Feature Editorial: Going Green
One of the biggest business moves on the planet that is guaranteed to continue into the future is “Going Green.” The term itself is used from everything to bioengineering plants to household items. For the funeral business, it could only make business more respectable and gain higher volumes of customers. The solutions aren’t complicated, but they do take a little thinking outside of the box.
Funeral businesses looking to become more environmentally friendly need to look to the products used on a daily basis. According to Darren Crouch of Passages International, there are energy alternatives that funeral home owners can offer their eco-friendly consumers, such as “green” urns and caskets. “There is also green stationary products and greener embalming products on the market,” Crouch explained. “More and more families are demanding greener funeral alternatives. They are looking for simpler and more natural products and services.”
Steve Schaal of Matthews said the goal of the funeral industry is to minimize the importance and turn it into a commodity. “The green movement is front and center in many facets of our lives with plenty of media attention,” Schaal said. “The timing is good for our industry to look for ways to be equally relevant.” Schaal suggested that the transformation to greener products has been influenced heavily by newer technologies. The technology used to develop many of the products used in the funeral industry has been what makes it so special for the consumer. “Speaking on the subject of cremator technology, it is a night and day comparison,” Schaal continued. “The sophistication of technology has allowed us to implement Advanced M-pyre control panels that automate the cremation cycle based on answering four specific questions: container type, weight, gender and case number of the day. Understanding these variables plus utilizing oxygen sensors help read combustion during the cremation cycle and modulate air and gas valves to lower fuel consumption, speed production, reduce harmful greenhouse gasses and control costly maintenance fees. All of these features are critical enhancements for the environment.”
Using green products only helps the funeral industry and helps it to be well ahead of the market. “Funeral homes can distance themselves from competitors,” Crouch said. “They have the opportunity to generate positive media attention that is all too often hard to get in the industry. By embracing and offering green products, funeral homes are able to create new revenue streams by generating sales from families that would have otherwise purchased very little.
“Families that opt for green funeral alternatives are not always looking for inexpensive options. They want unique products and services that they see value in and are prepared to pay for. In the past, these families often rejected traditional products and funeral homes were left generating minimal revenues for these families. By offering green products and services, funeral homes can meet the needs of these families and generate revenues that would have escaped them or been lost to competitors.”
How to be Green in the Future
Being green in the future requires action, now. “As with anything new, the pioneers typically take the first arrows and either turn back or move ahead,” said Gerald Davis, the president of Starmark. “Those that move ahead and embrace green will ultimately have some advantages over their competitors such as being first in the market and possibly first in the minds of green consumers.”
The key to being a successful business in the future will depend on the ability to be green. Consumers already desire the green aspect in everything from grocery food to gasoline in their automobiles. This is an age of transition and every industry, including the funeral industry, will be able to gain profits from jumping out ahead. “Our market studies indicate that a significant number of families choosing cremation would reconsider their choice and take a look at green or as we prefer, ‘Natural Burial,’” said Davis. “About 80 percent of cremation consumers do not want to be embalmed and I would suggest that this trend will carry over into higher numbers of burial families opting for green or natural burial services.”
Brad Crain, President, BioSAFE Engineering a company that specializes in Water Resolution suggests, “People have become more aware of environmental change and environmental impact of green house gases and technologies that are putting smoke in the air and burning energy and therefore are more environmentally conscious than in the past.” Crain and his company’s belief is so strong that they created the green process of Water Resolution for funeral homes, a truly environmentally friendly alternative to burial and cremation. It is a non-burn process that sympathetically returns the body to ashes.
Ignoring Green
Going green isn’t one of those situations that if ignored will fade away. It has been shown that green products are becoming increasingly more popular and businesses that embrace the change will emerge at the top of their respected industries. “The green economy as a whole continues to expand rapidly and the increase in the popularity of green funeral products and services will see significant growth over the next decade,” Crouch said. “Funeral homes that do not embrace this shift in the industry will lose out on those revenue opportunities.”
Passing up on the green movement will undoubtedly place the business behind all others in the industry. “I don’t believe any business knowingly wants to be second in the market when it comes to being environmentally responsible,” Schaal said. “Waiting on answering issues tomorrow when they are relevant today is never proactively leading your business. Let’s strike while the iron is hot.”
Davis concurred with Schaal by saying, “Funeral homes embracing natural burial need to position themselves to be first in the mind and first in the market to successfully capture client families. I suggest reading ‘The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing’ by Reis and Trout for useful ideas.”
How to Market for Green
As in any business the goal is to make consumers want the product. Being green is no exception. For green to be a valuable resource for funeral homes, marketing concepts must push the value of green products to consumers.
Fortunately, green has basically done the majority of the marketing for every industry, including the funeral homes. However, now isn’t the time to become lazy. Just because green is a hot topic among the average consumer, that doesn’t mean they understand how it pertains to funeral homes. The consumer must be educated and the aggressive funeral home that markets for green will come out on top in its respective market.
“Every funeral home should slip one or two Orthodox hardwood caskets into their hardwood selection and mark them as green burial products,” Davis suggested. “They will not likely take the same low cost path as is the trend with cremation. Funeral homes can include some lower priced ‘green’ units in their cremation product selections to serve both markets.”
One of the major set backs among marketing green products has been the price involved. Davis said some funeral homes go all out to promote organic body wrap to serve the truly eco-conscious consumer. However, proper marketing and sales should balance out the situation. Luckily, this market isn’t going to evaporate after the funeral home makes the purchase of green products. The consumer is going to continue to search for green burial items and their desire will only grow in the future. “Building community awareness of your green products and services needs to be weaved throughout all the various touch point entries into your business,” said Schaal. “If this is important, the story needs to be told in the lobby, lounge, arrangement setting, retail display, Web site, media material and any other area. Being selective about where you introduce being environmentally driven may miss an important avenue that connects your business to a specific target audience.
“Just buying and showcasing the product is not going to provide a powerful impact to your business. Education, proper retail signage, collateral support materials and director training are all key components to making green products and services a powerful influence to your business.”
Good marketing schemes for green products can be found almost anywhere. By sitting around and watching local television, funeral home owners can grasp an understanding of marketing solutions from other industries that have already made the effort to go green. “Once funeral homes have their green merchandise displays and funeral packages completed, it is simply to create a marketing campaign that might include, press releases, advertising in local magazines and newspapers and open days at the funeral home,” Crouch said. “There are many other creative ways of drawing attention to the green product and service offerings.” Crouch also suggested that funeral homes offer a wide variety of green products for the consumer to choose from. Having a selection can help the consumer understand the value of green products and how much greater the products can be as opposed to traditional burial products.
Going green has become the future of the funeral industry, regardless of what any funeral home may think. Waiting to act on the use of green products cannot wait. Funeral homes that put off using green products and services will slowly fade into the back of the industry and their revenues will drop. Traditional services may stay around for a few more years, but the funeral homes that act now can expect to find themselves at the top of the market, now, and into the future. FBA
By Tyler Montgomery
