I’ve came to believe that, at least in part, the reason why consumers select a certain funeral home has changed.  From my point of view, in days gone by almost almost all funeral home “selection decisions” were done by brand identification of a funeral home or via referrals from friends, neighbors, or churches.

 

Recently I spoke at the Cremation Association of North America (CANA) convention and during that presentation I mentioned that I now believe, while brand is still a major reason for choice, the consumer has moved to more of what I call a “tri-furcated” decision on selection of Death Care services.

 

I believe that in a consumer’s mind, maybe even sub-consciously, they look at what needs to be done after a death in three distinct parts — 1)  The disposition of the body, 2) An event, celebration, funeral, or other gathering and 3) The memorialization of the deceased which could be burial, entombment, niche placement, scattering, or even such lesser known options such as space memorialization, Parting Stone, cremation jewelry, or placement in an enviornment such as Better Place Forests.

 

I’ve also come to believe that the “first call” for some of those consumers will not be to the funeral home, but to a cemetery for memorialization options, or to an event/celebration specialist such as SendOff.  And, in some of those cases a funeral home will only be used, if at all, for the disposition of the body, upon suggestion by the memorialization of celebration company, and will not be asked to help with the other, sometimes greater margin services or memorialization products.

 

Compare that to when a consumer family called their well-known “brand” funeral home first and got all of the services they needed through the direction and advice of that funeral home.  In my opinion, the selection process is slowly changing as demographics in locales change and “brand” funeral homes sometimes don’t seem quite so relevant or well-known to a new member of the community.

 

After my presentation at CANA, one of my friends in funeral service sent me some information and corresponding data that he now sees that selection process changing too.  His “data” came in the form of of a search-word topic study in his large metropolitan community.  The results showed him that potential consumers were searching for funeral arrangements in increasing numbers by such words as “green burial”, “natural burial”, and “cremation” more than searching services out by funeral home brand names.

 

My point is that if you are not being noticed by “What you do” (services) rather than “Who you are” (brand) you may risk losing business because those customers looking for certain services may not even know your brand provides the services that they are looking for.

 

Your traditional funeral home can continue to operate simply by having that strong brand name in your community.  However, if your potential clients don’t know what you can do to help them you will miss out on some calls to firms who come up in searches seeking specific services or “Direct to the Consumer” funeral products retailers such as Titan caskets.

 

There are some great American brand names that have lost their relevance because as customs changed they didn’t let their clients know about their services or how to continue to obtain those services.  Think about Radio Shack — they are still in business but many of their customers didn’t know they are all e-commerce now.

 

Or Avon  — it’s still a good product but if you wait for the “Avon Lady” to knock on your door, you probably won’t be served.  In my opinion, they made mistakes in transforming to the new e-commerce era.

 

According to this teaser advertisement for Iterable’s 2026 Customer Engagement Report, 60% of consumers will “ditch platforms when brands pitch irrelvant content”.   My take is that filling Facebook with “irrelevant content” to the consumer might not be the best suggestion one could make for your funeral home.

 

If you are not an expert in making sure that your funeral home comes up in relevant searches for services, I’m guessing Welton Hong and Ring Ring Marketing would be a good first call for advice.  You can learn more about Ring Ring Marketing here.

 

More news from the world of Death Care:

• Results dip at historic family-owned funeral director but plans being made to “ensure the business is well placed”.  Insider Media (Great Britain)
• Families heartbroken after Tennessee cemetery bulldozed.  22News WWLP (MA)

 

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