Preneed to Millennials. . .Maybe so

February 28, 2023/Preneed/

Editor’s Note: This article was scheduled for earlier this morning but for some reason was not picked up by our email subscription service. . .Well, better late than never. Sorry for the inconvenience. Here is the article you should have received earlier today:

Sometimes things happen that can turn a fundamental business upside down. It’s interesting because only last week I made a comment in an article about building brand through old-fashioned advertising mediums such as billboard advertising. The comment that I made was that we probably don’t want to be trying to attract our clientele via TikTok. In essence, I used that comparison simply because the general accepted potential clientele of a funeral home or crematory is not an avid user of TikTok.

I still think that the potential clientele that funeral homes and crematories try to reach are not avid users of TikTok. But, what about a Death Care business that is not an old, established funeral home and/or crematory? Maybe their marketing is different.

Not long after that article published I came across this article from CNBC on Natural Organic Reduction (NOR), also called Terramation or human composting. It pointed out that one company in that line of business, Return Home, not only uses TikTok as a medium to reach potential clientele. . . . but they have over 570,000 followers who watch the TikTok videos that Return Home produces.

This graphic might actually surprise you when looking at a TikTok user age-based demographic:

And, they are using that reach not only to explain the process but to sign up potential clients in advance of need. Return Home CEO Micah Truman shared in that linked article that the first five clients to sign up for advance planning with Return Home were under 35-years-old. Truman also made this statement, “We’ve got 29-year-olds in Miami signing up. Young people are going to teach us to die better.”

At Seattle based Recompose, another natural organic reduction provider, CEO Katrina Spade told CNBC that “25% of pre-planning clients are between 20 and 49 years-old.”

Another article, that you can access here, from Sureify states that they see a trend among Millennials — “they‘re recognizing the need for life insurance more than ever… and they’re taking the plunge! “

That article, which makes the point that Millennials are between 27 and 42 years of age today, having been born between the years of 1981 and 1996, have seen a world and “lived through HIV/AIDS, SARS-CoV, H1N1, and even an Ebola outbreak in 2013.” That doesn’t even take into consideration that they have also lived through the recent pandemic.

That same article also makes the point that Millennials are “Digital Natives”. The article talks about life insurance in general and not necessarily Preneed. But in my opinion, simply the knowledge of how life insurance works can lead consumers to an easier understanding of Preneed for Death Care options.

And, here’s what the article says about Millennials and life insurance, “With the increasing dissemination of real-time information through channels unimaginable 25 years ago, the word is out—life insurance, a valuable financial planning tool, is necessary, affordable, and easy to get. This has translated into sales. According to LIMRA, in the first six months of 2021, the total number of policies sold increased 8% compared with prior year results. This is the highest policy sales growth recorded since 1983.”

From my point of view, I think putting a lot of resources into preneed marketing to the under 40 age group may not be the best use of resources. But, when I think that way, I’m thinking of the traditional and cremation markets. Maybe these NOR marketers are on to something and when your conventional business eventually asks these people about pre-arrangements when they are 55-years old, you might be too late to get their business.

It’s a thought to consider.

More news from the world of Death Care: