Trigard Breaks the Mold, Uses QR Codes in New Social Media Inspired Memorials

Funeral Industry News March 22, 2011
CDFuneralNews

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Trigard Breaks the Mold, Uses QR Codes in New Social Media Inspired Memorials

imageTrigard Memorials is proud to be the first in the industry to leverage QR technology to increase gravesite value for families.

?We have seen it in our own memorial park,? Chief Operating Officer Rich Darby explained. ?Families visit their loved ones and find flowers at the grave without a note. They want to say ?thank you? and know who has visited.? The new design, revealed at the 2011 ICCFA Convention in Las Vegas, provides a solution.

Available as both a ground memorial and an urn, this new memorial design includes a QR code. Smartphone users scan the code at the gravesite, which takes them to any web page the family specifies. Whether it points to a social media page, blog or personal website, it links the physical gravesite with a virtual guestbook and connects visitors with another place to share memories.

Darby said, ?QR codes are a great tool because the code doesn?t have to be as precise as other barcodes. Think about buying something at the grocery store and watching the cashier scan the bar code over and over before finally keying in the numbers. That doesn?t happen with a QR code. It has a higher tolerance.?

What about changing technology? ?QR codes won?t be what we are using in five years, or maybe even sooner,? Darby said. So Trigard gives families the option to incorporate a QR code as an emblem affixed to any memorial. As technology changes, the virtual link to the loved one can be maintained by changing the emblem without having to invest in a completely new memorial.

ABOUT TRIGARD – Trigard is a family owned and operated business based in Danville, Illinois, that has catered to the varying needs of the death care industry since the 1960s. Trigard?s bronze memorial division was established in 2003 and has developed innovative new techniques for shaping, coloring and finishing pure bronze and other materials to produce unique grave memorials, plaques and signs.

ABOUT THE MULTIMEDIA RESOURCES ? High resolution images of the social media marker and urn are available for inclusion in publications by emailing julias@trigard.com.

The QR code included in the story is scannable on screen or in print. Follow the code for additional content about the new social media design. This content also available at www.trigard.com/memorials.

Example of QR Codes: