Finding Your Message in Today’s New “Not Normal”

You may not have realized it, but if you’re in the death care profession, there has never been a better time to be out front with your marketing.  Not marketing in a mercenary way, not in the way you’ve been speaking to your audience before, but out front, nonetheless.

At times of crisis, people look to the Caregivers for comfort.  They can be leaders within their faith circle, but also first responders, medical professionals, anyone whose lives are dedicated to the care and support of others.  Doesn’t that include you?  Hasn’t that always been the reason you choose this profession? At the very heart of it, you’re in business of compassionate caregiving. And you have an incredibly vital role to play right now.

Which is why your messaging needs to address what’s important to your audience during this time of uncertainty and upset. (It’s absolutely not about how many seats in your tribute center nor the wide range of urns and caskets, or your new cremation garden.)

Greenlawn Funeral Homes & Cemeteries in Bakersfield, CA has posted a number of sensitive videos talking about their policy changes and new programs such as “Hugs from Home” in order to balance between being of service and the limitations place on their operations by state and local ordinances.

Forest Lawn in Los Angeles beautifully illustrates messaging done right in the age of COVID-19,  demonstrating empathy and comfort through their beautiful and sensitive Facebook posts, linking in many cases to their blog posts to expand on their messages.

In the era of social distancing, social media is certainly one of the most significant opportunities you have to share your perspectives frequently and measurably. But that doesn’t mean you should ignore any other marketing media that gives you a voice.

A GlobalWebIndex (GWI) survey reveals that Americans are not only spending more time watching news coverage (43%), but also spending more time watching shows and films on streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu (42%) as well as TV on broadcast channels (42%). Source: GWI.

And not just TV, consumers also say they have listened to more local public radio (29%) as well as read local/regional newspapers (29%). Source: Horowitz Research. To ignore these numbers is to miss fishing where the fish are!

The Message Above All Else

Right now, research is showing that consumers are paying greater attention to any messaging that shows an advertisers’ earnest attempts at putting their customers’ needs ahead of their own – that says that business today isn’t as usual.  We used to call this “feel good” advertising, but that’s precisely what’s called for now.’

Whether through programs that help families connect with each other from a distance, products or services that are re-priced to help newly unemployed customers, or simply being personally available to answer calls 24/7, it’s no longer about just talking about values, it’s about demonstrating them — showing how you are helping in an unprecedent time of shared crisis.

Show how you are taking this situation seriously by acknowledging the social, financial and other realities of this pandemic, empathizing with people’s concerns, and offering meaningful solutions within your capacity.

Talk about how you are adapting your business for the benefit of your customers as well as your employees, while contributing to the greater good of society. (What goes around comes back around, and long-term, you will find the rewards will well outweigh the costs, efforts and sacrifices you make today.)

Above all else, whether communicating how you are serving customers in new ways, implementing new procedures to protect their well-being, or making an effort to help the broader situation, now is not the time to be silent.

You need to be a calming voice in the storm. This is your moment.

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Dan Katz is president, creative director of LA ads. To discuss your thoughts with Dan on this blog or any marketing matters, email via this link, or visit www.LAadsMarketing.com.  You can also connect with Dan on LinkedIn. See agency work via this link.

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A Case for Media Agnosticism

We hear some voices in the funeral business that are all hot and heavy about digital marketing being the only way to get the message out. It’s Facebook or nothing, goes the rant.

OK, I’m a big Facebook user. I also spend a lot of time on Instagram. And I honestly love these platforms as a means of making connections, building relationships and measuring likes, clicks and comments. But I’m also 64 years old so I watch TV, listen to the radio, read the paper (occasionally), read magazines (all the time), and can’t avoid billboards and bus benches since I’m in LA where everybody drives and gets stuck in traffic.

Let’s start with the obvious. To funeral home operators, the most significant age group, the prime cut of pre-need buyers, is still 55 and older. The Baby Boomers!  And as big on technology as we are, we still consume a much wider range of media than just digital. Our kids live on their phones, but we gray-hairs haven’t entirely given up on all the media we grew up with.

