They also pulled together as a team on a national basis. To involve employees and trade partners outside the Georgia region, Beazer posted a message on its intranet asking for donations for a cash gift to the family. They hoped to raise $100,000 for a scholarship fund for the children; donations came to $250,000. As a result, Beazer also gave the family $100,000 to cover the costs of upkeep of the home and gave the remaining $50,000 to an area homeless shelter in the name of the Harpers' son who died.
“I'm so proud of that achievement,” McCarthy says. “That's a reflection on the compassion of the company. There was no pressure on this. We asked people to donate whatever they wanted.”
As a sales and marketing effort, the decision to do the show was a no-brainer, Gardner says, and it's exceeded the company's expectations in terms of exposure. For weeks before the show aired, Beazer promoted it in its ads and at its sales centers, encouraging people to register to receive an e-mail alert about when the show would air. The show aired on Feb. 20, during sweeps week and drew more than 20 million viewers, plus those who tuned in the next night for the “How'd They Do That?” show, Gardner says. Beazer purchased a 30-second spot during the show and took out full-color ads in the lifestyle sections of daily newspapers in all of its markets.
“The outpouring was phenomenal,” she says. “Employees got such phenomenal feedback [from the public]. People said, ‘We saw you on ‘Extreme Makeover.' I didn't know about you. I'd love to buy a house from you guys.'”
Not surprisingly, many of the contacts were from people who wanted the same house they saw on the TV show. Gardner says they were inundated with messages from people who wanted the floor plans or wanted Beazer to build the house on their own lot. Neither is going to happen; Beazer doesn't sell its blue prints, and it doesn't have a build-on-your-lot division. It also has no plans to put the “Extreme Makeover” house into production.
“It's a very special house,” Gardner says. “I'm so proud of those guys. They built a custom-home prototype in four days and four hours. I saw it, and I still don't know how they did it. I'm in awe.”