Lifestyle Market Research for the Design of Production Houses

W01-2: Production home building companies infrequently invest in primary consumer market research. In the unusual instances when home builders do conduct consumer research, the results rarely inform the design of prototype houses but rather the builders’ marketing and sales processes. Home building companies, therefore, reduce the possibility of achieving a high level of congruence between their target home-buyer markets and their house designs. This case study illustrates the potential of consumer research to inform design through tracing the development of an unusual lifestyle market research project that does, in part, guide the design of a builder’s prototype houses…