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Six Blind Funeral Directors Describe Our Future

Written by Alan Creedy on . Posted in The Creedy Commentary. 40 Comments on Six Blind Funeral Directors Describe Our Future

Six Blind Funeral Directors Describe Our Future

Chapter 1 The Theory of DeathCare

We are all familiar with the parable of the six blind men describing an elephant.  As we struggle with imagining the future of funeral service a survey of trade journal articles and convention agendas can’t help but bring this parable to mind.  One industry guru believes that price is the only thing people care about. Another believes that the future is in making arrangements online and still another believes ceremony is our salvation. Yet another believes it is all about cremation.  And then there is pet cremation.  And the list goes on, never answering the simple yet direct question posed in Blue Ocean Strategy:

What are the 3 universal value drivers today’s market finds most attractive?

Our focus on the activities of the process has made us blind to the essence of the market. The essence is where the solution lays.

My favorite author, Peter Drucker, once asked the question: “Why do successful industries run by capable people so often decline and just as often disappear?”  His conclusion was interesting.

He believed that the answer did not lie in people doing wrong things or even making wrong decisions.  His thought was that every successful industry is based on a theory.  That theory defines the customer, the product and even the purpose of that product in narrow and manageable ways.  In the beginning, the theory is relevant…it works. As time elapses, the theory becomes a paradigm.  Unfortunately, society never stands still. So, as more time elapses the theory wears thin. But no one notices until the industry is either internally or externally disrupted.  Then, rather than revisit the prevailing theory / paradigm, practitioners resist until resistance fails to work.  Some companies like Procter and Gamble and, in our own profession, The Mount Pleasant Group, have cultures that equip them to adapt.  But most simply get absorbed or fail.  From buggy whips to computers there are endless examples.

I believe the conventional theory on which DeathCare is based (caskets, vehicles and unobtrusive servility) has worn very, very thin.  It is dangerously close to becoming an anachronism. So much so, that in a few markets like Southern Florida it is no longer relevant.  But a new theory has not yet emerged that shows significant promise.

As we wait for that new unifying theory I am also conflicted.  I believe that efforts to resolve our challenges is causing some to throw babies out with the bathwater.  I further believe there are babies in that bathwater and to abandon them without serious consideration makes no sense to me.

Next week Chapter 2: A Rational Approach

The Wind Is Changing – The Conversation Project

Written by Alan Creedy on . Posted in Video, The Creedy Commentary, The Video Blog. 8 Comments on The Wind Is Changing – The Conversation Project

For months now I have been telling DeathCare that the wind is changing in our favor.  The public attitude toward death and dying is changing at the GLOBAL level.  For the present those involved in this are all “grass roots” initiatives springing up independent of each other wherever I look.  I have examples in Singapore and Milwaukee, Vancouver and Boston, New York and Philadelphia.

People WANT to talk about the subject with their parents and with each other and, for now, they see DeathCare as experts who can help them with the information they need.

Eventually, someone will need an enemy to push against and since we make a convenient patsy they will choose us and if history is any prediction we will let them (our fault for letting them, not theirs).

ABC News has picked up the banner of The Conversation Project, A Harvard Medical School Initiative.  Watch this short video.

if you are unable to view click here

What I would do:

I would transform my bereavement program which really only impacts 10% of those I serve to a “PreDeath” Project and incorporate the Conversation Project and some of the other stuff I am gathering and make my funeral home the local expert on this matter.

Are You Tired of Burying Your Local Treasure?

Written by Alan Creedy on . Posted in The Creedy Commentary. 2 Comments on Are You Tired of Burying Your Local Treasure?

My friend, Ed Mazur of Kapinos-Mazur Funeral Home, ran a very successful PR / Public Service program in his local community.  The campaign featured this poster and newspaper ads.  Weekends were set aside to encourage parents to clean out unused medication from their medicine cabinets and bring them to the funeral home.  On the first weekend more than a 1,000 people showed up and the funeral home collected 153 pounds of unused medications.  “YOU GO ED!”  If you want to know more give Ed a call at Kapinos-Mazur.  Maybe he’ll sell you the program.  😉

 

Expert Opinion: Some Things Are Obvious

Written by Alan Creedy on . Posted in The Creedy Commentary. 2 Comments on Expert Opinion: Some Things Are Obvious

Rick Baldwin

Here is an excerpt of an interrogation of a witness in a Massachusetts trial court:

Lawyer:  Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?