Recently, we held an event for a cemetery client and marketed it through Facebook, emails, newspaper, radio, outdoor banners and public relations (TV, radio and newspapers primarily).  The turnout was great, but when we asked attendees how they found out about the event, we were surprised to hear how many of them named the local newspaper as the main source of information about the event.

I’m not advocating newspapers! I’m not advocating billboards or radio! Or Facebook! I’m advocating the recognition that smart marketers must not fixate on any one media form. Especially where connecting with an older audience is important.

(And isn’t it interesting, by the way, that even online businesses such as Match.com, AHomeForMom.com, Expedia and even Amazon and Google use offline media to augment their marketing and help promote their brands? Why is that, do you think?)

LA ads vice president, Rolf Gutknecht, frequently uses the term “Media Agnostic” to describe our philosophy. In every case, with every client, we have to look at the total media picture – digital, social, traditional and guerrilla – and decide each time what are the most potent ways to push out the message based on the target audience, the timeline, the budget and the kind of response needed.

There is no silver bullet when it comes to media, especially in the funeral biz. And if you don’t believe me, why not take a survey of the next 10 pre-need customers you talk to. What do they read or click on or watch or listen to? If you’d like a quick media survey questionnaire you can use, contact me and I’ll send it to you.

To be agnostic is to continually ask, to challenge, to seek and be skeptical of any one truth.

I sincerely hope, at least in your marketing journey, you are a seeker instead of a follower.

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Dan Katz is president, creative director of LA ads. To discuss your thoughts with Dan on this blog or any marketing matters, email via this link, or visit www.LAadsMarketing.com.  You can also connect with Dan on LinkedIn. See agency work via this link.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Marketing with Dignity (No, the OTHER Dignity).

One of the costs of getting older is seeing your parents get older, and that unfortunately means spending more time in hospitals.  This past week, my father was admitted to the local hospital with various age-related issues. The hospital is part of the Dignity Health family.

As I drove into the main entrance, in the planter ahead of the garage were three foot tall 3-dimensional orange letters greeting me with “CARING.”  Passing one of the driveway fences, an attached orange sign declared “Every breath matters.”  Stepping into the main lobby, more 3D oversized letters spelled out “HELLO.”  Throughout the hallways, large posters offered various thoughtful messages and insights about Humankindness, which is the company’s main marketing theme (“Hello Humankindness”).  I even saw the same great posters in the basement hallways which are mostly used by the hospital staff. You couldn’t miss the point. And just as important, neither could the staff.

This is what branding is supposed to be, not just a slogan or logo or corporate color scheme but a complete experience.  “Environmental branding” unites the marketing messages presented in ads, commercials and online media with how the customer experiences the company at the street-level. More than that, it serves as a declaration of a company’s way of being. (You can’t promote that humankindness is important if you treat your families dispassionately, or worse.)

This idea of environmental branding is nothing particularly new, as everybody experiences it at their local Target or Starbucks or market or gas station. In essence, it is designed to get guests or customers (and employees) to align themselves with the brand while within the setting. Done correctly, it wins loyal and raving fans.

So, if environmental branding works in the retail setting, why not in other areas…such as hospitals. Or cemeteries or funeral homes?  Can you think of better opportunities to ease a family’s worries and let them know they’re in the best of hands and at the same time set the business apart from its competition?

Part of what makes the Dignity Health program work so well is that it’s not being done by other hospitals. Most hospitals look and feel like most other hospitals.  But Dignity hospitals deliberately look different and so it registers on the “audience” differently. That’s the value of being disruptive. Dignity has stepped outside the box and it’s paying off.

Unfortunately, most funeral providers are behind the curve when it comes to stepping outside the box.

