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Changing Orbits
Over the course of a day, a week, even a lifetime, the majority of an individual’s travel is in fairly predictable patterns. There are routine destinations that make up the vertices of our personal “orbits.” For a young working mother, for instance, her typical day may take her from home to daycare to work to her favorite grocery store to the gym then back to day care and back home. Our yearly “orbit” may include a vacation home, an annual ski trip to the same venue, visits to certain theatres or sports events, etc.
SB&A uses the term “centers of gravity” to define those places that shape an individual’s orbits. The orbits in which we travel become our comfort zone and our preferred pathways. They are the trips we make without thinking – they have become second nature. Changing people’s orbits can be somewhat difficult. It requires breaking through the routine, capturing the individual’s attention, and providing a reason to try a new pathway. Habituating this new pathway – turning it into an orbit – requires making the experience rewarding enough to leave behind the old, established orbit.
SB&A is in the business of changing and altering orbits: grabbing an audience’s attention and providing a compelling reason for the individuals to make some sort of change. From the executive who can take a new route home to save time and money to a family who changes orbits to move to a new, more attractive type of community to a senior whose quality of life will dramatically improve with the change from one center of gravity (his or her home) to another (a highly regarded CCRC), SB&A must strategically determine the greatest advantage(s) to an individual and then implement a strategy to capture a prospect’s attention.
Pocahontas 895, which SB&A/Brooks Adams Research (BAR) helped research and promote, is one example of a campaign that involved changing people’s orbits without necessarily changing their centers of gravity. These marketing campaigns educated people about the compelling fact that 895 could save them both time and money. This knowledge motivated them to change orbits. (For more information: see article: Moving Drivers to Save Time and Money by Using a New Toll Road).
A move to a new home is an example of a dramatic change in orbit, with the magnitude of the change directly proportional to the distance from the current home to the new one. Will the individual or family have to establish new centers of gravity as a result of the relocation or is the new destination close enough to old, familiar destinations? One example is Founders Bridge, developed by Gray Land and Development Company, L.L.C., which SB&A/BAR helped to promote. Founders Bridge was strategically built on Route 288, which connects both sides of the James River, to create a new development corridor. This road allows people to travel quickly and easily to familiar centers of gravity. (For more information, see article: Moving Homebuyers to a new orbit – the 288 development corridor).
The appeal of neo-urban communities revolves around narrowing orbits to increase convenience and a sense of community. Live-work-play communities empower people to walk more, to drive less, and to feel more a part of a “new town.” SB&A has participated in forward-looking research including focus groups and architectural charrettes designed to identify consumers’ requirements in a mixed-use community. |
