Case Study: J.S. Hovnanian & Sons

A four-generation, family-owned regional developer based in New Jersey, J.S. Hovnanian & Sons consistently pressed the envelope with its commitment to providing its homebuyers with the best quality and service possible. Their philosophy has transcended to the way we worked with them to build their website. www.HOVhomes.com has been a poster-child for an easy-to-use, yet content-rich builder website. The focus of the website is not to be an all-in solution, with mortgage calculators and interactive design centers – because there are other specialists who will better service those needs during the home buying process – but rather a cross-section of product and promotion.

Over the years we have provided Hovnanian with timely and pertinent website traffic analysis, and have worked together with them to add new components to the website that will improve the way a user "shops" for a home online. When it comes time to promote a Grand Opening or an upcoming development, we work with their advertising agency to create a seamless transition of their message and information from print to web. The approach has won industry recognition on multiple occasions, but more importantly has provided Hovnanian with a powerful and agile part of their marketing mix.

Addendum: "Version 2.0" launched in August 2007

About two years ago we started to realize that the Hovnanian website was going to outgrow its infrastructure, due to the expansion of the company, the way it integrated its marketing mix and the needs that had arisen after years of analytics. So we started to keep an eye on the key attributes of the existing website that made it successful for both visitor and client, then brought them together with a completely custom-designed dynamic solution in what we called "Version 2.0".

Some features of the new www.HOVhomes.com:

• Streamlined coding base - even a small community could have as many as 50 pages and 200 images to showcase all of the various models, maps, floorplans and features. We developed a modular template system that used only a few small files to create the logic and look for each page within the community.
• Integrated marketing - Hovnanian's ad agency regularly builds web-ready ads in conjunction with its regular mix of ads for newspapers and billboards. Having the same ad from a newspaper greet the visitor when they come to a community has proven to be a very powerful asset for the client's marketing mix.
• Better Lead Generation - through our eCampaigns program we are able to take prospect lists from when the community is still "Upcoming" through a sneak preview VIP opening and ultimately to the Grand Opening and beyond.
• More dynamic content - through a more dynamic approach to content management the client can not only update prices, but also change key information about a community that gets displayed throughout the community pages (phone numbers, etc). In their Quick Move-In section, Hovnanian can adjust the status of the homes, their prices, and even the formatting as the need arises; we pre-built all the logic so all they have to do is click on a button to make the update.