Titan Casket continues “edgy” journey to find their audience
On Wednesday of this week arguably the most innovative and edgy marketing tool was turned loose on the funeral buying public when Direct-to-Consumer casket company Titan Casket unveiled their new relationship with Elan Gale’s “The Year of Elan’s Productions” and actor David Dastmalchian in releasing “Grave Conversations”.
Here’s what an article from Daily Dead, that you can access here, says of the short presentations, “Grave Conversations” promises viewers an unforgettable journey into the depths of human existence, while Dastmalchian guides his guests through discussions that delve into personal reflections on mortality, legacy, and the afterlife, all while lying down in Titan caskets”.
According to the same source, “Episode one will feature actress Kate Siegel (“The Fall of the House of Usher”) with episode two bringing prolific filmmaker and showrunner Mike Flanagan, and lastly actor Matthew Lillard (“Five Nights at Freddy’s”) joins Dastmalchian for his time, in the casket”.
Finally, the same article in Daily Dead says this, “Titan Casket, who most recently partnered with Ryan Reynolds’ company Maximum Effort, shared “‘Grave Conversations’ not only represents a bold step in forwarding the discussion of the often-taboo subject of death, but also aligns with our ongoing mission to provide dignity, affordability, and transparency in funeral planning and end-of-life care. This series promises to offer a fresh perspective on the universal journey we all face, encouraging viewers to contemplate their views on mortality and the afterlife.” Gale said “‘Grave Conversations’ is more than just a talk show; it’s the most important talk show I’ve ever been a part of, and the only talk show I’ve been a part of. Normalizing conversations about death can be just as fun as it is important.”
You can witness some of how this interview process works by watching this TikTok video from Titan Casket here.
Here is another release about “Grave Conversations” from Fangoria.
Here is the website for Titan Casket.
Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily
Funeral Director Daily take: If you are going to sell caskets direct-to-the-consumer you have to find a way to be heard in the marketplace and let the public know that is what you do. . . and that they don’t have to buy from a funeral home. It’s not rocket science but figuring out how to be heard in the marketplace has hindered many companies in many different businesses.
It appears that Titan Casket knows that and they are looking for and backing content that is intended to get them noticed. That content may be a little out of the ordinary in the death care business, but would “ordinary” get them the publicity they are getting?. . . . And, letting the consumer public know they are there is a big part of their challenge.
As a licensed funeral director for over 40 years I was “pretty proper” in my presentation. But, at the end of the day my goal was to please the client families I was serving. It’s kind of funny, because I’ve gotten to know a couple of the guys at Titan Casket and they are a different generation and maybe “not quite as proper” as I was. . . . . However, I’ve also learned that at the end of the day. . . . “they also have a goal of pleasing the families that they are serving”.
To me it is an interesting display that “how we get that opportunity to serve” can come in differing ways, but be just as appreciated by our consumer clients regardless of how we got to that point of being able to serve them.
I think if Titan Casket continues their success as they back programs such as this you will see other companies in the death care community look to new, and potentially more provacative methods to reach their eventual consumers.
Related article — “Five innovative ways to find your target audience”. Forbes
More news from the world of Death Care:
- Green burials catch on in Michigan. Cemetery controversy follows. The Bridge – Non-profit news (MI)
- New Milford development moves forward, discovers old cemetery on grounds. WRDE.com (DE)
- Montgomery County’s first natural cemetery aims to connect loved ones to nature. MoCo360.media (MD)
- Grim Reaper at funeral was woman’s dying wish. BBC (Great Britain)
- “It’s devastating”: Funeral home owner speaks after tornado destroys Morgan County business. Video news story and print article. WVLT – TV – Knoxville (TN)
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“A servant’s attitude guided by Christ leads to a significant life”
All right, I understand that a lot of owners will read this and possibly panic or get upset about potential lost casket sales as most still place way too much of their profitability on merchandise sales.
However, what if there was a way to benefit from all the marketing Titan Casket is doing? After all, casket sales mean traditional burial, and with cremation rates skyrocketing across the country, isn’t it actually a good thing they are promoting burial?
Here is how to benefit from the awareness they are bringing to the funeral industry and traditional burials.
Step 1. Increase your service charge to an amount that covers all of your overhead as well as the profit you want to achieve for each service.
Step 2. Drop your casket prices to wholesale cost, this way it doesn’t matter if you sell the casket, or a 3rd party sells it.
Step 3. Like and following Titan on social media, and on all their posts, you post saying that you will gladly accept any third-party casket. You may pick up a call you otherwise would not have, and you still make your profit on the service charge.
Result- You do not lose any profit on third party sales; you might actually make a little more profit on the same total sale if in a state that taxes merchandise, now that you switched the focus from merchandise to services. You can get some of the benefit of their marketing spend by piggybacking on it for free on social media.
However, the best part of all of this, is that they are encouraging families to have a traditional funeral and we all know the importance of honoring and celebrating a life as the first step in the healing process.
Now, if we can just get someone to convince everyone in the industry to start charging enough for direct cremation so that the traditional families are not subsidizing it, that would be great.