Issues facing the funeral home of today and tomorrow

A collogue of mine named Dan Katz and I have been discussing the changes facing the funeral industry. In one of our LinkedIn conversations he wrote:

“In some ways the funeral industry is undergoing rather radical changes (online memorials, green funerals, etc.) and in other ways it remains the same.” He later wrote: “By the way, I saw your blog. A great start. One of the issues you may want to address is the sensitivity to how various cultures exhibit grief. We are becoming such a diverse society made up of anglos, blacks, Vietnamese, Koreans, Iranians, South Americans, etc., and each group demonstrates their grief differently, from somber quiet to keening and wailing, and what may be disturbing to some is quite normal to others.”

So this is what I wrote back:

I agree with you so much about the local family owned funeral home and the radical change that is facing the thanostic industry…

With cremation on the rise at such a rapid rate influenced even more so by the current economic downturn, funeral homes are and will be finding themselves scrambling to redefine themselves and their services in the decades ahead. This is on top of what you accurately pointed out as multi-cultural grief from the blending of the diverse cultures. This cultural blending that we as a country and as a world are experiencing is much more intense and expansive than the transformational experience of the late 19th and early 20th century immigration.

This time the immigration is originating many different areas far from our shores and cultural experiences than before. In the past it was a large European migration to the US with some percentage of Asian immigration. This time the immigration both legal and illegal entry is vast in its multi-continental configuration compounded by the ease of transportation. All of these issues and realities call for adjustments and adaption of various traditions and grief expressions are even more intense.

This immigration will affect how we as a country and world express funeral ritualization, pubic demarcation of grief and address bereavement issues. The only advice I have for the funeral industry is that we all better become more versed in the various cultureal expressions of mourning (the first experiences after a death of a significant person in lour life), bereavement (the extended period of adjustment that occurs after a death) and grief (the life-long recovery process and impact that a death has on a person’s life).

The experience of Michael Jackson’s death is an example of this. The spontaneous public demarcation of mourning in so many different cultures is remarkable. It is also interesting to note that the speed of the news of his death and the immediate expression of grief is so rapid thanks to twitter, Facebook, and the internet in general. Cultural expression is no longer jsut about where you were born and the ethnic expressions established by a particular countryor region. Now the cultural expressionsof mourning, bereavement, greif and loss wil also need to include the cyber village and culture as well. All of this will also impact the local funeral home on Main Street in Anywhere USA or Anywhere WORLD and yes even Anywhere CYBER.

We are only now seeing the very infancy of the impact that technology, the Internet and Social Networking will have on all things death dying bereavement grief. The potential and even the current trends in bereavement expression reflected by these communication mediums are staggering – the future is mind blowing.

I believe that NFDA and ICCFA will continue to have an impact on the local funeral industry but I think that social networking and companies that are part of the thanatological industries beyond the local funeral home will also have a major influence on how the local independent funeral home does business also.

I appreciate my conversations with Dan Katz. He is a very insightful person especially concerning funeral industry issues. You may also want to check out his blog at: http://www.funeraladvertising.wordpress.com/