Anatomy: Pine Canyon
Client Background
Pine Canyon is a private golf community in Flagstaff, Arizona. The community’s luxury cabins offer owners an escape among pines, mountains and premium amenities infused with a sense of hospitality that isn’t easily found in a residential setting. Pine Canyon pivots on providing opportunities for its owners to discover a coveted, balanced life at every turn.
The Challenge
After being purchased by a new ownership group during the thick of the Great Recession, Pine Canyon experienced modest success but was still unable to meet or beat investor pro forma, despite offering a unique experience for its owners and members. The messaging being used was not connecting with its desired audience in a way that would inspire buyers to act. Pine Canyon needed to stand out from its competitors in the space and it needed to better understand, and more appropriately relay, its value to its audience.
The Tools
The Opportunity
Designed as a retreat for its owners, Pine Canyon’s most appealing attribute is its role as a genuine refuge for those who purchase a home in the community. Through its Anatomy Profile work, part of WHYFOR’s proprietary L.A.B.S. process, WHYFOR determined Pine Canyon, to that point, was trying to sell houses, dwellings where someone lives. But they really needed to sell homes — a place where someone belongs.
Why? Because that’s what their buyers craved.
WHYFOR’s Anatomy Profile determined Pine Canyon was more than a neighborhood. It was a place to disconnect in order to reconnect — a sought-after escape filled with indulgence, serenity, hospitality and luxury. WHYFOR worked to ensure that its branding would reflect its anatomy.
The creative concept:
Messaging and muted but sensory-rich visuals became key elements of Pine Canyon’s new look and feel as a result of WHYFOR’s Anatomy Profile. A messaging matrix developed with desired language for Pine Canyon acted as a reference tool for all branding efforts, creating a direct connection between buyers and the feeling they get when they’re at Pine Canyon.
A new tagline, “A refuge for the human spirit,” captured the essence of everything Pine Canyon offers — a place to belong.
The aha moment:
Once WHYFOR completed its Anatomy Profile and developed messaging that more appropriately reflected Pine Canyon’s DNA, the branding quickly began to resonate with prospective buyers, with owners and with staff. Pine Canyon became known as a true refuge, where members play world-class golf, owners take advantage of opportunities to explore and experience indulgent luxuries, and real estate options allow for the creation of a legitimate retreat from all of life’s typical distractions.
WHYFOR recognizes that the success of Anatomy Profile work is difficult to measure. How, after all, does one measure a feeling?
When it takes hold — that’s when. When PGA golfers reference the messaging. When a sales team adopts and leverages strategic phrasing. And, when prospective buyers use the same language about Pine Canyon that they’re consuming.
Numbers tell the story, too, as WHYFOR used its Anatomy Profile work as a strong, strategic foundation for its tactical plans. The results?