Doctor: no.

Lawyer: did you check for blood pressure?

Doctor: no.

Lawyer: so, it’s possible the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?

Doctor: no

Lawyer: how can you be so sure, Doctor?

Doctor: because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.

Lawyer: even so, couldn’t the patient still have been alive?

Doctor: well, I guess it’s possible he could have been alive and practicing law somewhere!

Some things are just blindingly obvious!

Alan Creedy asked me to read and comment on an article published by the Harvard Business Review from the standpoint of applying its logic to the funeral service industry.

The name of the piece is Integrating Around the Job to Be Done.  The central theme focuses on market segmentation – with market segmentations being defined as the subdivision of markets by “category of product,” or “price point.”  And of course, once a market has been segmented, potential customers for the segmented products may be identified and the various competitors listed (as the enemy).

Until about 1975 or so, the markets for the services of funeral homes was identified as basically everyone who might die – and the competition was identified as the funeral home down the street.  For our relevant history, price was an unimportant competitive determinant.

But then, the cremation societies began to emerge in areas of the country characterized by general family mobility, financial affluence and higher levels of education – and the market for death care services segmented.  Thereafter, funeral homes were no longer the exclusive ‘one size fits all’ providers of death care services.  And of course the markets fractured along the lines of product segmentation [traditional funerals –vs- cremations] and price [the cremation societies advertised their prices whereas it was considered unethical for funeral homes to advertise or to speak about theirs].  By definition, classic market segmentation occurred.

What has happened since then is that the cremation societies became aggressive marketers while most funeral homes remained traditionally passive, aloof.    Today, that segment of customers seeking simplicity and affordability when a life ends increasingly does not hire a funeral home – they hire what has become billed as an affordable specialist.  In practice, as well as by definition, classic market segmentation occurred in the funeral industry.

Can there ever be a return to ‘one size fits all’ market segmentation in the funeral home industry?  I speculate that ‘probably not.’ However, I believe that if traditional funeral homes are to stop the momentum of the cremation societies, and roll-back the profound impact of market segmentation, lots of painful changes will be incorporated into how they think, act, and deliver.

Summarizing my thoughts, here is an imaginary interview with a funeral director by the Harvard Business Review:

HBR:  What do funeral homes do?

Funeral Director: Funeral homes, through their staffs and facilities, care for the dead while attending to the living.

HBR: How do they do that?

Funeral Director: when someone dies, funeral homes arrange observances that generally involve putting the body in a box, gathering friends and family, asking a preacher to recount the benefits of living an upright life that lead to the kingdom of heaven, placing the box the ground, and erecting a memory stone on the place.

HBR:  How long has it been done that way?

Funeral Director: As long as anyone can remember.

HBR:  Is anything different today?

Funeral Director: Yes, almost everything is different.

HBR: How are things different today?

Funeral Director: when someone dies, people increasingly don’t want boxes anymore, friends and family don’t generally live in same town anymore, people don’t trust preachers or believe in heaven anymore, people don’t want burial in the ground, and they don’t want memory stones.  They also want much lower prices.

HBR: What have funeral homes done to adapt – to deflect the negative effects of product and price-based market segmentation?

Funeral Director:  I can’t think of anything.

HBR: Huh?

Some things are just blindingly obvious!

Alan Creedy Comments: If you are looking for a new way of thinking about your market the article referred to by Rick “Integrating Around the Job to Be Done”  written by Clay Christensen, the author of “The Innovator’s Dilemma” is a MUST read.  You can purchase a copy for $6.95 by clicking here.  

