GarageTek has a winner of a product. Now, the company here has shown it’s a winner in advertising the product.
GarageTek of the First Coast won two Laurel Awards this year, one for the best overall ad campaign by an associate and the other for the best television commercial.
The innovative ads promote a product that’s hot in the North Florida area; many builders have signed up to include GarageTek’s system in their homes.
Once a dark, musty afterthought with a destiny of being a repository for often-useless clutter, the garage has come into its own as consumers demand space, function and style. In terms of square footage, the fastest-growing element in new home design is the garage. According to the National Association of Home Builders, almost 17 percent of new homes built in 2000 had garages that could fit three or more cars, up from 12 percent in 1991.
Of course, just because a garage can accommodate a certain number of cars doesn’t mean that’s what’s in it. Garages also store boats, motorcycles, golf carts, lawn equipment, sporting goods, seasonal items, and all that other stuff people don’t know where else to put but can’t bear to part with. They serve as workrooms, hobby centers and even gyms. So it follows that an increasing number of homeowners are looking for ways to spruce up their garages, organize the contents and make that space more usable and appealing.
For baby boomers in particular, the trend makes sense. Once the kitchen and baths have been redone, what’s left? In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Greg Alford of Atlanta’s Peachtree Consulting Group, which recently studied garage spending in the U.S., said that older baby boomers are “finishing up inside their homes and moving on” to the garage.
The foundation of the GarageTek system is the patented TekPanel™, a strong, attractive, easy-to-install wall panel on which the other system elements are attached.
Depending on individual needs and preferences, consumers choose from activity racks for equipment, tools and sporting goods, sturdy shelving, workbenches, wall cabinets of varying sizes and capacities, large utility hooks and more. Each piece is clearly identifiable and easy to reconfigure. Cabinets are lockable for safety and security.
And the upscale styling and neutral colors make the GarageTek system a perfect blend for any home.
Of course, the custom design and high quality of a GarageTek system doesn’t come cheap. The average customer spends $1,500-$2,000 per wall to properly outfit their garage. So why would someone spend $4,000-$6,000 on a GarageTek system when they can go to Home Depot or Lowe’s and buy components that claim to do the same thing for a fraction of the cost?
“The do-it-yourselfer on a budget is not our market,” says Mark Berman, the local GarageTek franchisee. “Our customers don’t want to spend Saturday afternoon drilling holes for wire shelves that they can’t rearrange later on. Our market is the upscale homeowner who understands the value and wants the convenience and style of a GarageTek system.”
Berman adds that GarageTek also markets to homebuilders who offer the system as a custom add-on.
A major appeal of the system is its flexibility. While the components are securely installed, they are not permanent—they can be replaced or rearranged with ease.
“Our system is completely flexible and we are constantly adding components to our product line,” Berman says. “A GarageTek garage can be changed quickly and easily to accommodate the changing needs of the homeowner. For example, when the children are young, you have a particular type of storage need. As they grow up and move out, and your interests and lifestyle changes, you can buy different accessories for your GarageTek system that better suit your needs.”
Berman says the market acceptance has been greater than anticipated.
“Our customers love the product, they rave about it,” says Berman. “Many of our customers have more than one home, and after they install a GarageTek system in the first one, they’ll do the second. When they have friends over, they show off their garage, and then those people call us.”
So GarageTek has become a status symbol in upscale neighborhoods? “Absolutely. The market response has been tremendous.”