Recently, we spoke with a funeral home owner whose own private office featured an amazing wall-mural of painted flowers. It was beautiful.  It was art.  The owner told me it was done by one of his family members.  I asked him why he didn’t do the same thing in the lobby, where families could see something unique and wonderful.  He said he was nervous about doing so because it’s not what families expect. I said that’s exactly why he should do it!  And yet, he hasn’t.

Although cemeteries are by nature “environmental,” they often miss the marketing opportunities available throughout their parks, such as branding with unique messages and signs in the parking lot, at the entries, along fences, and in the office lobbies. All I often see are the hours of operation, days of flower & decoration removal and service directionals. Ah, what superb opportunities missed!

I would offer this up to anyone running a funeral home or cemetery:  If there’s a Dignity Health hospital in your area, pay it a visit and see how they’re creating a complete experience – one that’s not too distant in spirit from what a cemetery or funeral home traditionally offers: care, compassion, dignity.

Dignity Health has done it right. Now it’s your turn.

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Dan Katz is president, creative director of LA ads. To discuss your thoughts with Dan on this blog or any marketing matters, email via this link, or visit www.LAadsMarketing.com.  You can also connect with Dan on LinkedIn. See agency work via this link.

 

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The five-letter formula for marketing success: WIIFM

As I write this, we’re working on a new assignment for a combo cemetery/mortuary who needs to update their overall messaging. Taking a look at their ads and social media posts over the past several years – as well as their competitors’ – a thought struck me.  Everything they talked about was about…THEM! About the beauty of their grounds.  About their many generations of tradition.  About the famous people buried there. About their services and capabilities. Sound familiar?

The one thing that was missing, the most important thing, was anything about the only people who actually count: the audience. Where do they fit in the equation?

You and I order stuff or services because it fits our needs, not the providers’.  The reader is always asking the question “WIIFM – What’s in it for me?” and if that answer isn’t quickly evident, they move on, not taking the time to have to figure it out.  And let’s be honest, that’s 90% of the time. In other words, 90% of the marketing out there fails because it isn’t about the reader (or viewer or listener) but about the advertiser.

So how much of your messaging is actually about reader? Does it answer the question “What’s in it for me?”

It could be about the reader’s feeling that funerals are too depressing and how a different kind of memorial event might be the right answer. Or about how the selection of a new mausoleum property is in fact a long-lasting statement about the purchaser’s pride and prestige.  (Car brands do this all the time. It’s not about the car; it’s about how the viewer feels about themselves inside the car.)

Surprisingly, the answer could be that the marketing content is just so darned interesting, the WIIFM is the content itself. As an example, we ran an online “commercial” for Rose Hills that featured an elderly skydiver who, on the day of his 80^th birthday, jumped out of the plane 81 times!  C’mon, who wouldn’t want to take a minute to watch that video?

Engaging the audience means making the marketing about the audience. Not about your product or service. Or put another way, it’s been said that when someone walks into the Home Depot to buy a quarter-inch drill bit, that’s not really what they want. What they want is a quarter-inch hole.

So, if your marketing isn’t moving the needle, that’s telling you that it’s not moving the audience to see themselves. It means you’re not answering the only question that counts: WIIFM.

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Dan Katz is president, creative director of LA ads. To discuss your thoughts with Dan on this blog or any marketing matters, email via this link, or visit www.LAadsMarketing.com.  You can also connect with Dan on LinkedIn. See agency work via this link.

 

 

 

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Is your funeral service business a Brand or a Cult?

For those who couldn’t attend the 2019 NFDA Convention in Chicago, I want to let you know that it was a first-rate event with a trade floor full of exhibitors and one wonderful seminar after another. But the highlight for many was attending the general session and hearing the keynote speaker and best-selling author, teacher and entrepreneur, Seth Godin, entertain the audience with his presentation on the importance of “story telling” to engage audiences and ultimately earn their trust.

