Hal Stevens  

I really can’t remember a time when Christmas wasn’t a secular retail holiday. Or when Valentines Day wasn’t the guilt ridden must buy flowers, candy and/or restaurant holiday. Thanksgiving has always been a turkey and side item food related holiday mostly with grocery stores making the money vs. restaurants. Halloween was always a costume party with the candy manufacturers raking in the money because we had to give all those trick-or-treaters something. Of course, there must have been a simpler time when people spent less, felt less pressured to buy things that they couldn’t really afford, and that often were specific to this one time per year occasion.

Why mention all of this? Well, it seems that the Funeral Services Industry has been missing a great opportunity. Over the years the holiday of Halloween has provided a natural connection with the dead. In other countries, most notably China, there is a special holiday for honoring ancestors and remembering the dead. People flock to cemeteries and have a festive remembrance. So why has the Halloween holiday escaped the marketing efforts of the Funeral Services Industry?

In many ways the Funeral Services Industry has been brought kicking and screaming into this century. It has missed the marketing savvy of other industries and has been slow to adapt to the tools of the technological age. There is still a big vs. small mentality, a corporate vs. the independents struggle. There is and an undercurrent of jealousy and guardedness when dealing with each other. I am certain that some people from funeral services trade organizations will tell me all of the reasons that this isn’t so, but it only takes a few conversations with smaller, rural or independent funeral home operators, morticians or cemetery owners to get a more grass roots perspective.

I don’t bring this up to put a negative light on this industry. Although I am only a peripheral player in it I have a great respect for the people in it. I see a need to take an industry with overcapacity, relatively low wages, which typically doesn’t attract talent as a primary place of employment, and expose all of the great things it does for multiple communities. I see an opportunity to take this industry and increase its stature, and its revenue, so that more people enter schools with this as a well regarded career path.

So, suppose there was an industry generated 10 -20 year plan to adopt a holiday and promote it in a way that would allow for maximum marketing opportunities. Suppose the industry took the Halloween holiday and put a slightly different spin on it. Instead of being an all hallows eve with ghosts, goblins and bizarre costumes it became a holiday to respect and honor the dead. Over the 10-20 year plan a marketing campaign was designed to help change the perceptions and idea of what this holiday should be.

I can see funeral homes giving tours and having famous local authors doing book signings with corporate sponsored promotional gifts being raffled off. I see cemeteries having “honor your ancestor” day with selling special honorary candles made for the occasion. I see t-shirt sales to commemorate the day with a special design, the date/year and the name of the funeral home or cemetery on it. I see florists have special bouquets available made just for this holiday. And, speaking of holidays, I see a lobbying effort to have Halloween changed to “Honor Your Ancestor Day”. All sorts of artisans could develop special products to be left at the grave, columbaria, etc. And, for those who scattered cremains or have them in an urn at home a special service could be available at religious institutions to commemorate Honor Your Ancestor Day. Usually a special service would generate a special offering so churches, synagogues, etc. should be willing participants. And, why not, who could possibly be against honoring the memory of our ancestors. It’s not worshipping the dead, it’s honoring our ancestors.

The possibilities for remaking this holiday into both a way to honor our ancestors and an opportunity for the Funeral Services Industry to shine seem like a natural thing waiting to happen. So, why not? Who will step up and take the lead? It’s about time the Funeral Services Industry promoted itself in a very positive and public way.