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Editor's Note: Beginning in 2003, Matthews Cremation Division (MCD)
conducted an intensive consumer research study on all aspects of cremation.
Conducted by market strategy firm Competitive Resources, Inc., the study
focused on six major topics:
This article is the sixth and final in that series.
Families often have extensive support networks to call upon when a friend
or relative dies, but the death of a pet often leaves issues - and grief -
unresolved. As pets become a more significant part of family life, helping
to deal with their deaths represents a bigger opportunity for our industry.
This article shares the results of the Matthew Cremation Division recent
consumer research on Pet Loss, offering Do's and Don'ts for both the Pet
Care and Death Care industries.
The family pet…who would have thought that one of the fastest growing
industries would be products and services for this special clientele?
The Pet Care industry has posted a 100% growth over the past 10 years, and
the forecast sales for Y2004 is projected at over $34 billion. The term
"being in the dog house" has taken an entirely new meaning as our pets
continue to gain a higher status within the inner circle. It was never
clearer to me personally than when I was moving the family to Florida.
In the front seat I was sweaty and tired and essentially by myself. Meanwhile,
in the back seat, our Doberman, Samantha, was being fanned, fed ice chips
and affectionately mauled by three children. To say that our dog represents
the fourth child in our family would be absolutely accurate. The only
saving grace is thank goodness I won't have to pay for Samantha's college
education. Three is more than enough!
Although I began my career in death care many years ago, it wasn't until
recently that I fully understood the overwhelming grief that families
experience in the loss of a pet. Being a leader in crematory equipment for
both Human and Pet, it was important for Matthews Cremation to fully understand
the consumer mindset when it came to Pet loss products and services. We made
this topic a substantial focus of our consumer research, and I have enjoyed
the experience of studying these trends first hand. It has been a fascinating
and moving experience to learn that we are on the verge of something really
special - a genuine growth opportunity that could expand our roles within
the community.
The Consumer Crossroads
In our research, when we asked consumers, "Where would you go for help with
the death of a family pet?" It was amazing to see how much uncertainty they
felt. We thought we would hear nothing but stories about the loving,
support of their Pet Care provider, but, surprisingly, we didn't. Even
those who had dealt with a pet's death before were uncertain about what
they would do now, if they confronted the same situation again.
Hearing these responses brought me back to when I was cutting my teeth
in funeral service. At that time we had consumers who were questioning
whether funeral homes did cremation. The industry had done such a good job
hiding the cremation goods and services that the average consumer thought
they had to go somewhere "special" to get it performed.
Fast forward to today: both pet care and funeral service professionals
are making the same mistakes. We are hiding our pet loss services (or in
some cases, hiding from them) and making the consumer figure it out. The
consumer is at the crossroads, looking for a sign that will guide them
toward the help they desperately need. We can learn from history, or we're
doomed to repeat it. We can teach consumers that WE have the meaningful
products and services they need, and more important, that we want to help
them with pet loss. The alternative is to send them down an empty path
that's less satisfying for them and less profitable for us.
The consumer's responses were unmistakable: the overwhelming majority
is telling us they have an unmet need, and they're fairly neutral about who
(funeral vs. pet care) provides the service. It's up to us to seize the opportunity.
Service integration - a Sensitive Balance
When we presented pet loss services within a traditional arranging environment,
our consumers sounded a cautionary note. While most of them were positive
about the offering, they were very sensitive to its being too prominent in
a setting were human funerals were being planned. Unless your business is
exclusively targeting pet loss, there is a danger that traditional funeral
families could be alienated by the pet loss offering. Some of them are not
interested in pet loss at this point in their lives. Others are not ready
or willing to confront their pets' mortality, especially when they are
already grieving.
The solution is to position the pet loss offering clearly, and educate
the consumers about its role in your overall deathcare business. Even
though the value for pet loss services is significantly positive, this is
clearly an educational process that needs to be implemented gradually.
For both the funeral and pet care industries, the education begins immediately
through dedicated handouts (fliers) within your lobby or lounge that helps
plant the seed for these types of services through your business. As the
comfort level grows, your service awareness strategy should expand to direct
mailings or the local media outlets (Newspaper, TV, Radio, Yellow pages or
Billboards) that identify your business as a full service provider within
the community. This subtle approach will provide the necessary bridge that
will allow you to reach this expanding audience and communicate your expanded
services without compromising your established service position.
Pet Loss Merchandise - The Space Must Be Different
When it comes to product merchandising, once again if your services are more
than just for pet loss, the placement of your merchandise display system may
unknowingly alienate your clientele. During our research, we showed our
consumers a pet freestanding loss display that was positioned directly on
the primary sightline as they entered the space. We quickly learned that
even though they appreciated the expanded level of service, the pet display
did not seem appropriate if it was featured too prominently where human
funerals were being planned. When we moved the display off the primary
sight line, many of those objections evaporated.
The importance of display positioning was equally true for those in the
pet care industry. When discussing with consumers the best manner to present
these products, in the lobby was a resounding no. The placement of pet loss
merchandise needs to be positioned in a private setting (business office or
examination room) where the family may intimately say goodbye to their pet
and select those products that are most appropriate in the creation of a
meaningful memorial. No one will deny the value of having these products
and services positioned within the business, they just don't want it being
a constant reminder that is always front and center.
