I don't know how many of you keep track of Funeral Watch, the online message board managed by Kates-Boylston Publications, home of the American Funeral Director, Funeral Service Insider, etc. Kates-Boylston Lately the discussion has centered around Steven Lee's interview with Ken Camp, President of Batesville Casket. Once again the idea of having a broad advertising campaign, underwritten by the big suppliers and the associations, which would raise public awareness of the value of funerals etc. has appeard on the message board. Here's my version of a reply:
The "economy" of traditional American funeral service centers around the casket. Our buildings, our equipment, our automobiles, our staffs, our "secret recipies" (see below) passed from father to son to grandson, have all centered around the casket. The unique difficulties posed by a casketed adult have allowed so many funeral homes to operate so profitably with such small volumes for so many years.
If it were indeed true that the human psyche must absolutely create a lasting memory picture with a deceased loved one, then despite experimentation with cremation, society would steadily drift back to casketed remains. Unfortunately (or very fortunately depending upon your point of view), our resilient hearts and minds find many ways to process grief. I think for instance of the Jewish community which has always performed a quick burial. Once the remains leave the household, the person is never seen again. If that were not a reasonable strategy for dealing with grief, then the Jewish faith and society and identity would not have survived all these thousands of years.
Indeed, Americans have found that our traditions do not accomplish enough to justify the expense in more and more instances, especially in a society with such a loosely knit social fabric. And though some do say they missed out on the gathering part and decide the next time to add visitation to cremation, I have yet to hear anyone say they missed the casket.
In order to gather dollars for a concerted advertising project, we would have to have a cohesive purpose and since the casket companies have the most money, we would have to advertise the use of caskets. Afterall, the casket companies MUST have a return on their investments, they have boards and analysts who expect business activity to produce specific, positive results. In which case, a general PR campaign about celebrating lives, does not accomplish their purpose. And if you started advertising the use of caskets, who's caskets would you use? If you chose some sort of generic stand in, then how does that enhance the business of the big three manufacturers? It doesn't.
In the end, we go around in a circle once more and end up back where we started. People have needs in and around death. No question. Some will have casketed needs, more and more will not. Get to know the world around you and rebuild your business model in concert with the current marketplace. Not easy and we would do well to start asking our Associations to teach us how to study and learn market/social trends and needs in our immediate service areas. National averages will not work, except for a handful of firms that happen to fit the average.
Apart from a huge social/economic upheaval, such that we no longer have the means to remain a mobile, fluid society; a wider array of non-casketed funerals will continue to gain acceptance with consumers. Advertising OUR acceptance of those transformed arrangements would have the greatest potential impact, but of course we don't want to go in that direction...do we.
BT Hathaway
www.funeralwords.com
www.hathawayfunerals.com{Note: My reference to "secret recipies" refers to all the knowledge passed from generation to generation such as: how to drive the procession in and around all the local churches, how to get in and out of churches gracefully, how to maneuver in and around cemeteries, how to train people to lift and bear caskets, etc. etc. Sadly, when the casket goes away, so does the value of all that proprietary information gathered over many decades.}
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