Have you noticed how church suppers and other traditional social gatherings have become smaller and less frequent? Been wondering where to find groups of people in your area to meet? How about trying MeetUp.com which bills itself as the world's largest online community of meetups, clubs and groups.
If I understand the concept properly, anyone can propose an idea for a meetup in their area and the websit allows others to find the meetup idea and agree to participate. Say you're a huge Star Trek fan and all your friends have gotten tired of listening to you go on and on about Kirk and company. You can go to MeetUp.com and either propose a gathering which others can find or you can find a gathering of like minded people already in the process of developing.
Fascinating concept and apparently quite successful. The home page shows photographs from some of the nearly 50,000 meetups which occured in the month of April!
So Mr. Funeral Director, unlike years past when a few visits to a few general purpose gatherings, such as church suppers and fraternal organizations, would let you develop crucial community contacts for your business. Now you have to consider the proliferation and impact of highly specialized groupings of people. This presents a much more challenging array of groups of track and meet. Of course, you might also find groups which will respond to you all the more strongly.
The world keeps changing and social networks become more difficult to see and track. Still, the opportunities remain when applying a different kind of persistence to the problem.
http://www.meetup.com/
New York Times: Anyone for a Gathering of Introverts?
Fascinating Read
I mentioned Rebecca Mead's book "One Perfect Day" a couple of weeks ago (see posting here--Posting: Fancy Wedding Backlash?) and based upon the reviews I thought it would contain mostly a critique of the "wedding industry".
Mead does show some skepticism at times but much more importantly she has taken the time to analyze and understand the social dynamics at work in a contemporary wedding both from the bride's side and from the providers' point of view. For those in funeral service interested in using the modern American wedding as a model for future service offerings, I would suggest you read this book very closely.
Weddings as "sold" to those who spend that magical $28,000 average (more on the statistics in a future posting), involve a central character, the bride, who by modern standards should become transformed and renewed throughout the time of engagement. As one industry insider put it in Mead's book, "Getting married provides an opportunity to revisit every failed New Year's resolution and, this time, to succeed.
Might funeral service offerings transform as well in some similar fashion? I don't know, but if it does happen, I suspect a different central figure will need to become an earlier participant and bigger organizer of the procedings. Yes, the eventual deceased will have to lead the way for the family members and they too will need special preparation for when the actual time of death arrives.
I have at least one interesting thought on how a firm might start constructing a different approach. I will keep that to myself for the moment (sorry, don't want to give my immediate competition any head start here) but will report findings as they come around.
And let me say this one more time. BUY THIS BOOK if you want a way to change your perspective on funerals and funeral service. It will take some insightful reinterpretations to have the wedding world enhance the funeral service world but I think it can be done.
May 21, 2007 in Comments | Permalink | Comments (0)