education. We're going to have networking, round table discussions, and of course, a whole lot of fun. So, make sure you get registered today and join us. You can get all the details at buildermarketingsummit.com. Can't wait to see you there.

In marketing, one of the challenges that I think recurs regardless of what you're trying to do is you can get in this trap of thinking that people are like you. And so, you design this message that resonates with you as the person creating the message. And I know that just in my own personal life, sometimes just as a Gen Xer with kids who are young millennials or early Gen Zs, kind of depending on where you draw that line, right?

They view the world differently, even though they grew up in my house. They view the world differently than I do, which is shocking. They should know that my way is right. But yet we all get in that trap, right, of everybody should view the world the way I do, and therefore this message obviously will resonate with them. How do we use the data and things that you guys are generating to help us break out of that or [00:21:00] avoid that trap? What tips do you have?

Sara Gutterman: I really believe that as marketers, you have to figure out how to communicate with someone where they are rather than where you are. And so, if we're crafting a message based on our own beliefs, when I say we, I mean, my team at Green Builder Media, we will craft a different message than, say, the messages that we help our builder partners and clients craft because they have just a different brand position, brand message.

With some of the data that we are collecting, it's pretty interesting because we find that we can communicate a message in different ways, but as effectively. So, for example, if we're talking about energy efficiency, and we're talking with a buyer, regardless of what age that they are, that is not necessarily into say, sustainability. Then we can frame that conversation around cost savings.

Same thing with, like, healthy home. For example, do you want your family to be sick in your home or do you want your family to be [00:22:00] healthy? So, I think that with the data that we're tracking in certain sustainability-related topics, there's definitely a way to connect with people, even in terms of climate-related topics, right? Someone might not believe in climate change at all, or they might not believe that humans caused it.

And you know what? It doesn't really matter, right? What matters is that if they are a nature lover, if they're a hunter or a fisher person, or they like to go outside and play in nature with their children, then you can take that angle, right? As opposed to folks that are very committed to sustainable living and reaching our climate goals. And you can use different language.

But I think with respect to green building, home performance, saving money, being more comfortable, having higher resale values, all of these things have been proven out with respect to building greener, higher performance, healthier, connected homes. And now, as I said earlier, more and more resiliency is really resonating because pretty much everybody's feeling [00:23:00] the impacts of either extreme weather. It's hot, right? We're experiencing more frequent and intense storms and flooding and wildfires and hurricanes and tornadoes. I mean, look at this tornado season. It's been devastating.

Regardless of where someone is at in the spectrum of sustainability, there are a lot of compelling talking points and ways to talk with folks along that entire spectrum. Whether it's Hey, keep your house and your family protected from whatever crazy weather is happening all the way through to carbon offsets to offset the operational emissions of your house so we can meet our climate targets and not go over, you know, two degrees of global warming. There's a big spectrum of communication and talking points between those two ends. But fortunately, there's a lot of different options to choose from.

Kevin Weitzel: Well, Sarah, I think that what you're bringing up is that a lot of it comes into mindset. Because I'm a centrist, you know, when it comes to political and, [00:24:00] but I'm a giant big old hippie tree hugger at my deepest core. You know, when I see people that argue against solar, because, Oh, those nuts in California, making a requirement to have solar energy in your home, that's crazy. It's going to drive the price of the homes. Well, guess what? The price of the homes are already crazy there.

And the thing is that when they talk about costing more, you know what? Granite countertops cost more and yet we justify that just because it's beautiful and that's what we want in our house. But isn't beauty also the fact that you can go out and not choke and you're breathing the solids that are there, the particulates that don't need to be there based off of our pollution?

Sara Gutterman: Absolutely, Kevin. You make such a good point. Really, at the end of the day, when I hear pushback against whether it's solar or green building in general, my response is, look, if we're creating better, healthier, more comfortable, more cost-effective homes for people, and oh, by the way, it has a positive impact on the environment, what's wrong with that? Doing the right thing regardless of what your beliefs are, why wouldn't we do that? [00:25:00] There's nothing wrong with this.

And especially now, because there's been so many innovations and advancements in sustainable products and materials that are now really price competitive with, let's call them conventional ones. It kind of becomes a no-brainer. With something like solar now, again, tying in the resiliency piece, where if you install specifically solar plus storage, not only are you ensuring that a house can stay powered if there's a grid outage for whatever reason, you know, whether it's a natural disaster or extreme temperature, or just you know, a tree falls over a line and the grid goes down, you have that resiliency piece, you have that backup piece.

