Challenge

Evolving funerary preferences have meant decreased revenues for funeral homes, once a mainstay of American culture. The Funeral Service Foundation approached Olson Zaltman to bring their organization in sync with public sentiment.

APPROACH

We began with a thorough audit of FSF's existing knowledge set, and determined that the study would focus on Boomers, their primary target. We then developed a two-part ZMET® question to qualitatively explore the metaphors underlying:

1. Peoples' thoughts and feeling about traditional funerals

2. Their own end-of-life preparations

We conducted a standard analysis, the results of which were verified using IAT, our implicit association tool for quantitative cognitive measurement.

FINDINGS

In the category of Boomers' own end-of-life preparations, six key themes emerged:

1. Personalized

2. Celebration

3. Sharing

4. Togetherness

5. "I mattered"

6. "Live on"

People are looking for personalized, warm, connected services, and associate the funeral category with loss, mourning, and sadness. 

Impact

Because FSF is a foundation with many members, our insights were applied to a variety of innovations. One of FSF's members, Aurora, which sells over a third of all caskets in the U.S., partnered with K2 Digital to create beremembered.com, where people can create a bucket list, life timeline, and end-of-life plan.

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