Market Research

Consumers are shifting away from burial toward cremation, so what does that mean for the future of caskets? The answer depends on the lens from which you are viewing the funeral world. As a funeral home owner, the future looks dim for your casket merchandising. The same number of caskets are sold in the U.S. today as compared to 20 years ago, even though we have almost 700,000 more deaths. Today, the mix of caskets is weighted on the 20- and 18-gauge caskets and less expensive woods. Years ago, more expensive metals (bronze, copper and stainless steel) were being sold. If your casket selection for consumers is priced appropriately and your service fees are the emphasis of your pricing, you will have families choose caskets for burial and cremation services. The key is to train your funeral directors to present […]

Financial and operational plans aren’t the only aspects of strategic business planning. Astute owners will also consider marketing. My fear in composing an article on strategic planning is repeating myself. Funny that I don’t have that same fear when telling jokes to an audience, but to an audience of readers, I am concerned about this. Strategic planning brings out this fear because every year for the 44 years I have been doing management and financial consulting, I write on this topic. Like the swallows returning to Capistrano, I return to this subject. I’ll take a different approach this year. I won’t talk about financial or operational aspects of advanced planning, but marketing. Funeral home owners/managers are terrible marketers, and the reason is simple: To market, you must first understand why families come to you. But the fact is, most firms […]

While too many marketing acronyms can make your head spin, strategic relationships should be your focal point for increasing your firm’s market share. Dear Dan, I recently attended a two-day seminar led by “some of the brightest marketing minds.” Between the registration, travel and paying staff to cover my tasks for my time away, this seminar cost me several thousand dollars. I heard about organic marketing, online remarketing and strategic relationships, along with I don’t know how many different phrases that were just random acronyms to me, including BR (bounce rate), BANT (budget authority need timeline), CR (conversion rate) and SEO (search engine optimization). When I returned home, I created my own acronym – WOT, for waste of time. I have two questions: Does any of this stuff work in building a larger market share in the funeral profession, and […]

Ideas for financial stability, operations and marketing require implementation. We operate in a profession where “slow to change” is worn like a badge of honor even though this resistance is an impairment to your business and your profit. Those who propagate new ideas are often ridiculed with the famous phrase, “My families won’t go for that,” which translates to, “I’m uncomfortable with change and I’m not going to try anything new.” The funeral profession is experiencing a steady decline in profitability, and the pressure to be successful is greater than ever before. Interestingly, most notable ideas presented to the funeral profession in recent years have come from suppliers and are product driven. Convention floors are packed with makeover caskets (same thing, different color), expensive autos (which are in decline as much as caskets), urns (buy two, get one free) and widgets that […]

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, […]

We all want to think that our funeral home offers the best service when compared to our competitors. We want to assume that the work coming out of our prep room is superior as well. Why would you be in business if your goal was to be second or third best in your market? How do you really know if you’re the best? What quantifies the meaning of “best?” If you are not regularly surveying your families, you have no idea. The Foresight Companies can even survey families who did not choose your firm and give you insight as to why. We must, from time to time, conduct an operational audit of our firm. The results of which will (if we’re honest with ourselves) yield an answer to the question: Are we really the best in our market? Even if […]

Almost every article published today has an underlying call for “change” within the funeral profession. In my opinion, the notion of change may not suffice—scorch the earth and start all over again is likely a better solution. The funeral operating model is broken, and it is ludicrous for practitioners to attempt to hold on to the glory days of the past. If you look at the facts, change is so much easier. What hasn’t changed are the simple mathematical equations underpinning our businesses: Revenue – Overhead = Profit GPL + P&L = EBITDA Retail Price – Wholesale Cost of Goods = Profit I want to focus on the last equation for caskets and vaults (aka outer burial containers) sold within our industry. Over a span of a few years, our funeral business has evolved from a local service to one […]

One of the characteristics that drew me to funeral service more than 28 years ago was the fact that funeral service professionals had to be proficient in such a wide variety of subjects. Truly, in our business, no two days are alike. Everyone who has taken the National Board Exam, for instance, has studied the complexities of embalming, restorative art, microbiology, pathology, chemistry and anatomy. I’m a product of the “old school,” where the appearance of the body is a big deal, and so I believe that the prep room and our ability to excel there should not be minimized. However, our industry is rapidly changing direction. According to the International Conference of Funeral Service Examining Boards, it is possible to acquire a funeral director-only license in 29 U.S. states, including Washington, D.C., and four Canadian provinces. That means that […]