By Tim Hyzdu, Executive Director, SaaS, Resonate
As the country continues to reopen, the American population is becoming very mobile—to the point where Zillow has named this period the “Great Reshuffling.” Never before has it been as important for retailers and brands to understand the driving forces behind consumers’ decisions to move or improve their homes.
At Resonate, we have been tracking this pattern since before the pandemic and have recently identified new insights that have significant implications for brands looking to serve those who are moving around the country.
Below, you can find a profile of the 66.5 million U.S. consumers who plan to buy or build a home or make a major home renovation in the near future. At a high level, this profile shows you the most predictive personal values and psychological drivers that affect these individuals’ decision-making—but that is just the beginning of the story.
When analyzing the largest DMAs by population, we see that people living in Boston, Atlanta, DC, Houston, and California’s Bay Area are the most likely individuals to be planning a move right now.
By breaking down this audience into subsegments, a richer story begins to unfold. For example, when it comes to where people shop, we see that men are more likely to purchase home improvement products from Ace Hardware, while female consumers prefer Lowe’s.
When it comes to the types of products that are most likely to catch the attention of these audiences, that data demonstrates that women are more likely to be influenced by products that look good and are family-friendly, while men are looking for innovative and luxurious products. These are important signals for retailers and product designers who want to create messaging that speaks directly to their target customers.
Finally, when it comes to communicating that message across channels, those looking to target female home movers and improvers should focus on social media networks like Pinterest, whereas male movers and improvers are more likely to be found on sites like Reddit and Twitter.
Moving out of the pandemic in the U.S., brands across a number of categories are going to be challenged to pivot their products, experiences and messaging for a new (and growing) audience of consumers looking to move homes or fundamentally alter their living spaces. Whether you’re a retailer looking to increase in-store traffic and online conversion, or a product-focused company looking to drive sales through increased personalization, these new insights provide powerful signals to inform how you identify your next customer, how to speak to them in a way that resonates with them, and which media channels are likely to prove most effective.
For the brands that get it right, the payoff will be substantial. But that means not only being able to identify who is in the market for new homes and renovations, but also what their personal characteristics tell us about what drives their decisions.
