The Design Center as a Marketing Tool

In the real estate game, location is the key to success. Firmly believing that philosophy, Jacobsen Landscape Design and Construction, Wyckoff, N.J., has combined location, attention to detail and a commitment to the community in a successful marketing program centered around its 1-year-old Design Center.

In an affluent area of northern New Jersey, one of the challenges for any landscape company is to stand out from the well-financed national service firms and low-overhead local competitors. Founder and owner Glenn Jacobsen realized that a 20-year reputation, a consistent and well-trained staff and an aggressive sales effort could only take his company so far. And so he created the Jacobsen Landscape Design Center.

"We are always faced with the challenge of differentiating ourselves from our competition and being able to spread our design philosophy," Jacobsen said. "One way we found works is to offer a high-profile example of the work we do. The results have been outstanding."

Since its opening last spring, the Design Center has become a magnet for local and regional clients looking for a little hands-on experience before settling on a landscape design project. The site – located on a corner lot on a busy local road and consisting of a two-story, 3,200-square-foot building surrounded by a garden-like setting complete with a pergola, multiple hardscapes and babbling brook – also sends a quality message to passersby.

"We wanted the Design Center not only as a place for clients to see and experience the potential of a landscape project, but for those just passing by to get the feeling of what Jacobsen Landscape is all about," Jacobsen pointed out.

The existing Design Center is an outgrowth of a smaller version built two miles up the road in Wyckoff in 1993. At that time, Jacobsen was looking for a place to showcase specific examples of his company’s work. Having seen an immediate rise in sales that first year, finding the right location before an even more ambitious center took the original center’s place was only a matter of time. Now, extensive paver walkways meander through garden settings complemented by landscape architecture, custom-designed water features and specimen plant materials that combine to create an ideal outdoor showroom.

Jacobsen’s landscape niche in northwest Bergen County has always been in high-end residential design/build projects supplemented by residential and commercial maintenance. With its roots firmly established in the local communities, Jacobsen Landscape’s significant investment in the Design Center was based on several well-defined goals:

• Location. The new center had to send a highly visible yet subtle message to passersby on a main thoroughfare between two of the most affluent towns in the area.
• Quality. The center had to attract high-end, demanding customers who would respond to the facility's professionalism.
• Community. The center would serve as a meeting place for local civic organizations to hold functions, spreading the Jacobsen Landscape name beyond its immediate customer base.
• Visualization. The center would be a place where customers could select the materials and designs for their properties.

The building also houses the company’s administrative offices and design staff, making it an ideal location for client meetings. With Jacobsen Landscape’s shop facility right around the corner, housing all landscape equipment, nursery stock and landscape materials, the highly visible new building has drastically increased the company’s market exposure.

Like the much-smaller initial Design Center, results measured in the first year of the current center's operation have been immediate and remarkable. "Thirty-nine percent of our sales leads from February through November last year came from people who said they saw or visited the Design Center," Jacobsen said.

This exceeds the numbers resulting from other lead generators, such as previous customers (19 percent of leads), Yellow Pages ads (19 percent) and referrals (15 percent).

"You can’t argue with those numbers," Jacobsen pointed out, adding that the company was running 21 percent ahead of the previous year’s sales and 3 percent ahead of its sales goal as its fiscal year closed.

The marketing challenge ahead is to maintain these numbers. Jacobsen said he saw similar initial results with the original Design Center, but those numbers admittedly lessened over time as the novelty and newness of the site waned.

"We learned that we have to make the effort to continually draw people to the center," he said. "Since we are not a retail establishment we have to give clients a reason to stop by. We are determined not to just become part of the area’s local scenery."

With that goal in mind, there has been a significant marketing effort for the new Design Center, even during its first year, when traffic comes easily. One strategy has been to promote community goodwill, and already in its short existence the center has hosted local garden club meetings, the Midland Park Chamber of Commerce holiday party and a fall festival to benefit a local children’s charity (see sidebar on this page). Last fall, one of the company’s staff members, Jody Shilan, taught a series of adult school courses in outdoor enhancements at the Jacobsen Landscape Design Center.

Jacobsen admitted there is a significant investment in maintaining such a high-profile marketing program, well beyond the initial investment in time, energy and, of course, money. The site is treated almost as a regular customer, with a dedicated weekly maintenance schedule for Jacobsen Landscape crews to keep up and improve the property. There is also an on-site manager responsible for upkeep, including special projects like an impressive holiday lights display that lit up a previously unimproved corner of town.

"We like to think of ourselves as good neighbors who happen to run a landscape design business," Jacobsen said. "And since we are a landscape design company, we have the ability – and the obligation – to present an attractive look to our community. We are able to do that everyday through the Design Center, and our customers have responded."