Death Care: “Who will be closer to the consumer?”

February 5, 2025/Afternoon Edition/

Last Monday China shook the financial markets by unveiling that their Aritificial Intelligence capabilities from a company called “DeepSeek” seemed to be further along in developing AI than American counterparts such as Nvidia. . . and doing so with a less expensive model. That moved the financial markets among AI developers such as Nvidia down, but also moved the markets where consumers might benefit up. . . . In essence, in one article I read, the author “reasoned” that the companies most closely aligned with end consumers, such as Salesforce, would benefit from better and less expensive AI capabilities.

On my run Tuesday morning I started thinking “How does that thought process relate to Death Care”?

I concluded that it was pretty simple — whether it is about AI or Death Care. The company that has the closest “relationship” to the consumer will win the business. . . . . And, for years local traditional funeral homes with their community assets of advice, buildings, staff, and history have had those “close” relationships with consumers.

However, I think that is changing and is something to be aware of. Veterinarians are generally well thought of, give advice, have buildings, staff, and history in a community — yet their market share of selling dog food has almost been cut in half from 2019 to 2023. According to statistics I found, veterinarians sold dog food to 8% of canine owners in 2019 and only 4 years later that number is down to 5%.

Where have those sales gone? Some have probably went to grocery stores (General Mills made a big acquisition allowing them to put Blue Buffalo dog food in grocery stores) or general retail stores such as Target and WalMart. However, the statistics also show that from 2019 to 2024 online sales of dog food have increased from 25.1% to 32.5%.

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Why? Convenience including delivery to your front door is one reason. However, I believe the relationship that one develops by continuously getting e-mail information from a supplier is another. You have seen it with other products too — once you express affinity to a product or service you receive many reminders of such via e-mail or other social media. . . . . and, over time that information can sway a consumer to try the product.

I think we are now starting to see that in Death Care. There is no doubt that we see it with online cremation providers and we are seeing it in online merchandise providers such as Titan Casket as well. From all indications Titan Casket continues to grow and expand its product line and, from my point of view, if Titan Casket can build online relationships for sales other Death Care providers will not be far behind — that would include alkaline hydrolysis vendors, natural organic reduction vendors, venue providers, and non-funeral event planners in addition to the online cremation providers we already see.

I also think that there is a parallel in the Nvidia/Saleforce situation and the Death Care situation between Death Care facilities and the online vendors who may use crematories and other facilities as professional vendors. Over time, the company that “controls” the consumer’s mind will probably dictate the facility(ies) that are used for the consumers choices of Death Care.

If I still owned a physical funeral home I would consider that an advantage but, I would also be cognizant that every day online providers of different services of Death Care are trying to become the “Top of Mind” choice of my potential clients. When it was just a new facility (funeral home) being built in your community that was easy to watch.

Today however, as our potential consumers are being wooed by online companies, that is not so easy to do. Traditional funeral homes, in my opinion, need to be “in the game” of wooing online consumers also or risk going the way of selling less products in the future like the veterinarians that I mentioned.

If you are interested in strengthening your online presence with potential consumers, one person who can help is Welton Hong of RingRing Marketing. You can learn more about him here.

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