I recently had the opportunity to listen to an insightful podcast that featured Foundation Partners Group’s Chief Marketing and Digital Officer Lee Senderov.  She was a guest on the podcast “Celebration Chatters” which is hosted by 1-800-Flowers founder Jim McCann.

 

I’ve been a licensed funeral director for over 40 years but I learned alot about the consumer and what is happening in the profession from this podcast.  Senderov is a “Student of Consumers”, not necessarily originally in the death care business but in other businesses.  However, she has taken what she has learned from other businesses, especially business similar to death care whereas they are “Infrequent Purchase Categories” and enlightens the listener on some of the characteristics of the purchasers of items in that category.

 

You can access the podcast here.

 

One of the things that she mentions is that those that purchase in the “Infrequent Purchase Categories” are generally resistent to change and the death care industry has historically prospered from that characteristic of their consumers.  However, that is changing and, it is her opinion that the recent pandemic is “accelerating that pace of change”.  For instance, during the pandemic families who had never had cremation were willing to cremate and clientele was willing to have “virtual services” rather than no services at all. . . . Some of those families realized they liked the changes and will, more than likely, continue those choices.

 

In addition, she talked about “Cremation in the Cloud” which is how some families now prefer to arrange for cremation services.  They are happy making all arrangements from the comfort of their home and prefer to do it that way.

 

In the podcast, Senderov comes off as genuine and knowledgeable about the profession — especially the cremation side of such.  She remarks that her employer, Foundation Partners Group operates in an environment where 88% of all dispositions are cremation and they carry a “Cremation First” mindset.

 

If you are in the death care profession you may not agree with everything Ms. Senderov says, however, you should listen to this podcast because you will learn something. . . .I did!!!

 

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