One of his examples had to do with how Harley-Davidson fans love the brand so much so, they’ve tattooed the company logo on their bodies.  Why is that?  If you look at the company on the surface, you might say they’re in the business of building motorcycles. But then, so too are Yamaha, BMW, Honda, and Kawasaki. But you don’t see those brands tattooed on biker biceps, do you?  The reason why is Harley-Davidson doesn’t sell motorcycles; they sell a fantasy, the “story” that a middle-age accountant can put on his leather jacket, jump on his Harley, roar down the road and make others afraid of him.  Now THAT’S a fantasy, and it’s exactly what Harley-Davidson sells.  Harley owners don’t just buy a Harley, they buy into a lifestyle.  Moreover, they’re not just owners, they’re members of a tribe, a cult, if you will.

So here’s the question:  What would it take to have your business name so permanently attached to a customer?

And consider Apple Computer.  I know designers and musicians who would smirk at any other “artist” who would chose to design, compose or perform with a PC instead of a Mac. Yet, it’s all just processors, memory chips and buttons, right?  Why then is a Mac in a league of its own?  Because Steve Jobs recognized that it’s not at all about bits, bytes and hard drives, but about empowering creative people without letting the hardware get in the way.  “Think Different” isn’t just a slogan, it’s a mantra for those who believe in self-expression. By default, then, it makes all the PC-users of the world less cool, just part of the herd.  Apple isn’t just a brand, it’s a lifestyle statement. It’s a Story!

How about Starbucks?  Why would anyone spend $4 for a cup of coffee when blind taste tests show a greater preference for the $1 coffee served at McDonald’s!!!  Because Starbucks fans are not buying coffee as much as they’re buying into the story of the cool laptop-using, coffee-house-going, trendy brew-speaking self-image that Starbucks so carefully cultivates.  I admit, I’m one of them!  And Starbucks carefully nurses that brand image in-store with free iTunes downloads, whole-earth graphics, unusual pastries, free wifi, and a lexicon of menu lingo that is the difference between a “real” coffee aficionado and a pretender.  Like Harley and Apple, it’s more than a brand, it’s another cult. Another Story!

What each of these three famous brands has in common isn’t the massive marketing budget (well, it’s that too).  They each recognize the power of consumers telling a story about themselves when they engage with the brand.  As Seth noted, “The new way forward is not a rehash of what you’ve been doing but how you’re different and special. Because if it’s not special, it’s not worth seeking out.”  Our firm’s philosophy, which we’ve been talking about for years …”Dare to be Different”…shouldn’t be viewed as something scary for your business. In fact, the scariest phrase in business is “We do things the way we’ve always done it.”  Alternatively, telling prospective customers how your business is part of their story, how it impacts on their lives and self-image, sets you apart from your competitors who are still doing things they way they’ve always been done.

And think about this: In the case of Story-driven brands such as Harley-Davidson, Apple and Starbucks, the price of the product is often more expensive than their competitors’.  Yet you couldn’t drag the customer away from their cherished brand. That’s loyalty at the highest possible level.

The bottom line is that, as you think about your own funeral care brand, it’s all about creating a total customer experience that is quite apart from your competition.  It’s about knowing what your customers currently expect of an acceptable funeral care experience, and then exceeding it at every turn in a way that makes you become a part of their story.

There’s a book on the market that’s super-short and every word rings as true as when it was first printed in 1993: Raving Fans – A Revolutionary Approach to Customer Service, by Ken Blanchard.  He writes about why it’s no longer enough to have satisfied customers. A thriving business today must create “raving fans” or its customers will bail the moment someone cheaper or sexier comes along. You’ll certainly find inspiration here, as I have.

Be the Harley-Davidson, the Apple Computer or the Starbucks of funeral care and you’ll no longer have to compete on price.  You might even find your logo showing up where you least expect it.

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Rolf Gutknecht is vice president, account services director of LA ads. To discuss your thoughts with Rolf on this blog or any marketing matters, email via this link, or visit www.LAadsMarketing.com.  You can also connect with Rolf on LinkedIn.

