Home Industry Market Research

Market research is an important function of having your own integrated marketing firm and definitely can be the most fun. Specializing in the home industry, this past week, Forest Home Media partners, Dana Tucker, and I headed to one of the media world meccas for us – Southern Living Magazine – and also to their latest Southern Living Idea House in Senoia, Georgia. We are preparing for the 2013 Southern Living Idea House at Fontanel in Nashville and you are going to want to follow Castle Homes as they build this impressive project on their Facebook page.

Before sharing the details on our Southern Living experience, we were amazed by the small Georgian town which has been the backdrop for around 24 movie/television projects and is currently the fictional setting for AMC’s hit show, The Walking Dead, aka Woodbury, GA.

 

In addition, the town boasts music sensation Zac Brown’s restaurant, Southern Ground Social Club. Brown is establishing a new youth camp on his area farm and is also the benefiting charity for the idea house. In my personal blog, NanceSense, I have additional highlights of the trip including a review of Zac’s restaurant and our trip to the latest trend in movie theaters, Fork and Screen.

Working on premier home tours since 1998, two years ago I was the PR rep for the Nashville Southern Living Showcase Home built by the area’s top custom homebuilder, Castle Homes. It’s incredibly exciting that in 2013 the nation’s only Southern Living Idea House will be built at the historic Barbara Mandrell property, Fontantel in Nashville, by Castle Homes, the 2012 Southern Living Custom Builder of the Year.  In prepping for this massive client PR opportunity, we visited the 2012 home currently open in Senoia, Georgia through December 23.

This charming town, located around an hour from Atlanta, has remarkably hosted two Southern Living Idea houses. Project developer Scott Tigchelaar gave us an overview of the city and the unprecedented Idea House projects. According to their website, “Senoia Enterprises Inc. and Historic Development Ventures were started by Paul Lombardi and Scott Tigchelaar,of Raleigh Studios – Atlanta. The Historic Senoia Project is a downtown re-development initiative within the Historic District of the City of Senoia, Georgia, originally undertaken by the principals of Raleigh Studios – Atlanta.”

The 2012 Southern Living Idea House is remarkable because for the first time, SL takes on a historic farmhouse renovation. We love, love a time lapse, check out this one for a great video project overview.

Southern Living Idea House Time Lapse Video, Senoia, GA

In addition to being a gorgeous farmhouse filled with great building and interior design ideas, the home has also been dressed for the holidays since mid-October. Here is my photo overview:

Photo Highlights of 2013 Southern Living Idea House taken by Forest Home Media

Throughout the home there are several QR codes available from scanning including this one from national sponsor Marvin Windows. Do you use your smartphone to scan these? We’d love your feedback at the end of this blog.

As I also mentioned, we were also thrilled to visit the headquarters for Southern Living magazine in Birmingham, Alabama touching base with them on the upcoming Nashville project. We were given a personal tour by the oh so charming Frank Craige, Southern Living, Home Program Manager, and we were very pleased to meet Zoe Gowen, one of the editors for Southern Living’s online publication, The Daily South, a must-read for me. Here are a few photo highlights:

In June of 2013, Nashville will be hosting its own Southern Living Idea House at the beautiful Fontanel property.  Impressively, this tourist destination has earned a #3 ranking on TripAdvisor. You are going to want to plan a visit to see visit this gorgeous home more than once and check out the yummy Café Fontanella on site. Don’t forget to follow the build at Castle Homes.