By Rolf Gutknecht
Published in the June 2024 Issue of Memento Mori
Any company in any industry can get lazy when there is little change in how that firm or industry operates. And then when there’s a disruption to how the industry traditionally functions, firms get angry, panic, and begin pointing fingers at those they believe are doing the “disrupting.” I’ll give you two examples that the funeral profession may want to think about.
Taxi companies around the country hate Uber®. Hate may be putting it mildly. But here’s the reality: The app that calls the Uber car is not proprietary. In fact, you can call a taxi with an app. Paying with your phone is not proprietary and any taxi can do that as well. The reason that Uber is eating taxi companies for lunch is because it’s a better product.
Years ago, the taxi companies could get away with having a less than satisfying service because they were the only game in town and folks had no choice but to use them. And now they have a formidable competitor; but instead of competing, they got angry.
I would gladly take a cab than call for Uber if I could get in a cab and the driver says “hi,” and it was clean, and I had a nice chat with the driver, and he wasn’t on the phone or smoking, and I had some leg room. I’d gladly use them more. It has nothing to do with the app or pay mechanism but rather the fact that Uber and Lyft® are just a better experience and have a better overall service to offer.
It doesn’t matter if it’s a few dollars more (and I don’t know if that’s even the case) as I’ll gladly pay for what I’m getting in return.
The same goes for Starbucks®. People don’t like Starbucks; the company is seen as a big corporate firm and has put a lot of “mom and pops” out of business. The reality is the complete opposite. When a Starbucks moves into the neighborhood, mom and pop coffee shops do better for two reasons.
One, Starbucks attracts more customers so there’s more people in the area. And the second reason is that there’s a groundswell of giving back to the local store, so more people decide to support the momand-pop store. The mom and pops that go out of business are the ones that give in and almost refuse to compete by virtue of not wanting to change. I’ll give you a reallife example that goes back a few years.
I’m a bit lactose intolerant (TMI, right?) so I don’t have milk in my coffee. And there was a time when it wasn’t a foregone conclusion that every coffee shop had soy or almond milk. So, when I wanted a cup of coffee and I had a choice between buying from the mom-and-pop coffee shop or Starbucks, I’d first go into the mom-and-pop and ask if they had soy milk. They’d say “no” and I’d say “thank you” and walk out and go across the street to Starbucks.
A few of those mom-and-pop coffee shops went out of business or became far less than what they could have become because they didn’t want to adapt to what customers wanted and expected.
Had the owners of the mom-and-pop gone across the street to see what Starbucks had, they would have seen that Starbucks offers soy milk. In turn, they probably should have said to themselves, “There’s a reason these guys offer soy milk so we should do the same and maybe even carry almond milk as well.”
And while they were visiting that Starbucks, they would have realized that they should also update the area in their own store where people could sit; or provide customers with a more customer-centric experience like online ordering; etc. It’s the ones who got angry at Starbucks and refused to think, operate, and market themselves differently that are no longer around, or they at least saw their sales decline, decline, and decline.
The Competition
I think that these examples reflect how too many B2B and B2C firms in the funeral profession operate. People are pointing fingers instead of saying, “We’ve had it good for a number of years (and generations of family ownership) and what is our competitor revealing about our own weaknesses that we can use to improve or change?” Because that’s what competition does.
Competition reveals your weaknesses; but when your competition is timid or mediocre, you don’t know your own weaknesses. This is the problem with being the “best” in anything because you don’t know or refuse to acknowledge where your faults are, and someone comes in and undermines you because they can see your faults before you do.
And in doing so they make sure that your prospective customers (which are also their prospective customers) know why dealing with them versus your firm provides them the customer experience they want, along with products and services they find interesting and attractive.
There are a number of really smart, ambitious folks that our firm has spoken with and/or have as clients who have adapted to the new marketplace (even before COVID), and they are reaping the rewards of doing so.
Among other things, they became bold and willing marketers who positioned themselves in a distinctive way so that people know who they are and what benefits they offer versus other options. These firms decided to brand themselves in ways that would help them be seen in a different and more beneficial light than their competitors.
They are also in a strong enough financial position to take advantage of opportunities to have a brighter future by being able to purchase other locations or firms that decided not to compete as they should have. They’ve also expanded into business building niche operations that they’re synching with their other businesses to create even more revenue generating opportunities for them. And so on.
As we all know, the funeral profession, B2C and B2B, has been and will continue to be disrupted. One consumer or industry research study after another notes that mergers/acquisitions, consumer expectations, cremation, new products, and services offerings are just some of the reasons for the profession evolving as it has.
The ones interested in continuing to be relevant and thus part of the group of firms that a more discernable customer will consider using will have their ears and eyes (and minds) open to opportunities, but also to making sure the customer knows what their firm’s brand stands for.
With that in mind, in conversations I’ve had with funeral homes, cemeteries, manufacturers and service providers, I’ve asked several of them why families and others are buying from their competitors and not from their firm since they’ve told me that they’re the “best.” The answer I usually get is: “I don’t know.”
So, let me ask you the same question: “Do you really know why others buy from your competitors if you’re “better” than they are? If you don’t know, there are ways of finding out and then when you do know, begin to change how you market the value of your firm so that you become the most interesting, fascinating, and preferred choice.
Don’t believe for a minute that you’re the default firm for the audience. As many funeral homes, cemeteries, B2B firms and, yes, coffee shops and taxi companies have found out, they aren’t. Options abound. Lots of options.
Rolf Gutknecht is president and CEO of LA ads, a full-service marketing firm specializing in helping success-oriented funeral homes, cemeteries, manufacturers, and service providers create compelling marketing messaging and develop impactful marketing programs to grow their business. Rolf can be reached at rolfg@laadsmarketing.com or 800-991-0625 ext. 2. Check out the LAads website by visiting www.laadsmarketing.com.