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Making your marketing perfectly clear.

Former president Richard Nixon was famously quoted (and oft imitated) for his phrase “Let me make one thing perfectly clear…”  Not that transparency was actually part of his administration, but at least he knew the public wants things to be clear.

Clarity is an essential part of effective communications and flat-out critical when it comes to marketing communications.  We view Clarity as one of the Six Essential Values of Powerful Marketing (more on that to come).  Yet, so many ads, commercials, sales brochures, websites and trade show booths fail to be perfectly clear, leaving the audience to only guess at what the marketer was trying to say.

Consider these gibberish taglines from some of America’s top marketers:

• American Eagle Outfitters: Live your life
• Hilton: Travel should take you places
• H&R Block: You got people
• JCPenney:  Every Day Matters

Huh?

That goes for so many other ads, commercials and digital banners by big names selling small ideas, most often in fashion, fragrances and alcohol.

And just read any business publication and you’ll see ads with copy like “We strive to procure VPN-enabled solutions for today’s leading eBusinesses.” And “Dedicated data implementations for today’s market-focused virtual companies.”  One more time, Huh?  These could have just as easily been created by a random phrase generator and been better understood.

Reading the funeral trade magazines, I see too many ads that are no better, that I would have exert serious mental effort before I could understand precisely what they have to sell and why I should care.

Billboards and trade shows booths are also great places to see practitioners of obscurity at their best. In the case of billboards, driving at 60 miles per hour, the audience simply doesn’t have time to read tiny type next to big photos (see the example), or make sense of a too-clever headline one has to think about to “get.” 

And at trade shows, with all the crowds, noise and visual overload, too many booths bury their key story amid an army of bullet points and oversize logos.  Attendees don’t even take the time to scratch their heads and wonder what these exhibitors do, make or sell as they move past.

So this is a plead for clarity, for putting the key selling proposition front and center, no matter how it gets dressed up.  An old saw of advertising puts it succinctly: “Think it out square, then say it with flair.” Which is to say, make sure that the selling message is understandable, meaningful and motivating before you start on any creative executions, and then be sure, once the creative work is done, that the message still drives through.

I hope I’ve made this one point perfectly clear.

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Dan Katz is president, creative director of LA ads. To discuss your thoughts with Dan on this blog or any marketing matters, email via this link, or visit www.LAadsMarketing.com.  You can also connect with Dan on LinkedIn. See agency work via this link.

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Gold or Garbage? Creating the strongest message for your marketing.

I love acronyms – a seemingly meaningless salad of initials that really do stand for something meaningful.  If you use text messaging, OMG, you might LOL at something your BFF just IM’ed you.

Computer junkies have always had cute acronyms.  My favorite computer acronym is GIGO.  It stands for “Garbage in, garbage out.”  It means that if invalid data is entered in a computer program, the resulting output will also be invalid. Garbage in can only yield garbage out. It’s a law about as certain as had Sir Isaac Newton written it himself.

For a marketer, “garbage in” means an inadequate or superficial understanding of the product or service, an incomplete picture of the audience and what’s important for them to know, or a fast, off-the-shelf solution that really isn’t a solution at all.  Without good, meaningful, insightful input, the output can only be weak at best.

What is “garbage in” when it comes to funeral marketing?  It’s a funeral home that says its strength is its caring.  Or a cemetery that trades on its lovely historic acres. While both may be true, the audience has heard it so often from so many others, it’s just not that interesting or meaningful. Messages like these are no more compelling than a soft drink that says it quenches “today’s thirst!”  What the heck does that mean?