 

Death Goes Mainstream

Written by Alan Creedy on . Posted in The Creedy Commentary, General Topics. 4 Comments on Death Goes Mainstream

last week in my article “Funerals as Counter Culture” I made a bold statement:

“After 50 years of steady decline in public attitudes towards funerals the pendulum is swinging back our way.  Like Croci in the spring, the signs are poking through the frost…”

No sooner was that article published than I was exposed to an even more dramatic example:

The actual article heralded by the cover page chronicles the trials of a caregiving son and the decline and deaths of his parents.   But its significance as the cover story of Time magazine is profound in another way.  Time wants to sell magazines and magazines draw attention to themselves by their covers.  Now in the week this was published it was competing with such newsworthy events as the syrian massacre and the upcoming Wisconsin recall election.  But what did the editors of Time think would draw the most attention?

In three words… HOW TO DIE… they captured the interest of a rapidly growing number of boomers.  Whether in the context of aging parents or in the context of their own deaths it is a topic that perks up the ears of everyone in my cohort group.

I am telling you as loudly as I can:

BOOMERS WANT TO TALK ABOUT DEATH AND DYING.  

IF NOT YOU THEN WHO?

One cannot help but be reminded of an earlier Time cover.  A cover that arguably heralded a societal shift in the way our nation practices religion and set the stage for an entirely new worship style

1966 Time Cover

Here is what I would do:

  • I would become the local expert on the practical issues of dying
  • I would augment my local speaking with topics like “the good death” “how to die” “living wills” and “how to write creative eulogies and obituaries”
  • I would not overemphasize the emotional aspects.
  • I would become the “go to” expert for my community on resources and ideas.  After all, they think you are any way.

A final postscript.  Those of you who offer grief and bereavement programs will be very tempted to use the people who run those services for you.  I would encourage you not to do that.  This is less about the emotional issues (although they are important) than about the practical issues.  The sub theme is about how they can exercise control over the process.  You might want to read the case study on this website We Stand At The Threshold for greater depth on the Boomer market.

We Stand At The Threshold is password protected.  If you are a subscriber forward the email you received to me at alan@alancreedy.org and I will send you the password.  If you are not a subscriber then subscribe.  Enter your email on the right.  It’s free.

How to Create a 60 Second Elevator Speech

Written by Alan Creedy on . Posted in The Creedy Commentary. 4 Comments on How to Create a 60 Second Elevator Speech

Marketing experts tell us that we should be able to express our unique selling proposition (USP) in such a compelling way in less than 60 seconds that the hearer will ask to know more.  Here is great two step way to do that.

Purpose: Create interest and dialogue about what you do and the value you offer

 

Step One: Create a Problem

Begin by pretending you have been asked, “what do you do?”  Your first order of business must be to cause your audience to experience emotionally the need for your product.  You do that by creating in their imagination a problem.  So, instead of reciting your title or your daily duties or job description ALWAYS BEGIN WITH: “Well, you know how…”.  For instance, I am a business consultant.  My elevator speech begins with:

“Ya know how sometimes we get ourselves into situations and nothing we do seems to work to get us out?

I am also a writer so sometimes I say:

“Ya know how as a small business owner our business environment is changing so fast that every time you think you have an answer the question has changed?”

If I were a funeral director my opening line would be:

“Ya know how when someone dies people are often confused, don’t know what to do or say or where to go and sometimes feel very vulnerable?”

Clearly, the purpose here is to create curiosity and interest as well as a deep unconscious emotional connection.

Step Two: Solve the problem

Having created a problem the second step is simple: solve the problem.

In my consulting practice I say:

“Ya know how sometimes we get ourselves into situations and nothing we do seems to work to get us out?  Well, I have the unique ability to quickly see what needs to be done, separate it from the ‘rabbit trails’ and create a strategy for success. I help business owners build long term profitability and sustainable success without throwing the baby out with the bathwater.”

As a writer I say:

“Ya know how as a small business owner our business environment is changing so fast that every time you think you have an answer the question has changed?  Well, I dig deep to see what is really happening clarify what is important and what is not and help people prioritize and implement best practices that enable businesses to adapt more rapidly and effectively.”

As a funeral director I would say:

“Ya know how when someone dies people are often confused, don’t know what to do or say or where to go and sometimes feel very vulnerable?  Well, I use my training and experience to bring order out of chaos and help people figure out what they want and need to do within what they can realistically afford so that there are no regrets and lives are honored in fitting ways.”