An all too familiar road… Again
There is a theme that has become all too familiar in the course of our
consumer research: families seeing something we thought was commonly
available and responding with "I've never seen" or "I didn't know". Pet
loss was no exception. The "giant sucking sound" in this case was the sound
of opportunity going down the drain. We heard it again and again as
consumers shared their personal stories. They showed no mercy about their
negative feelings regarding the limits of choice and selection. We heard
the stories of regret about the fact that their options for services that
didn't ease their pain. We also heard frustration when the selection of
merchandise that didn't satisfy personal preferences.
We were listening to an audience that was more than willing to spend
whatever was necessary to be able to create the proper memorial. This is
the exact same audience that might spend thousands of dollars on animal
care surgeries, purchase premium dietary pet foods, offers their pet's
holistic and chiropractic health care and frequently peruse the animal
specialty magazines for exciting new gifts for their companion pet.
I'm ashamed that this discovery had caught me by surprise but I really
don't know why…I've always known that a dog is man's best friend. Why should
a pet owner's feelings be any different in the loss of a pet versus the
loss of any other family member?
What's next? Can you hear the calling?
As I let this study settle deep within my thoughts, I wanted to be cautious
about focusing on the criticism. I wanted to spend more time reflecting on
what was truly being shared from these consumers. It is hard to be critical
towards any profession that has truly never been taught or prepared on how
to deal with this new audience. Thank goodness we have had a few pioneers
who have ventured off and blazed the trail of pet loss services and learned
along the way from through their own success and failure. Fortunately for
the rest of us, though, these select few providers are not able to absorb
the entire opportunity that exists.
As we have learned from the Wal-Mart's, Home Depots, Office Max's of the
world, anyone who is able to expand their level of service will open the
door to a wealth of possibilities. Most businesses today are looking for
way to reach a new audience, grow revenue streams and enhance their service
opportunities within the market. Vary rarely are we confronted with an
offer that from the consumer's perspective, is so positively greeted.
Now what are you waiting for? The phone is about to ring and you aren't ready!
Steven Schaal is the Division Manager - Sales and Marketing for the
Matthews Cremation Division. He can be reached at sschaal@matw.com.
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"The Baby's Ugly" - Why Consumer Research Can Be Painful
"Are you willing to change?" This is the all-important question we had to
confront before beginning our research project. Talking with today's
consumer provides one of the most invigorating learning experiences around,
especially in a conservative industry like deathcare. You have to expect
the unexpected and prepare yourself for an array of unfiltered responses
that no matter how brutally honest will make you stronger in the end.
The key with any research is what you do with your discovery. Do you
burn the results because they don't match your beliefs? Do you reject the
consumer response because they "don't know what they're talking about;
we're the experts!" Do you question the accuracy of the research because
"there must be a hidden agenda?" Do you listen and learn from your findings
and positively respond to a potential challenge? We found ourselves faced
with these exact dilemmas when we initiated an extensive research project
in 2003.
At Matthews, we felt we were gambling our clients' futures if we tried
to guess where consumers would find value. We also recognized that a lot
of funeral professionals were headed in the wrong direction on this question.
They had either grown weary of what they saw as "excessive" consumer
demands, or they wrongly assumed that "traditional" services would be
appropriate for their cremation families (one size fits all).
For the past 50 years, you could say that the Matthews Cremation Division
(MCD) has been at the center of the cremation business. We are the successor
of two premier manufacturers of crematory equipment - Industrial Equipment
& Engineering (IEE) and ALL Crematory (ALL) and one premier manufacturer of
cloth-covered cremation caskets, Elder-Davis. Even though we are recognized
as the industry leader in both categories, we knew that was no guarantee of
success.
Today's cremation consumers are demonstrating through their purchasing
habits (or lack thereof) that they don't find value in many funeral products
and services, and no business is completely safe. Across the country we see
statistics grow, read the annual reports about declining profits, hear about
shrinking service and casket sales, and hear the distant cry of "peanuts!"
We have seen a lot of energy being spent looking for ways to stop this
tidal wave of cremation and alter the mind of consumer - the rallying cheer
of "Lets hold on to tradition!" What we sometimes fail to realize is for
some families, cremation is tradition. We have also seen a lot of funeral
professionals fall into the trap of thinking, "if we strengthen our cremation
services, even more families will choose it." Consumers are already choosing
cremation in droves, even in an environment where products and services are
kept hidden in the closet. Now the growth of new cremation providers is proving
the old business-school rule: if we don't give consumers the best available
solutions, someone else will. If the existing leaders in our industry
don't offer the best cremation products, services and merchandising, then
new competitors will take it away from us. You've heard the old saying,
"The first step towards recovery is to admit there's a problem"?
At MCD we took pains to make sure our research was thorough and complete.
We hired Competitive Resources Inc, an experienced independent research
company to manage the details. They recruited consumers from across the
country. They designed the questions, moderated the round-table discussions,
videotaped the sessions and provided the formal summaries. At MCD we were
handed the demanding task of staying out of the way and allowing the research
company the freedom to do their work.
We must admit it was challenging at times. It's like being a proud
parent and having groups of consumers tell you, "your baby is ugly." We
had to repeatedly promise the research company that we would refrain from
pursuing any participants after the session outside in the parking lot.
Ultimately the results were worth the pain. There were surprises, even
some unpleasant ones. But as they say, "everything that doesn't kill you
makes you stronger."
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