Digging for the Truth

A message that is fresh and motivating comes from hard detective work.  Saying your staff cares is a lot different than proving it, and a jaded audience requires proof.  I worked for a combo cemetery/mortuary client who wanted to tell their “caring” story, as many do.  But it was only after sitting in a number of sales meetings that one of the staff mentioned how a groundsman was watching a child’s funeral from a distance.  At the funeral, the family released a handful of helium balloons.  A few minutes later, one of the balloons floated back to earth and the groundsman walked over to retrieve it. He handed it to the bereaved mother and commented that this balloon made him remember that it’s God’s plan that not everyone is intended to follow all the others.  Needless to say, the mother was touched by this laborer’s genuine and spontaneous compassion. And it led me to create a campaign that showed how it’s their whole staff, and not just the family counselors, who share in their mission. We used real people, from secretaries to drivers to maintenance crew.  That’s specific.  That’s powerful.  That’s compelling.  And it’s the opposite of GIGO, unless the “G” stands for Gold.

In another campaign, over the course of conversations, we found out that one of the owners volunteered as a Shriner’s clown.  That’s different!  So we explored a little further and found out how many of the staff gave of their time at church, in the community, at their kids’ schools, and that became the basis of an unusual campaign featuring their after-work lives. It not only elevated their local visibility, it got international attention.

You just can’t afford to be superficial in arriving at marketing solutions, and particularly in developing your key marketing message.  There’s too much riding on it. Admittedly the barriers to mining for the gold are very powerful: no one has the time, the answers are “obvious,” the deadlines are next week, we’re paying YOU to come up with the message, and so forth.  It takes strength of will and a commitment to the end result to journey past the obvious answer and dig for gold.  Trust me, it’s there!  It’s always there.

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Dan Katz is president, creative director of LA ads. To discuss your thoughts with Dan on this blog or any marketing matters, email via this link, or visit www.LAadsMarketing.com.  You can also connect with Dan on LinkedIn. See agency work via this link.

 

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Which half of your Marketing is wasted? The definitive answer.

Retail pioneer John Wanamaker was famously quoted as saying “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.”  Whether it’s advertising, social media or marketing in general, it’s the dilemma of firms in death care or any other industry, no matter how small or immense their budget.

However, as catchy as the quote may be, it’s not really that difficult to parse the answer.  After all, there are only two fundamental components to marketing: 1) what you have to say and, 2) where (or to whom) you say it.  The half that most death care firms spend the bulk of their money on is the “where,” meaning the media or channel (i.e. radio, billboards, cable tv).  So, when the marketing activity results in a resounding thud, the media or channel gets the blame.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard a cemetery, funeral home, manufacturer or service provider tell us “I’ve run in (insert media type) and it doesn’t work!” or “We don’t use (insert channel type), that’s a waste of money.” And they’re not wrong. But that’s only half the truth.

After overseeing the marketing for Fortune 100 organizations to companies just like yours, here’s what I’ve learned.  The simple, unvarnished fact is… (drum roll, please)…if the message is strategically weak, it will miss its mark. And if even the message is right but it’s not said in a compelling way, you can quadruple your marketing spend and still get dismal results. There. I said it.

Let’s put it in human terms.  The guy who’s popular at a big party will be popular at a small party. The guy who’s a bore at black tie gala will put people to sleep standing at a car wash.

Now if you’re in the funeral business, the point is amplified many fold.  Funeral homes, cemeteries and cremation services are not what one would call a category of high consumer demand.  So the hurdle clearly isn’t one of where to spend the media money.  It’s mostly a matter of what can be said to get Attention, create Interest, generate Demand and cause Action (AIDA) given that you’re talking about death, loss and grief.