Kevin Weitzel: Wait, wait, you're telling me that here in Arizona, where it only rains like two days a year and it's only cloudy like once a year. I don't know, whatever it is. I mean, it's basically Hades wrapped up in the States. But, uh, you mean to tell me that I don't have to worry about my grandmother dying in the middle of the day because her electricity goes [00:26:00] out and her house escalates to 140 degrees?

Sara Gutterman: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, what you're dealing with there in Hades is, much different, you know, for example, than what I deal here with at 9000 feet where wildfire is, you know, our biggest concern. When it gets to 80 here, we get really frustrated, so we don't deal with the extreme heat like you are. But battery storage adds an element of safety and security and protection and so it goes beyond, you know, the politics. It starts making sense. And now that the cost of solar photovoltaics or PVs and storage are dropping at just astronomic rates, all of a sudden, it becomes very cost-effective.

The other argument you can make is you're really future-proofing your house against fluctuating and really ever-increasing utility costs. Now utilities are doing a good job [00:27:00] of turning their power sources renewable, right? So, in Arizona here in Colorado and Nevada, and other states across the country, a lot of utilities are moving away from portfolios that are 100 percent fossil fuels to renewable energy. Just because at this point, it's actually cheaper to build solar and wind sources for utilities than it is to actually drill and access fossil fuel.

So, we've actually hit that economic inflection point where it makes more sense to build out renewable energy capacity, as opposed to nonrenewable. But for your home, especially if you're using solar plus storage plus demand-side energy management, which means your system is interacting with utility to draw power from a battery at peak pricing, these smart systems actually can save homeowners money.

And going back to the generational marketing piece, like younger generations get this. This [00:28:00] is a baseline. I want to share one point of data with you that is going to blow your minds, and that is 100 percent of our Gen Z audience said that they want to buy and live in an all-electric house because they equate all-electric homes with Tesla's right. It's like, why wouldn't I want a super, you know, high performance, super engineered, healthier, better home that's all-electric? I don't want to burn gas in my house and my stove or for, you know, HVAC or water heating. Why would I want to burn gas in my house? That's gross, right? That's the response we get.

Kevin Weitzel: So, are you saying that the marketers that are out there that are selling for homebuilders need to change the messaging from luxurious and near parks and schools to the fact that it's healthy for your family?

Sara Gutterman: Yeah, that's what we're actually seeing from younger generations. They actually don't want granite countertops anymore. They literally do not want jacuzzi spas and they don't want bigger homes. They don't want McMansions. We've seen, [00:29:00] you know, year over year, the average size of the average American home decreasing. And that's partly because of economics for builders and changing zoning requirements and density, and they can build more smaller homes and actually make a higher profit than build fewer, bigger homes, given today's demand, and again, zoning and things like that. But it also reflects generational demand.

When people ask me what millennials and now more and more Gen Z's want, I say that they want the sustainability unicorn, right? They kind of want it all. They want compact homes that are easy to heat and cool and clean, that are energy efficient, healthy, connected, solar powered, that have ergonomic home offices, that have nontoxic materials, that conserve water, but that have these different elements of sustainability. Because to them, it's just a baseline now. It's not an upgrade and it's not a choice like it was with Xers and Boomers.

Kevin Weitzel: Tell me if I'm right on this mindset [00:30:00] because I think that Gen Z aligns more with boomers than they actually think in the fact that they value time. Me, as a Gen Xer, at the older end of that spectrum, I value time in the fact that I don't have much time left. So, I value the time that I have with my family, with my kids, that I don't have to worry about maintaining, cleaning my home and all the junk that comes along with an expansive floor plan.

I think Gen Z is in that same boat but in a different capacity. They don't realize that they're going to die in like, you know, a snap of the fingers. They are looking more at time like I want to get out of my house. I look at it a place as a base camp, more or less like kind of like a tent when you're camping and then I want to go out, I want to go to the coffee shops. I want to go experience things with my friends. Am I on the right mindset there that that is what they're valuing, and that's why these footprints don't have to be these giant floor plans?

Sara Gutterman: Yes. Okay. So, there's a lot to unpack there. So, let me start with the fact that Gen Xers, they were hardest hit by the great recession, you know, what happened in, [00:31:00] let's say, 2008 through really, you know, say, 2014 when you look at the recovery of the housing market. Xers lost about 85 percentish of all generational wealth in the sector.

