Guest Article Provided By: Lajos Szabo, FuneralOne.
I was visiting with a friend the other day and I noticed that she had HGTV on her TV… again.
It seems like this cable channel is on almost all the time. And she wasn’t the first person that I noticed watching this show.
In fact, recent ratings show HGTV ahead of the Food Network, SyFy, the Comedy Channel and CNN! What was the appeal?
After watching several hours of shows on HGTV (fortunately not in one sitting), I realized what was so compelling.
Many of the shows depict ordinary people dramatically transforming their environment in a very, very short period of time. Many people watch those shows and see how they can improve their living situation – either by buying the right home at the right price, or fixing up the one they live in.
Every show on HGTV features the ultimate transformation from before to after for people just like you and I. Or, for the outrageous or extremely expensive homes, we can dream about the possibilities shown to us.
In essence, HGTV is not really selling homes or renovation techniques. What they’re really selling is hope.
Hope that someday, somehow, I will be able to dramatically improve not just my living conditions, but my quality of life.
The real marketing question: what are we really selling?
As funeral directors, what do we typically talk about when we market to the families we serve?
If we get past our history, facilities and staff, we are talking about how we will provide grief support during the family’s darkest hours.
We try and make sure our value is grounded in that emotional support, but how appealing is that? When we are not showing pictures of our buildings and staff, we show pictures of simulated services that look very sad. Is that supposed to appeal to families?
People know that we cannot wave a magic service wand and make everything better.
But, we can still sell something to families. That something is hope. Hope that tomorrow will be better, and the next day better still. Hope that they can find a way through this sorrow, to a time when they will be able to smile again.
We never show happy people because in funeral marketing, when people are dealing with us directly, they are very sad.
But why can’t we show what the end results could be… how events themselves can be very uplifting and hopeful?
The video below is a great example of showing both the problem and the solution with much positive imagery along the way:
ps. I would like to credit Geno Mallo of funeralOne who produced this extraordinary video in three days!
The first time I watched this video, it was through funeral director glasses and I was initially appalled!
Where is their sadness? Where is the grief? How could you show all those happy people, happy events and even happiness during the process? And that’s my point exactly.
If we want to help people with their sadness and grief, we need to connect them to the hope of a better future first. Otherwise, we will not get the chance to serve them.
We need to show them what a hopeful future looks like. We need to show them before-and-aftersa la HGTV. We need to show them real people struggling, but somehow, with the help of experts (read funeral director here) they get through to an amazing result.
You can’t make the sadness go away, but you can instill the hope that someday they will laugh again.
We are merchants of hope. It is time we marketed like it.
Article source: http://blog.funeralone.com/video/funeral-marketing-hope/
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Lajos Szabo, a licensed funeral director in Ohio and Architect by training, has been involved in funeral service since 1988. His portfolio of work includes, Schoedinger Funeral & Cremation Service, PMP Rooms, Cut Caskets, Meaningful Memories, Funeral of the Future research and several US patents specific to our industry.[RR1] Currently, Lajos is the President of Funeral Operations at funeralOne. He uses his industry perspective to provide organizational leadership and develop several key projects in pursuit of his personal mission: changing funeral service to more effectively meet the needs of people touched by death. funeralOne’s solutions include: website design, aftercare, eCommerce, and personalization software. For more information about funeralOne, visit www.funeralOne.com.
It’s a beautifully executed advertisement with grand aspirations. I’m glad to see someone trying to stretch the boundaries.
At the same time, I wish we had some solid information about how many of these consumers actually exist. Is it a sizable enough market to sustain an industry or are we trying reaching a relatively small minority which will only sustain a limited number of “lifestyle funeral” outlets?
I know the surveys tell us that many people think they want lots of extras. I don’t think any of those surveys have attempted to quantify how much consumers think these extra services are worth and whether there is a sustainable long-term business model to be developed.
There is no question that the people who are already planning a gathering appreciate all the extras (as many funeral providers offer these things at little more than cost). Consumers don’t often refuse free.
But what does the business look like down the road as many current economies of scale likely erode?
Have I missed it? Has anyone ever put together a price model survey which might help us sort out fact from wishful thinking?
Excellent points, and I agree. How many of these families are out there? We have offered personalization and the associated “We’ll help you arrange any type of service you want” attitude for many years. We direct and conduct very few of these services in actuality, because, even though they are offered, most families don’t want it. I love it when the occasional family makes special requests and is willing to pay for these extras, because I thoroughly enjoy carrying out their wishes. But, many families, when faced with the extra charges, simply say, “Oh, well, we don’t need it THAT badly.”
And don’t tell me to include all this stuff as a courtesy and implement a service charge that reflects that. It is silly for the majority of consumers to subsidize the small number of families who may want to go the extra mile.
In what part of the country do you operate?
Ohio, pretty traditional small town, slow to change, etc.