Yesterday we brought you information about Pure Cremation, the United Kingdom company thriving with its niche business of simply cremating the deceased at a low price and offering no services.  Today, we bring you this article from the Amarillo Globe-News.  The article introduces you to Lighthouse Funeral and Cremation Services.

Lighthouse is the brainchild of funeral director Zack Sustaita and works without a physical location for providing services.  Lighthouse partners with local venues to hold funeral and cremation services and notifies the consumer they will save money by not having to pay for the fixed costs of a funeral facility.  According to the article, Sustaita believes that consumers save 25-50% less than the cost at any other funeral home in Amarillo.

Sustaita also says that he has been open for the past seven months and business has exceeded expectations.

Funeral Director Daily take:  There is no denying that we are moving from the traditional neighborhood or community funeral home that served all families to more business in the industry that service a niche population.  Pure Cremation is one concept. This take off on the “Man in a Van” is another.  I’m also of the opinion that the trend is growing for larger communities to have niche death care facilities that may serve the green funeral clientele, the alkaline hydrolysis clientele, and maybe some that serve a lifestyle clientele such as the LBGTQ community.

It is not out of the realm of possibility that a community with a given population base has a niche business in all of these categories.  We’ve actually had large niche brands in the past who might have been branded as the Catholic or Protestant funeral home in the community.  This identity branding is just a furthering of that thought process.

The task for those who may now operate the leading facility in a community is, “How do you capture your share of niche services without losing your identity as a funeral home that serves all”?   Funeral service has always evolved. . . and will continue to. . . but how we get to that next comfort zone will entail quite a ride.

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