That’s it:  Create a problem, solve the problem.  Stop talking let them ask for more.  It’s a 60 SECOND speech.  Not a 60 MINUTE speech.  If they want to know more oblige them if not, move on.  You want a dialogue that will build a relationship not a monologue where you are trying to persuade.

Now, dear reader, why don’t you give it a try and share it in the comments section.  I’ll be glad to give you feedback.

The Real Victims of Our Cowardice

Written by Alan Creedy on . Posted in The Creedy Commentary. 14 Comments on The Real Victims of Our Cowardice

In the past few weeks I have used strong negative language:

Cowardice…Fight… Neglect  

Please understand: this is not an emotional reaction on my part.  Instead, it is an intentional effort to call you out.  And it is this “intentionality” that I encourage you to undertake as well.  It is time we, as a profession, called out our “NaySayers” and detractors, our “doom and gloomers.”

Have I made you angry?  I cannot say I am sorry.  You should be angry.  At least I have created some emotion and out of that emotion may come some resolve and out of that resolve may come some action.

This past two weeks have taught me the difference between sadness and discouragement.

Thankfully, I am not discouraged.  But I am sad.  Very sad.  And sadness has an effect…an enervating effect.

I am feeling your pain.

That pain comes from having the answers to your client’s questions but facing an increasing number of people who are less and less interested in answers.  I have that same pain.  In most instances, I know what needs to be done to turn a business around.  A bold statement? Really?  In most instances, you know what needs to be done to best help a family.  Likewise, my experience and training enable me to know what needs to be done to solve most business problems.  In my case, if it is a parallel, our profession seems fixated on a direction that, for more than 30 years, has produced only more of the same…decline.  I have learned that tact and diplomacy can work; but not often.  So, I have chosen a tactic that I think you should adopt as well: Boldness.  After all, most of you have lost so much ground that you can only gain.

My sadness comes from the awareness that I can’t win them all.  My optimism, though, comes from my unwillingness to give up.  My willingness to fight for what I believe.  From the cold, stark fact that I know that if I give in (even just a little bit) the battle is lost.  More important, though, is the experience that the more I am willing to take a stand the more I win…some.

Never, Never, Never...Give Up

When someone attacks your profession you should be willing to stand up and defend it.  Whether you chose to be a DeathCare Professional or you inherited it, you are in it.  So, make the best of it.  Misery and embarrassment are pathetic alternatives.

How To TurboCharge Your Marketing

There is a principle in marketing…a turbocharger, if you will.

“When a product / service is becoming a commodity You can differentiate yourself by letting people know what you stand for”

Unfortunately, most DeathCare providers are too timid to take bold stands.   Bold enough, at least, to differentiate themselves in the market place.  Instead, they create sanitized vision and mission statements for hanging in lobbies that are quickly forgotten and largely ignored.  In fact, most vision and mission statements are so sanitized they are commodities themselves.

Steve McKee in his video interview on Narrowing Your Focus says we should never say we are better.  Instead we should say we are…different.

I challenge my clients and their staffs to do some real soul searching and develop a “Statement of Beliefs”.   Yes, I can hear you now:  “Could we see a sample?”  No!  A Statement of Beliefs has to be individual, real and personal to your firm.  You can’t borrow someone else’s and just “stamp” it on your door.  There has to be total buy in.  It is built through a process.  But here are a few of the questions I use to stimulate the process:

  • Do you really believe the quality of casket defines the value of the funeral?
  • Do you really believe that increasing the average sale price of caskets is going to save your business?
  • Do you really believe every 95 year old alzheimer patient who has lived in a nursing home for 3 years needs a full visitation, funeral, procession and graveside service?
  • Do you really believe that the family and friends of a 62 year old “pillar of the community” popular local businessman and former mayor are going to be well served by a direct cremation?
Here, also, is my personal Statement of Beliefs:
  • I believe every life has value
  • I believe every life deserves to be commemorated in a meaningful way
  • I believe those whose lives have been touched in positive ways both want and need a physical way to be comforted and / or to comfort
  • I believe that most people still perceive the dead body of those they love as a sacred object deserving of reverent care whether or not they are religious people
  • I believe that the best and most natural way to comfort one another is physically, in person, with touch and voice
  • I believe that some people need a permanent place to memorialize
  • I believe DeathCare makes a valuable contribution to society by providing a formal, socially recognized physically present means for comfort, affirmation and encouragement, in whatever form they choose, coincident with the time of a death.
  • I believe most DeathCare providers are good people who are capable of learning the basics of good business and management practices

