For the last century most funeral homes have tried to be all things to all people.  Full service funeral homes have offered funeral services, embalming, cremation, and any other type of service that a client family asked for and usually were able to serve that family through their traditional funeral home building.  Originally there were some niches created – but not necessarily by the funeral home itself.  Maybe a firm – through through no more than the owner being aligned with with that faith – became the Catholic funeral home or the Protestant funeral home.  In some communities these funeral homes, although being full service, really became these niches.

When I started full time in the business – 1980 – there was approximately 22,000 funeral homes in the United States.  Of the 227 million citizens approximately 2 million died which created an average caseload of about 90 per funeral home.  Funeral homes needed to be everything to everybody just to get the numbers.  Today, our population has swelled to about 326 million people of which about 2.7 million will die in any given year — a 35% increase in raw numbers of deaths since 1980.  In addition, the number of funeral homes has dwindled to about 19,322 which works out to an average caseload of about 139 per funeral home.  In essence, we have more deaths and less funeral homes.  I also expect more consolidation which will drive up the caseload per funeral home in the future.

Over the past week or so I have thought about all of these funeral homes, in general, are vying for many of the same prospects.  How would some do, if they only catered and advertised to certain niche populations forgoing the competitiveness of the open market.  You can argue that is what the Neptune Society and large cremation operators did about 40 years ago and most have grown to become pretty successful.

This really came to my attention last week when a young businessman that I mentor told me he had attended a “reception” for the death of a friend.  He mentioned that the friend was from the LBGT community and that the memorial service and reception was held, and operated by friends,  at a hotel ballroom because the family perceived that they could not find a funeral home that understood their community.  Our discussion turned to the topic that, in this metropolitan community, I was not aware of a funeral home that catered to that clientele.  We also thought — in that community there was sure to be enough deaths to make catering to that community a profitable venture.  A quick Google search by me landed a first page with funeral services catering to this clientele in New York City, Las Vegas, and San Jose.  I’m sure that there are others.

Virtually in every business segment in America someone who finds that “right niche” can be greatly successful.  UPS was not afraid to battle the United States Post Office when it came to shipping packages exclusively.  Fred Smith figured out there was a market for when an item “absolutely, positively” had to be delivered overnight and founded Federal Express which became highly profitable in that niche market.

Also in the last week I’ve noticed another “green” funeral home that opened in Colorado and am reminded of AquaGreen Dispositions that opened in 2012 in Illinois serving the Alkaline Hydrolysis market.  Funeral service is slowly showing trends of moving towards these niche businesses.

I’m guessing that as we move forward it will become more and more difficult to be “everything to everybody” and we will see more niche specialization among death care providers.

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