Challenges

Mustang Lakes was yet another new master-planned community to be introduced to the north Texas market. One challenge was to have it stand out among all the competition in the area.

Another challenge was it was off the beaten path and seemingly ‘far out’ in an emerging city on the edge of the current active development areas.

This developer at the time was an unknown entity in this market, so we had the reputation of other successful community developers to add to the challenges of branding this new community.

Strategy

• Our initial strategy was to create an interesting and memorable brand for this community to help it stand out among the crowd.
• The site was previously a racehorse breeding farm and in addition was a beautiful piece of land with a series of lakes, so we capitalized on the rich heritage and awesome beauty of the land – particularly since our competitors had flat farmland with few trees.
• We aligned ourselves with a local equestrian charity to give us additional avenues to introduce ourselves to the local consumer and Realtor community.
• The centerpiece of the future community amenity area was the actual original ranch house with a lake and park around it so we promoted it as ‘the largest amenity center in North Texas’ to help separate us from the pack.
• We showed maps and drive times to communicate that our location was really only ten minutes further than competitors around us.

Results

• Between all of our branding, mass-media and hands-on marketing tactics, we were able to successfully put Mustang Lakes ‘on the map’ beginning with their first full year of sales efforts.
• Close to 250 homes were sold the first year at Mustang Lakes and hundreds of Realtors were enticed to personally visit the community to experience Mustang Lakes for themselves.
• Their second full year in existence, Mustang Lakes was named the Dallas Builders Association ‘Masterplanned Community of the Year’  as well as awarded for marketing excellence in a number of other categories.
• In addition to relocation traffic, we were also successful in creating a name for ourselves in the local community with over 70% of our sales coming from the three main adjoining communities.
• As we continue to market this community through its completion, we have consulted the developers with strategies to position them as a viable, credible firm. In 2018 they were named the city of Celina ‘Developer of the Year’ and are laying the framework for a number of new communities in the north Texas area.