Award-winning remodeling companies differentiate themselves from the competition with creative approaches to marketing.

Creative, strategic marketing can help a remodeler break through the information clutter that homeowners often face. It can also help avoid the trap of price competition and eroding profits by deterring homeowners from choosing the low bid on their projects.

Because good marketing is essential to a successful business, Professional Remodeler launched the Pinnacle Marketing Awards competition to recognize marketing efforts that can serve as examples to the industry. A panel of judges scored each Pinnacle entry according to its creativity, originality, design quality, text quality, appropriateness to target audience, appropriateness to medium and reinforcement of the brand.

2001 Customer Correspondence winner: McGuire, Hearn & Toms Inc.

If you check the back of the holiday greeting card that won the customer correspondence category, you won’t see Hallmark’s famous crown logo. You won’t see any logo. And that’s just fine with remodeler McGuire, Hearn & Toms Inc., winner of the category.

Each year the Manakin-Sabot Va., company shuns the mass-produced feel of store-bought cards in favor of cards featuring original artwork by the firm’s president and lead designer, C. Mason Hearn, Jr.

The 2000 season card featured a drawing of a wall of windows the company had created for a client. Inside the card were a holiday greeting and explanation of the art.

Judge Kimberly Sweet said the time and effort put into the card sent the right message to potential clients. “It shows that customers matter. Anyone can go out and buy a box of cards. The cards make it seem like their work is the result of a very individualized process.”

The judges admired the simplicity of the card and were glad sales pitches didn’t mar its refreshing originality. Because the card wasn’t cluttered, its recipients were left to admire the company’s work and appreciate good design.