Kevin Weitzel: Guilty.

Sara Gutterman: Yeah. That actually made Gen Xers the most conservative homebuyers, conservative and cautious homebuyers. Now, Xers are considered to be what's called the sandwich generation. They're taking care of parents and kids, and in some cases, grandkids. And so, Gen Xers in general, they're actually the ones that are looking for the larger homes that could be appropriate for multi-generational living, but certainly for entertaining both indoor and outdoor entertaining of multiple generations and friends and families.

Whereas, millennials, they're starting young families, so they have some different considerations with respect to space and yards. They want a lot of outdoor living space. And then you're right that Z's because they're just starting to think about [00:32:00] having families. Although another interesting data point, there are more Gen Z's right now with kids than there are Gen Z's who are married. So, that's a very different scenario than boomers where that was pretty much taboo, and Xers where it's kind of okay, but still a little bit taboo. So, you know, again, different mindset.

And you're right that Z's are very much travelers. They are in that phase of life where they are exploring, you know, life, their adventurers. With that said, Kevin, and this is kind of the piece to unpack, we do have to think about the impact that COVID had on all of us with respect to our homes.

For years we were told that our homes were the safest place for us to be. Since COVID, what we have seen is a massive shift in the idea of looking at our homes as our sanctuaries and people wanting to create sanctuary spaces, inside and outside of our homes again, indoor and outdoor spaces. Whether those are, you know, [00:33:00] yoga and meditation rooms, or maybe Zoom rooms where you can, you know, take a computer and go and do your Zoom that's outside of your daily living space or where your family is. And then certainly with outdoor spaces with little small gardens or Emeditative areas.

And the other dynamic is that Gen Zs, if you look at how they've grown up, they're digital natives, their formative years were during COVID. And so, they are actually a little bit more of an introspective and introverted generation. This is in mass. So, that's what the data shows. So, they're actually okay chilling in their homes more so than Gen Xers were. This is Gen Xers, right? The generation of X games and, you know, everybody was out running around all the time. So, there's a generational difference there as well.

Greg Bray: Well, Sara, this has been fascinating, the insights and I think we could keep going for quite a while to drill down. But I know that these numbers and things, you've got those out there for people to find. Where can people find the actual [00:34:00] data points and research?

Sara Gutterman: Yes. So, we have a whole section on our website. If you go to greenbuildermedia.com and look for Market Trends or Cognition Smart Data. If you click on there, we've got all kinds of great information. I do an annual generational marketing webinar. Actually, if you kind of scroll through the blogs on that page, you can get to that or you can just search generational marketing on greenbuildermedia.com. But that's the best way to access our market insights.

And then, we have a weekly E-newsletter, I'll do a shameless plug, called our Vantage E-newsletter. It's kind of our best of roundup newsletter that has a lot of cognition market intelligence and insights in it. It's free. It comes out every Thursday. So, delivered straight to your inbox.

Greg Bray: Well, Sara, do you have any last thoughts or words of advice that you wanted to leave with our listeners today?

Sara Gutterman: Yeah. So, I have been in the sustainability field for many decades and in the housing sector for a couple of decades, and I have [00:35:00] never been more excited and enthusiastic about the rate and pace of transformation. We are absolutely transitioning not just to a net zero energy built environment, but a net zero carbon built environment. That is exciting.

Everything from the level of knowledge the building professionals have now about sustainable design and building science and green construction best practices through to now a growing interest in specifying low carbon products all the way through to buying carbon offsets and really understanding generational marketing and the shift in consumer demand for these net zero carbon energy efficient, healthy, connected, resilient, solar plus storage powered, water-conserving homes.

Really in awe at the transformation that's taking place. And I feel that if marketers can really dive in and understand not just what's happening, but how to play an active role in ushering in that transition [00:36:00] and being a part of that transition now is the time and here is the place. It's really a transformative change that's happening.

Greg Bray: Great thoughts. Great thoughts for sure. Well, Sara, if somebody wants to learn more and connect with you directly, what's the best way for them to get in touch?

Sara Gutterman: Don't call me because apparently I have become terrible at returning phone calls, but if you want to shoot me an email, it's Sara, S A R A dot gutterman@greenbuildermedia.com, and that's me.

Greg Bray: Well, thanks again, Sara, for spending time with us today 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. [00:37:00]