We have not been listening if we don’t understand how important a branding image is to businesses as they continue to move forward and grow.  Your mind will see an image and immediately conjure up some type of feeling toward that image.  American companies learned long ago that bringing a positive image up in your mind will perceptually give you a better feeling about that product and, on average, cause you to purchase that product over a competitor when given the chance.

Think about the Golden Arches of McDonald’s — when you have young children they bring up the message of quick food, an inexpensive stop, and in your kids’ minds — a fun place to be.  How about the apple logo of Apple.  When you see that logo you think of the best innovation, quality, and high standards — is that what drives the sales of Iphones and Ipads?  Possibly.

Or what about when you hear the slogan, “The Pepsi Generation”. Does that bring up images of young people dancing around and being active.  It’s the image we give Pepsi — even though every generation from the 1960s through today has been dubbed the Pepsi Generation, we still see the youthful exuberance when we hear it and, those of us up a little in years, want to rejoin that youthful time.

Well, funeral homes have brands to protect also.  Just yesterday I was approached by a group in our community that was asking for a donation to help them sponsor a Halloween Bash.  They thought our funeral home would be the perfect sponsor for such — funeral homes being a place of the macabre, scary, coffins, etc.  I politely told them that I appreciated the efforts that they are doing for the kids in the community and that I would happily donate a small donation anonymously to the cause, but I did not want any publicity nor did I want to be the title sponsor.

You see, for over thirty years we have had a logo and branding strategy that goes with our business that only we truly understand what we want to do.  We have a solid image that we want to relate to consumers about our  professionalism, honesty, integrity, value, service, and civic pride.  All that we do goes to those fundamental principles of how we want to be known by our community and sponsoring a Halloween Bash just doesn’t fit in with those ideals.  And, while we believe that our prices are as competitive as anybody in our area, we don’t want our image based on low prices either.

Our values – and branding strategy – is built on deliverables that we know we produce very well and the more the community knows how well we deliver on those aspects, the bigger market share we will get.  While some people may base their identity and business on price — it is something we choose not to do, because others have the ability to undercut us, which makes our word seem incorrect.

I got the idea to write this article today after I saw two negative news reports in the media that will incredibly undercut any positive brand image that a funeral home had been trying to create or did create – even by accident – over time.  One article in the Gaston (NC) Gazette featured funeral director C. David Ward, Jr, being sentenced for pre-need fraud and mentioned the Ward Funeral Service, founded in 1948 has now closed.   How sad is that?   The other article was from the West Virginia Record and was about the Lobban Funeral Home who has, according to the state, not complied with a state audit and are operating without a certificate of authority from the state.

Funeral Director Daily take:  Your business image in the community is one thing that you should be able to create by the deeds, services, and advertising that you do.  Don’t let others define your operation for you.  To do something out of compliance with the law only allows someone else to build that image – for better, or as is the case most times, worse — for you.

Think of a few words on how you want your funeral business to be known in the community and then think of how, in the next couple of years, you can create that image or “brand” in the mind of your consumers.  I think that exercise and a repetitive dose of it will build your clientele and market share over time.[wpforms id=”436″ title=”true” description=”true”]