I have put a lot of time and thought into these recent articles.  It is not my purpose to persuade you or to give you false hope.

But it is my hope that some of you will decide to become intentional and bold in your own efforts.

That some of you will begin to take a public stand for your profession.

That some of you will think deeply about what it is we contribute to those we serve and why our society will be worse off if it abandons what we offer.

Then, in your own words…for god’s sake…express yourself.  Be proud of what you do and the contribution you make to your community.  Let others see that pride.  Let the chips fall where they may.  The results will probably surprise you.

The next time you are out socially and someone blows you off by saying, “Oh, I’m just going to be cremated and have my ashes scattered.”   Are you willing to say, “Ya know, I realize that’s become popular but I’m not good with that any more and I would like to tell you why.”  Then tell your stories (I know you have them).  Make it non economic.  Speak to the heart not the head.  You may not win them over but you never had them in the first place.  So how you can you lose something you never had.  Yes, you do run the risk of alienating someone.  But something I have learned in 40 years of adult life:  There are, in fact, people who don’t like “Truth Tellers”.  and, you know what?  They just happen to be the people you don’t want to know anyway.  Then, when you have become comfortable with that experience begin challenging the direct disposition customers in the arrangement conference.  Remember challenge is different than confront.

Because The Real Victims of Our Cowardice (borne out of our neurotic desire to be liked by people that probably don’t like us any way) are the people we have pledged to help.

One Last Time:

Your livelihood is at stake!!  What do you want?? Do you want me to tell you it’s someone else’s fault?  Or do you want to get in there and fight for yourself and those you love?

“lift up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees; make straight paths for your feet…”

Hebrews 12:12-13a

“The noble man makes noble plans, and by noble deeds he stands”

Isaiah 32:8

Funeral Apologetics 101: Stop Clinging To Your Despair

Written by Alan Creedy on . Posted in The Creedy Commentary, Leadership. 14 Comments on Funeral Apologetics 101: Stop Clinging To Your Despair

[Apologetics (from Greek ἀπολογία, “speaking in defense”) is the discipline of defending a position (often religious) through the systematic use of information.]

Much of my career has involved business turnarounds.  This experience serves me well as a funeral home consultant.  Over the course of more than 30 years I have learned a lot about human nature.   Here is a simple elegant expression of one of the most significant lessons you must accept if you are in trouble:

“If you think you can, or

if you think you can’t 

You are right!”

                               Henry Ford

There is an anomaly in human nature that appears during prolonged stress.  In recent years it has been the attention of much study.  These studies have all concluded that their is a specific attitude or mindset that correlates directly with the ability to survive bad situations and another that correlates directly with failure.  But more on that later.  What I found in my experience, and became subject to myself, is the propensity for people to give up, to become cynical and actually embrace victim mentality. I realized from some of the comments to last weeks post, “The Problem is Not Cremation”, that a few of those who responded had given in and given up.  So, rather than begin this series in the middle I think it best to begin at the beginning and lay the foundational steps you must embrace for an effective business turn around.

How I overcame my own victim mentality.

Some 20+ years ago I was leading a protracted turnaround.  It seemed to take forever and was beset by passive agressive resistance from the staff.  (Life Lesson: “when you emerge from the phone booth to fly to the rescue don’t be surprised to find the very people you are trying to help standing on your cape”)  I found myself feeling increasingly depressed, demoralized and hopeless.   Then during my daily quiet time one day I felt compelled to write out in my journal everything I was afraid of.  There were 6 items.  They included such things as never being able to retire, not being able to send my kids to college, the shame of failure, etc.  Then I felt led to identify that which I was MOST afraid of and it changed my whole perspective.  The thing I was most afraid of was simply this: “Nothing would ever change.”  Well, I decided that if that was my greatest fear then sitting around clinging to my despair was going to guarantee that would happen.  I deliberately stopped caring about the naysayers and critics and self-styled experts.