It’s all in the messaging.  What you choose to do at this juncture is what will affect everything that follows.  So here are some ways to think about making both halves of your advertising dollars work for you:

• Start with a powerful smart marketing message as it’s the very foundation of your entire marketing effort.  If this is faulty, nothing will stand on it.  Make sure you have a point of view that is completely unique to your firm alone, that your competitors aren’t also saying.  Be sure it’s a message that would motivate someone who is already leaning toward the competition. Merely showing a photo of staff people, your facilities, using a pun for its own sake, or relying on clichés are non-starters as far as marketing messages go. Trust me when I say no one cares…you’ll just be wasting your money.  (Read our last blog entitled: “What to say when others are saying it”)
• How you say it is nearly as important as what you say. Invest in exceptional creative execution.  Your compelling message still needs to stop people in their tracks before it can do its job. Use the very best talent you can afford both in copywriting as well as in design.  Here’s the nexus where you’ll either be wasting your marketing budget or making it soar. Many firms like yours will spend next to nil for the creative development (getting what they paid for), only to blow tens of thousands of dollars on the media to get a lot of people to ignore their ignorable ad. Your budget is too valuable to waste on run-of-the-mill and forgettable stuff.
• Make certain that all your marketing initiatives are in step with one another.  If your ads are attention getting but your website is still an antique, or if your other marketing materials look cheap and not well thought out on all other fronts, you can’t expect optimum results.  Marketing is synergistic.  And cumulative.

So, in essence, getting your money’s worth starts at the very beginning, not at the end.  Putting the bulk of your focus on smart and compelling messaging, rather than on the media, will be much more rewarding.  And while we’re at it, D-I-Y creative while pervasive is hardly ever persuasive! The clue is often a “clever” or punny headline but a weak selling message.

Don’t think that the media selection is wrong when the creative you’re placing in it is what’s sending your audience running in the wrong direction.  (I’ve seen humble bus benches create insanely great response when used creatively.)

There.  Now you know which half of your advertising needs a lot more of your focus and love.

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Rolf Gutknecht is vice president, account services director of LA ads. To discuss your thoughts with Rolf on this blog or any marketing matters, email via this link, or visit www.LAadsMarketing.com.  You can also connect with Rolf on LinkedIn.

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What to say when the other guy’s already saying it?

Brown Funeral Home is running an ad that says “Our Family Caring About Yours.”  Down the street, White Funeral Home has a commercial that says “When Compassion Counts.”   The neighborhood budget competitor, Gray Affordable Funeral Care, is airing a series of radio spots that say “All the Care but not the Cost.”  Oh, and just across town, Green Memorial Gardens, the combo cemetery-funeral home-crematory is advertising “Delivering Dignity 24-7.”

Do you notice a common theme?  Yes, they’re all saying the same thing!  They’re all trying to prove how caring and compassionate they are.  As if any one of them is more caring or compassionate than the other!  As if care and compassion are the only things there are to say about one memorialization establishment or another.

I’m here to tell you that caring, dignity, compassion, respect…they’re not unique attributes.  They’re just the opening ante!  It’s like saying, our cars have four tires!  Or our buildings don’t leak!  The public expects a funeral home or cemetery to provide their services with the utmost in care and compassion, or the firm wouldn’t be in business.  There’s absolutely no value in placing that “sales point” up in the headline any more than a bank should say “Your money is safe with us!”  Frankly, it darn well better be, so what else have you got?

That’s why it’s doubly, triply, quadruply important to say something the public doesn’t expect or already know about you.  They become interested only once you tell them something they don’t expect to hear.

For instance, for one funeral home group, we discovered that one of the top directors was a Shriner Clown on the weekends.  That was different, and it also demonstrated his commitment to that generous organization.  So we featured him in his clown get-up and the ad said “Part Time Shriner Clown, Full-Time Human Being.”  We later showed what other directors also did – Choir Director, Naval Officer, etc.

Another funeral home we worked with had five different “theme” hearses  –  from a Harley to horse-drawn to a ’39 Rolls – so they could customize the funerals to meet the personalities of their “honorees.”  This resulted in each commercial featuring a different hearse illustrating the range of personalities the funeral home could creatively accommodate.

A large cemetery had been burying generations of the same families for many years.  That’s nothing new, but by dramatizing the nature of the “tradition,” it told newer families that they could start a new tradition for their own families at a place whose roots go back generations.

