The people behind Titan Casket are not afraid of doing things outside the ordinary as compared to how the funeral industry has done things for the past 125 years.  I’m guessing that in 1906 when John Hillenbrand purchased the Batesville Coffin Company and changed the name to Batesville Casket Company his customers were the fledging funeral homes starting across the nation who then re-sold or “retailed” those caskets to clientele arranging funerals for their loved ones.. . . . . and, I’m guessing for over a hundred years since then nobody really figured out how to make those casket sales, and profit, with any other modus operandi.

 

Enter the 21st Century and the people behind Titan Casket.  The people behind Titan figured they could leverage America’s new online information era and bring those caskets direct to the consumer (DTC) at a much lower cost than if the caskets were sold at retail prices upon death at America’s funeral homes.

 

It’s been no easy task, but the people at Titan Casket can now get any of about 1,000 caskets to almost any funeral home in the lower 48 states with a timely delivery. . . all at a much lower cost to the consumer.  And while they are continuously improving that process they are not stopping there. . . .they are bringing urns and keepsake jewelry direct to the consumer also.

 

Last week I learned of their latest innovation.  That innovation is the process of consumers paying for their casket in a preneed fashion.  Titan has a program that allows a consumer to pay for a casket over a 60-month time-table with no finance charges.

 

It’s a smart idea for their customers.  No longer will families have to pick their Titan brand casket under adverse situations at the time of death which sometimes is done with the servicing funeral home also trying to make a casket sale.  Buying direct, in a preneed fashion will take some of the conflict out of the process for the consumer.

 

To learn more about Titan’s Direct-to-the-Consumer preneed program click here.

 

Related — If you weren’t aware of it yet, Titan Casket also has a partnership program with existing funeral homes.  You can learn how that program works by clicking here.

 

Funeral Director Daily take:  It’s probably good every once in a while to look back at the history of our profession and see how things change.  When Hillenbrand was first selling his “caskets” most of the revenue that the consumer death care purveyors took in probably came from the sale of the merchandise.  Laying the person into the casket and carrying it to the cemetery probably did not involve much professinal services revenue for the funeral establishment.

 

And then services came into being. . . embalming, of which I can find the first schools for such in 1882 probably brought the first level of services and embalming into the revenue sphere.  It’s my guess that for the next almost 100 years services and merchandise, such as caskets, vaults, and memorial folders, offered  different and multiple lines of revenue for America’s funeral homes that were popping up from coast to coast.

 

However, we have morphed into a society that now chooses cremation 70% of the time and we have moved from major revenues from merchandise to a combination of merchandise and services, to now a profession that can count on service revenues but no longer the major revenues from merchandise. . . with a 70% cremation rate, merchandise is almost an ancillary item nowadays.

 

That’s why it is so important to look at your merchandise revenue and really know the costs and other facility dynamics of maintaining a “showroom” of models that might only be purchased by 30% of your clientele.  Do you know what your cost/benefit is for this as compared to making that square footage an extra hospitality room?

 

When we built our new funeral home in 2005 we did not include a selection room in the planning.  We used that space for hospitality and had the merchandise selected be done via a large flat screen monitor in the arrangement room.  Clientele could, and still can look at hundreds of caskets arranged by material such as wood or metal or by color or by price list and select right off the screen knowing that the following morning that unit will be in our facility.

 

Yep. . . . it is not your grandpa’s funeral home anymore.

 

More news from the world of Death Care:

• Frank E. Campbell The Funeral Chapel begins 125th Aniversary Celebration with New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade.  PR Newswire
• New Zealand’s “Cofin Clubs” bury taboos about death.  Barron’s
• New Gregg County burial policy aims to help funeral homes.  Kilgore News Herald (TX)
• House passes legislation to streamline licensing process for funeral service professionals.  Maryville Forum (MO)

 

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