To shake off the victim mentality and take control of your future demands you do two things:

  1. Look beyond your circumstances
  2. Ignore those who are clinging to their despair

For some reason people find comfort in convincing themselves that it’s not worth the effort.  I don’t pretend to understand this mindset, but I found that I simply could not afford to pay attention to hand-wringers.  Overcoming adversity takes an awful lot of emotional energy.  Trying to convert the unbelievers takes too much out of me or anyone else and is a distraction anyway.  Besides these “happy failures”, as I have heard them called, have learned how to be discouraged and they like it.  Their type is not unique to DeathCare.  They exist in every walk of life.  They find some kind of meaning in their misery for sure, but, still, I can’t afford that kind of thinking.

So I decided to leave the conversion job to Billy Graham.  What this means in your case is this: those who say it’s all about money and that no one cares anymore are simply making excuses for their failure.  Personally, I think it is way too early for that.  People who study organizational dynamics all conclude that effective people must believe their work has meaning and purpose.  That is how I overcame my own discouragement.  I came to believe the profession I am in (DeathCare) makes a rock solid contribution to society.  The only problem, as I said last week, is that there are a lot of unbelievers in our profession.  But Before you get upset, unbelief, given all we have been through and are currently experiencing, is to be expected.  It’s just that unbelief will never get you into the promised land (to borrow a biblical metaphor)

Think about what I have said, and if you are old enough, you will remember that this is exactly what Ronald Reagan did for us as a nation.  He adopted a new attitude…a can do attitude… and after Jimmy Carter’s Malaise Era he changed our direction, gave us hope and the rest is history.  In fact, for a long time Reagan had to “lend” us his hope and beliefs while we struggled to overcome our own despair.  Franklin Roosevelt did the same during the dark days of the Great Depression and Winston Churchill stood alone during the early days of World War II.  You will have to do this same thing for your business and your employees and your family until they catch on.  But there is another human anomaly that will help you.  People don’t like despair and if they see a way out they will start moving toward it.

How To Look Beyond Your Circumstances and Find The Soul of Your Passion:

Throughout my career, and especially now that I am involved in funeral home consulting, I have found the first step…the step that must be taken before any other…is to understand the “why” of what I am doing.  It is this grasp of the “Why” that enables me or any one else to become a “Funeral Apologist”.  It’s easy to see the “what.”  Not easy to understand the “why”…and, yet, that is the very essence of any product or service.  Finding the “why” is an iterative process and can take months. The why is very personal but when you finally find it it becomes the key to everything else.

I know in asking you to start at the beginning instead of the middle that I run the risk of losing many of my readers because most people are not comfortable with the patience it takes for this step.  But please bear with me.  It will be worth it.  In fact, I can help you with it. (a shameless allusion to my work)  Through my relationship with The Center For Creative Leadership I have access to resources that can significantly accelerate this process by extracting the core value system from the unconscious mindsets of your team.  This enables you to build on the intrinsic strengths of your firm.

How to get leverage

The video below explains this concept better than anything I have seen.  At about 12 minutes into his talk the presenter uses a bell curve chart.  Later in this series I will write about why you must narrow your focus.  For now, this chart will serve as an illustration.   In any turnaround my target audience is always represented by the two segments on the far left.  I know from experience that if I can reach them and they begin to experiment and find success then the rest will follow.  This leverage is how you get organizations, societies and even industries to change.  Remember, I leave the conversions to Billy Graham.  Later the presenter uses the example of TIVO.  As you listen to this you might think about parallels to our profession.

EXPERT OPINION: How Are Funeral Directors Like Bankers?

Written by Alan Creedy on . Posted in The Creedy Commentary. 2 Comments on EXPERT OPINION: How Are Funeral Directors Like Bankers?

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.