Looks Aren't Everything: Marketing Strategies That Work

TURF ADDS VALUE. The value of turf alone is only rarely appreciated by consumers. According to PLCAA, the front lawns for eight average homes have the cooling effect of 70 tons of air conditioning. Turf also improves the quality of life for those around it by controlling dust, pollen and other substances in the air and filtering potentially harmful particles and substances from water as it recharges groundwater supplies. It also helps retard the spread of fire.

The ABCs of Lawn & Turf Benefits from PLCAA notes that grassy slopes can reduce noise created by automobiles by as much as 8 to 10 decibels.

Properly maintaining any property is a must if the homeowner or property manager wants to get the most value from that property. “People are better off putting in a simple landscape and paying to have it maintained properly than they are if they spend all of their money to put in a great landscape and don’t maintain it,” noted Bloch.

MONEY TREES. How many customers realize that insurance companies recognize the value of trees and generally allow claims up to $500 for a lost or damaged tree?

Trees can be an especially valuable part of a landscape because of their size. In the winter, deciduous trees on the south and west sides of a house can obstruct or deflect the chilling winds that drive up heating bills, while allowing the sun’s rays to warm the house. Meanwhile, in the summer, these healthy trees and their leaves can block the warm rays of sunshine that require the use of an air conditioner. One study noted in an ALCA brochure reports that when a city loses 20 percent of its trees, the temperature in that city rises an average of 4 degrees.

In the book, Growing Green Cities — A Tree-Planting Handbook, by Gary Moll and Stanley Young, an American Forestry Association study is cited that illustrates how one tree provides the following economic benefits to a property annually:

• Air conditioning: $73
• Controlling erosion and storm water: $75
• Wildlife shelter: $75
• Controlling air pollution: $50

If that cost is compounded over a 50-year lifespan for the tree with normal cost adjustments factored in, that tree becomes worth $57,151 to the property owner.

These same trees have been found to add between 5 percent and 7 percent to the value of a house lot and contribute to a quicker sale. Bloch cited a study of 1,350 real estate agents where 84 percent of those agents indicated that a house on a lot with trees was 20 percent more salable than the same house on a comparable lot without trees.

COMMERCIAL APPEAL. The key for so much commercial property is curb appeal. Owners of shopping plazas or companies with their own office building care deeply about the first impression visitors or passing traffic gets of their company. If a quality landscape is installed and maintained at these properties, that can translate into added business for the property owner.

According to ALCA, a shopping center owner in San Diego credits the property’s landscaping for the high occupancy rate and the ability to charge higher rental rates. Specifically, strategically placed trees and plantings block street noise and create a more desirable setting for the structure.

Additional studies have shown that landscaping has the highest correlation to increased occupancy in commercial buildings of any other variable. “Large projects, such as commercial sites, are the ones where landscaping can really make a difference in the value of the property,” noted David Peabody, president, Peabody Landscape Construction, Columbus, Ohio.

This doesn’t even take into account the positive effects of reducing stress and raising productivity that a quality commercial landscape can have on employees who work at the office.

WORK AT HOME. Homeowners interested in installing a professional landscape obviously care a great deal about their property, but they probably don’t realize how much value they’re adding to that property. A study by Money magazine found homeowners who have added an interior room to their house can expect to recoup 75 percent of the room’s cost in selling the house. Those same homeowners can expect to recover between 100 and 200 percent of the cost of a landscape installation in selling the house.

“We really emphasize the fact that real estate values change with landscaping,” said Peabody. “Customers have to realize this can be an investment for them.”

SELL, SELL, SELL. This information presents a pretty convincing case for the benefits of a professionally installed and maintained landscape. The information is worthless, however, if green industry professionals don’t use it to sell the public on the benefits they can enjoy from their landscape.

Peabody noted that this can be a difficult part of selling your services, however. “We have to push and push and push to get potential customers to realize these added values,” he admitted. “It’s not something that is already in their mind.”

He said that only when the entire industry begins collectively marketing itself and the environmental and societal benefits of its work will the public appreciate the value of the service provided. “It needs to be branded into people’s brains,” he said.