Market Research

Over the past three years, I have led the startup of a company, Funeralocity, which is making inroads into the funeral profession by creating an independent online source to help consumers identify the right funeral home to serve them. After three years of development, we launched in May 2017 in Atlanta. Since then, we have inter- acted with more than 100,000 users. In this article, I will give my perspective on the recently issued NFDA Consumer Awareness and Preferences Survey and contrast it to the 2016 Harris Poll we commissioned. I’ll also share some consumer insights we’ve gained over our year of operation and make some predictions that funeral home owners and managers can use to plan their futures in online marketing. As this is the first time I am sharing this company information with the profession, please let me […]

Believe it or not, there are few things I like more than looking at a survey! It’s one of geekdom’s greatest moments. The 2018 NFDA Consumer Awareness and Preferences Survey gives a million dollars’ worth of data and thought-provoking issues at no cost to members. In reviewing this year’s results, I see three key takeaways that should cause all business owners to alter their business model. This report is unique from most polling that takes place for the following two reasons: This study is ongoing; you not only get the impressions of the respondents for the current year, you’re also reminded of previous years’ replies. The commitment NFDA has made is substantial in continuing this analysis (the first versions of the survey were underwritten by FAMIC’s Wirthlin Survey). This isn’t just a survey; it’s an awareness and preferences study. There […]

Properly pricing services and presenting families with all of their options are the keys to operating profitably. Cremation as a disposition process is increasingly embraced by consumers of nearly all religious, economic and regional groups, and the reasons for choosing this option are nearly as diverse as the individuals themselves. While it’s true that some perceive cremation as more economical, others simply have an aversion to ground burial or entombment in a mausoleum. Some see cremation as the greenest option available and believe it’s the most responsible ecological choice. Unfortunately, there are far too many funeral home owners/managers who focus on the economics of cremation as the sole contributing factor of consumer decision making. This preconceived notion then tends to affect the style of arrangement process for families choosing cremation, as well as the pricing of cremation options on the […]

I think we can all agree that from shifting consumer preferences to declining revenue per call, the funeral profession is facing challenges. Shifting consumer preferences are largely driven by the decline of religious folk and the increase of the “nones” (people that claim no religious affiliation). The culprit responsible for the decline in revenue is funeral home owners and managers’ inability to price services properly, not the “rise in cremation” we are so quick to blame. Funeral homes that serve exclusively along racial, religious or cultural lines have all the before mentioned challenges, plus some different challenges. Often, in large populated areas, we see funeral homes exclusively serving narrow segments of the community. For example, Jewish, African-American, Irish Catholic, Italian Catholic, Hispanic, Asian, and Orthodox Greek funeral homes serve narrow vertical markets. As you can see, even though some of […]

The profession has failed to continue to embrace the purpose of the basic non-declinable services fee. Dear Dan, In the 30 years of being in my family business, I have seen the inside of my competitor’s funeral home three times. They have a bronze plaque inscribed with a quote about the quality of a funeral. I am not sure who said this, but my father thinks it’s a quote from a former longtime executive director of NFDA. We don’t use the same casket company or I would ask the salesman to go over and take a picture of it. And I don’t want to ask my competitor about it because it might make him feel superior to me. I was wondering what you might know of this quote and the person who said it. Dumbfounded in Delaware   Dear Dumbfounded, […]