Mansions are fascinating to watch on TV and the Internet. It’s complete—sometimes, too complete people ask themselves, “Do I need that?” The answer doesn’t always come. After all, it’s nice to have stuff there in case anyone needs them.
Then, there’s the tiny house. Another fascinating housing subculture that millennials are more than on board with. Because of social media and tiny house’s online traction, it’s no surprise that more people would want one.
On Pinterest, there’s a wide range of tiny home inspirations to explore the possibilities of arranging them and making things fit. A YouTube channel called Living Big in a Tiny House with 3.66 million subscribers explores the different ways people can construct their tiny homes. Netflix became on board this trend, releasing a series called Tiny House Nation, featuring the construction of tiny houses and the stories of the people living in them.
They have gained popularity over the years because of their simplicity, innovation, and solutions to much bigger problems than the people living in them. On the other hand, it might just be branding and marketing.
What the Tiny House Solves
When people talk about tiny houses, they talk about it as a solution to many societal problems. From housing to finances to environmental damage, the tiny house addresses them all. When one looks at these issues, the numbers are far from impressive:
- In the United States, there are 43 million renters as of 2019. Accompanying this is the growing one-person households that the housing industry needs to cater to.
- The purchasing power of today’s average paycheck is lagging 40 years behind. As a result, only 38% of millennials feel financially stable.
- A study found that 77% of individuals are interested in learning about sustainability, and most of them have taken some form of eco-friendly steps.
Tiny house, then, provides spaces that can validly cater to one-person households. Owners would also pay monthly for home loans instead of rent, so they would be paying for something to become their own. The carbon footprint for tiny houses is smaller because of less energy use and smaller scale construction. These problems and solutions are at the core of tiny house branding, and so far, it’s working.
Green Marketing
Since tiny houses claim to be a more sustainable option for housing, the brand takes advantage of green marketing. Green marketing is all about promoting a brand to be eco-friendly. It works because people are becoming more aware of the increasing environmental damage on the planet, especially younger generations.
A study found that 87 percent of individuals are willing to support a product that has a positive social and environmental impact. The same number of consumers have a positive perception of a company with social or ecological advocacies. Moreover, 68 percent of millennials have purchased an eco-friendly and sustainable product in the last 12 months. Therefore, green marketing has so much potential in advancing a company’s brand because of increased environmental awareness.
The Help of Big Brands
Tiny houses have been used by established brands for marketing purposes. They’re movable, so it makes marketing in various places more doable on the part of these brands. Their features are also easily used to highlight specific products and services.
SPAM, knowing that their product is a staple in homes, used a blue and yellow tiny house to showcase the versatility of the food product. That shows that no matter how tiny the place is, it can still support the essential functions of everyday life.
Nestea, on the other hand, advertised their line of teas without high-fructose corn syrup, artificial flavors, and colors via the minimalist image of tiny houses. Because tiny houses constrict people to have less, it has become one of the recurring images of minimalism.
Dunkin Donuts emphasized the potential sustainability brought by tiny homes by building one that uses 65,000 pounds of their used coffee grounds as a source of biofuel. This statement illustrates the small amount of energy needed to fuel a tiny house. Owners can source from renewable energy and save money to power their homes.
Whether these marketing gimmicks are a result of the popularity of tiny houses or another factor for their popularity, one thing’s for sure: tiny houses are causing a shift. As of the moment, it has already proven itself worthy of recognition in putting a roof over one’s head as well as placing bucks in their pockets.
Tiny homes are a reaction to the ongoing social problems that people are forced to face. Living in small spaces has its disadvantages, for sure. For some, however, it’s the most accessible and practical.
