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Challenge
Cremations services are a growing trend in the funeral industry, but one for which many funeral homes are unprepared. Often times, a family chooses cremation based on financial reasons. Many funeral directors have seen this rising trend as a loss of business and may be resistant to this increasing request by families.
In 2004, Matthews Cremation was looking for a way to better market cremations services both to their consumers, the funeral directors, and the families who are looking at a cremation option. After conducting extensive research, the company came to Hafenbrack Marketing for help developing a first-of-its-kind marketing program that would blend unique products, services and marketing support in one simplified package.
Developed in partnership with Independent Advantage, a group of funeral care distributors who served as the distribution arm of the campaign, MasterTouch Cremation was launched at the 2004 National Funeral Directors Association trade show in Nashville, Tenn.
Solution
Hafenbrack’s solution included a three-part program geared at educating and informing the funeral directors about the advantages to performing cremation through multiple points of entry into the market. Initially, the agency created a national awareness campaign that had several elements such as message development, trade advertising, a speaker’s tour and the creation of an e-commerce web site. Next, Hafenbrack developed a sales kit for the distribution partners to approach any of the 23,000 funeral homes across the United States with multiple ports of entry ranging from tabletop presentations to an interactive CD presentation.
Finally, the agency created a comprehensive set of marketing tools for the funeral home to help them educate prospective families about the MasterTouch alternative. These kits include both in-home materials and out-of-home proactive tolls such as TV commercials, print advertising and outdoor ads.
The encompassing communications device is an in-depth web site that serves both the cremation consumer and the professional funeral director. It is also a deep e-commerce site that allows partner members to order marketing materials on-line as well as control inventory and scheduling.
Results
MasterTouch and Hafenbrack created what was the first to market comprehensive program to address the growing trend of cremation. The program was so successful it is now being emulated by several of the company’s competitors. There have 35 installations of the MasterTouch program in funeral homes across the United States. In addition, the company has a growing list of distributors and is in the research and development phases of creating a parallel program for pet loss called Forever Faithful Pet Loss. | 