There’s always something fresh to say, always an original point of view.  Here are some ways to start to uncover your unique story:

• Interview the top management and see why they entered this business. Find out their passions.
• Read through recent thank you notes to see what was particularly of value to your families.
• Who founded the establishment and what was his or her mission? (The further the history goes back, the more interesting the story might be.)
• What is your vision for the future of your company? Where do you see the business headed?
• What’s interesting about your directors or staff? Do they have outside interests worth talking about?
• Are there truly unique qualities to your building or property? A peculiar archway or entry monument or artwork in the chapel can inspire a headline and become part of your branding.
• Do you offer packages and promotions nobody else has? Can you put together unusual packages?
• What are the most memorable funerals or life celebration events you’ve held? Talk about your ability to serve families in extraordinary ways.
• What services or products do you offer that most people don’t expect when you show them? That’s a story.
• Do you have great case stories that demonstrate your special capabilities and expertise? Examples of solving problems outside the box?  How did you go above and beyond in a way that helped make a family whole again?
• Have you helped a family get on with their lives? How did you do that?  Talk about it.

If all else fails, bring in an outside marketing consultant to help you find your unique story.  An outsider, by definition, will provide an unbiased and fresher point of view.

However you attack the problem, by saying something your competitors aren’t, you’ll move your messaging into a better, more productive place that lets your company stand on its own identity instead of settling for the industry default. Take a fresh approach and show how your company proudly speaks just for itself.

“THE RIGHT MESSAGE COMPELLINGLY TOLD IS EVERYTHING.”

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Dan Katz is president, creative director of LA ads. To discuss your thoughts with Dan on this blog or any marketing matters, email via this link, or visit www.LAadsMarketing.com.  You can also connect with Dan on LinkedIn. See agency work via this link.

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Bullets Kill.

I’m a fan of great quotes.  One of my favorites is:  “I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.”  In fact, this is more than a brilliant quote but an absolute truth, particularly when it comes to marketing

There is no better way to assure a marketing message’s failure than to try to make it fit all people, all needs and all occasions.  The natural fear is that if an ad or a commercial doesn’t include all possible reasons-why, or is too narrowly targeted, or is possibly off-putting to one reader in a hundred, the ad will fall flat on its face.  You know the kind of ad I’m talking about, that has three subheads and a dozen bullet points – just in case one point doesn’t fit some reader’s need.

One example of an actual funeral home ad says:

• Serving with Compassion Since 1954
• Cremation Services Available
• Funeral Services / Ceremonial Casket
• Monuments & Markers
• Many Plans & Options to Choose From
• Pre-Planning Available In-Home
• Family Owned & Operated
• Member of (state) Funeral Directors Association

Yikes!  And this is supposed to get attention and generate action?  Instead of having one strong and specific point-of-view, it has no point-of-view whatsoever.  Instead of a crisp, insightful message, all the starch has been taken out and the ad is a soggy mess.

The best marketing messages, whether digital or traditional, are those that are absolutely single-minded in idea and every word of copy is directed to that one message to the exclusion of all others.  That’s provocative advertising!

Consider this ad, for instance.

It only has a single topic and a rather unusual (some might even say too-edgy) headline.  The ad absolutely hit its mark and helped reverse eroding market share. Did it offend anyone?  Possibly a few. But it got the attention of the local audience (even the local media who ran a story about it) and reversed the downward sales trend. Yeah, it worked!

If you are in the funeral business, the very fact that you run advertising at all will offend someone. But as long as you are respectful and are not deliberately trying to tick off your audience, the plusses will far outweigh the minuses.  So go ahead and get creative.  Go for razor sharp ideas that get attention, even if they risk raising eyebrows in some quarters.

When you stop trying to satisfy everyone, stop shooting your ad full of bullets, you’ll find new life in the results.

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Dan Katz is president, creative director of LA ads. To discuss your thoughts with Dan on this blog or any marketing matters, email via this link, or visit www.LAadsMarketing.com.  You can also connect with Dan on LinkedIn. See agency work via this link.

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