Rick Baldwin

I serve on the Board of Directors of a community bank based in Orlando, Florida. In that capacity I receive frequent educational correspondence and one I received this week highlighted the striking similarities between what we do and banking.

The author says:

  • “Bankers often forget that they are in a retail business where people have choices.”

  •  “Bankers should be hiring people with retail backgrounds and not with just teller-line experience.”

  •  “By and large, bankers fail to recognize the importance of branding what they do.”

  •  “In the wake of the current financial crisis, customers differentiate between the banks they perceive as greedy and ones they perceive as trustworthy.”

  •  “The best way to silence a room of bankers is to ask them to describe themselves without using the words ‘people,’ ‘service,’ and ‘community.’

  • “Bankers are unaware that their brand is no different from every other bank in the country.”

“There is a familiar refrain among the people who handle branding campaigns and advertising for a living — banks just don’t get it. They are a commodity and they all sell pretty much the same things. They sound the same. They look the same. They just don’t realize it. Or, they just don’t care.”

I couldn’t help but notice that most all those qualities apply to the operation of funeral homes as well as banks! It made me think: maybe we just don’t get it either, or we don’t care either.

Here are some other important statements made by the author that I think also apply to us:

  • “Many bankers equate advertising and branding together.”

  • “Branding is much bigger than advertising, which simply supports the brand.”

  •  “Strong brands have these qualities: knowledge of market, focus on aligning products and services to fit their target market, an internal delivery system that is top-notch, and service consistency.”

  •  “Many executives falsely assume that they can pay for an advertising campaign that defines their company one way without worrying about whether the company actually is who it says it is.”

  •  “The best brands tend not only to influence customer choices, but also attract the best employees.”

  •  “The best brands tend to build on themselves — with the best people.”

As with bankers, our funeral brands are what people think they are, not just what we say they are.  Thankfully though, we all have the opportunity to influence and change what our brands stand for, each and every day!

Rick Baldwin is currently CEO of Celebris Memorial Services of Montreal (29 funeral homes / five cemeteries / five crematories / brands are Urgel Bourgie and Lepine Cloutier) and owner of Baldwin Brothers Cremation Society in Florida / Director and shareholder of BankFIRST of Orlando / Board of Directors of ICCFA / Director of UCF Foundation.  Earlier in his career he founded Baldwin-Fairchild Cemeteries and Funeral Homes in Orlando, Fl which he later sold to Stewart Enterprises where he enjoyed a successful career until his retirement in December 1999.  He served as President of Stewart’s Eastern Division and, later, as President of Corporate Development.  He is past President of CANA and the Florida Funeral Director’s Association.