Tiny Home Community Target Market and Customer Analysis

Defining the Psychographic Target Market

The target market for Slice of Heaven has been described as a combination of buyers looking to downsize, those who want to spend more time outdoors, those who want to belong to a community, and those who want to be mortgage-free while living in an urban community of like-minded individuals. This target market is almost entirely understood as psychographic. As with any complex of dwellings, there will be people of all shapes, sizes, stripes, and colors living at Slice of Heaven. The key is to understand why they are living there — or why they would choose to.

A specific challenge with determining this target market is that the concept is new and almost entirely without precedent. There are some relatively weak precedents with respect to "communities of like-minded individuals," but those are so entirely niche as to be nearly meaningless in this discussion. The one trait that can be gleaned from such communities is that these individuals genuinely value the community aspect and reject the disconnect that often exists between neighbors in the modern urban environment. The challenge is that these corollaries exist in rural areas, not urban ones. That said, the importance of community cannot be understated. These are people who will self-select to be here. The key to marketing will be to determine, roughly, who these people are and make sure they receive the message.

Lifestyle Traits and Values of Likely Buyers

The second characteristic of the target market is that it consists of people who are drawn to the outdoors and a general sense of "earthiness." This is a somewhat vague notion, but these are do-it-yourself people who like to build things, like to grow things, and like to be in a place where their neighbors work together toward common goals. These are people who do not buy their way out of problems — they build their way through them.

As such, they are more likely to be intelligent, though they may not have formal education; they may be in the trades. They may have unusual careers, either on the artistic side or the trades and hands-on side. In many cases, such individuals will prefer a smaller living space with fewer possessions. To a certain extent, the target market has checked out of the consumer economy — or they prefer to, or aspire to. They have a sense that the world is bigger than they are and thus seek to have a smaller footprint. But they are pragmatic, and they live in the city because they have a job there, or they simply prefer the urban lifestyle.

They are more likely to ride bicycles than to drive a car. They are more likely to eat organic, though they will not necessarily do so. Other alternative dietary regimes are likely to be more common. Certain activities like yoga or meditation are more likely as well, though again there are no absolutes. Another trait of the target market is that they may have the financial means to own something much bigger but prefer not to. This community is not designed as a trailer park for people on disability — to be somewhat blunt about it — but rather as a place people opt into for lifestyle reasons, not financial ones.

Market Size and Niche Potential

The market is believed to be growing. While tiny homes are a trend, they remain very much a niche market. People are fascinated by them and by the philosophy that underlies them, and this fascination is expected to continue. However, the actual size of the market for tiny homes right now is minimal, and realistically there is no established market of any sort for a community of tiny homes. Only a small percentage of people who are interested in the concept are expected to be among the serious buyers.

It is worth remembering, though, that Slice of Heaven is small, and therefore the target market need not be large. If there are 100 people genuinely interested, that means there will be a waiting list. This is a narrow niche with a certain psychographic profile, and even then only a very small percentage of people fitting this profile will genuinely be interested in buying in. The tiny house movement provides some cultural context for this market, but translating broad fascination into committed buyers remains the central challenge.