If you're in Indianapolis, you don't have to go to a funeral home or cemetery to check out cremation options—just go to the mall.

This summer, Flanner & Buchanan Funeral Centers & Crematory started renting information kiosks from Simon Malls at their Castleton and Greenwood malls. The company wanted a creative way to showcase the numerous service and product options available to people who choose cremation.

The kiosks are unstaffed and brochures with reply cards were not added until the middle of August. Even so, as of the beginning of September, company Vice President Bruce Buchanan said 15-20 phone calls, three preneed sales and four cemetery placements for cremated remains had resulted from the kiosk campaign.

The company had no problem getting the mall's management to approve the idea, Buchanan said. When approached by Flanner and Buchanan staff, mall management ''had that initial reaction that anyone would have of 'this is an unusual topic,'" he said, but they quickly agreed that cremation is a topic many people are interested in, it's an important topic and there aren't a lot of places people can go for information.

In the end, Buchanan said, "instead of us having to sell the idea, they came right back to us and said it was a great idea. They really embraced it."

Flanner & Buchanan operates both funeral homes and cemeteries, so why a display focusing on cremation? "Cremation is the fastest growing service choice in the country," Buchanan said. The company installed the first crematory in the state in the early 1900s and has been a leader in cremation services ever since. ''This is just an extension of something we already provide, and have for generations."

He hopes the kiosk will spark discussions among family members "about what they want for themselves when they die," Buchanan said.

Including Service and Memorialization Options
In planning what to place in the limited space available, Flanner & Buchanan wanted to "get across some sense of the value of a service—which is hard to do in a display like that, because it's a concept," Buchanan said. "We didn't want this to be overly product-oriented, but that's kind of the outcome, because the products help make up the kiosk."

Even so, in addition to the urns and other vessels for holding cremated remains, including a clock, jewelry and wooden boxes, there are photos to help get across the point that cremation is not an alternative to a funeral or other service.

"We have pictures of a memorial service," Buchanan said, "and we show cremation gardens, some of the beautiful places in our cemeteries.

"What we're finding is that people need permission to do some of the things they would like to do but are afraid to bring up because they're afraid they're going into a very traditional environment with a set way of doing things. We want them to know what some of their options are.

"It's so hard to get information out, and there's so much misinformation about cremation. And there's a whole romantic myth that's built up around scattering.

"I try to tell people that one of the values of a cemetery is it provides tangible proof that someone in your past or someone you loved actually lived."

A computer that shows people the company's Family Legacies life tributes is also part of the kiosk. Using the touch-screen technology, people can look up their loved ones' profiles or simply see how the system works to record and preserve the life story of the deceased.

"We've had four individuals call us to make a placement of previously cremated remains in one of our cemeteries, which we think is spectacular," Buchanan said.

The LifeGem option is also included in the display, and a sale is pending as a result, Buchanan said.

The local media had just begun to take notice of the kiosk, Buchanan said at the beginning of September. "I would be surprised if we don't get more coverage."

Though they were concerned that the display would create more questions than answers, they decided not to staff the kiosks. An informational kiosk is less expensive than a selling kiosk, for one thing. For another, "often when you have someone standing there, it repels people," Buchanan said. "We wanted to let people walk up and look things over."

The kiosks are rented on a monthly basis from Simon Malls. Renting any kind of kiosk becomes very expensive as the holiday selling season heats up, so at that point Flanner & Buchanan will pull out and assess the feedback they've received. ''Then we'll start up again, probably in January or February," Buchanan said, possibly making some changes in the display at that time.

PRENEED SALES SUCCESS: PART 3 OF 3

"Marketing is absolutely every bit of contact your business has with any segment of the public."
-Jay Conrad Levinson, author of the Guerrilla Marketing series

When we discuss the subject of marketing, we tend to focus on the advertising component, which is only one part of the overall marketing environment.

Marketing encompasses everything from the way your receptionist answers the phone to the cleanliness of your facility and the sales ability of your counselors and funeral directors. It also includes the price you charge for products and services, your location and its convenience, as well as your public and community relations efforts.

There are two worlds of business. The world outside your door is based on customer perceptions and that is where advertising comes into play. The world inside your door is based on the customer experience; it is the place where you must deliver on all the bold promises you've made. How well do you deliver on those promises?

The four Ps of Marketing
Let's take a textbook look at the four Ps of marketing.

Product is the obvious tangible, physical articles available for sale such as caskets, urns and monuments, to name a few. But a product can also be a service and therefore includes the intangible aspects of your offerings, such as the way a family is treated, grief counseling and guidance in the decision making process.

Your product should include three key components:
•    improved functionality;
•    convenience; and
•    unique benefits.

Price is simply the amount of money or other consideration exchanged for the product. Price is also a quantifiable way of measuring the value that customers place on your product. Being the least expensive won't get you anywhere if the prospect does not have the confidence to buy from you. Many times low price actually scares the buyer.

Place is the location of your company or, for those who do not have a storefront, the distribution channel you use to get your product to the consumer.

Although we have limited control over our physical location, we can use innovative marketing strategies to take our story into the community we serve and increase our profile there. You must also establish a trading area and focus your marketing efforts in that zone.

Promotional activities cover a broad spectrum, from advertising to public relations to personal selling.

Advertising takes place in two phases, the planning and development stage and then the creation and placement of the advertising messages themselves. Advertising is a way of mass selling. If you do it well, it brings in prospects and then salespeople use their skills to turn those prospects into buyers. Sales promotions are short-term strategies to give customers incentives to buy.

Public and community relations are crucial to your success
Public relations and advertising are different. In their book "The Fall of Advertising & The Rise of PR," Al Ries and Laura Ries maintain that a business should be built on PR and maintained through advertising.

If you want your company to grow and prosper, you must make sure your company has a community relations program. At Mount Royal Commemorative Services, we have successfully run a community relations program that has helped us tell our story to more than 2,000 consumers this past year.

Our Seminar Series consists of presentations made by a panel of three experts in their respective fields:

1.    A notary who discusses the merits of a notarial will vs. a holographic will, or a will written in the presence of witnesses.
2.    An estate planner who highlights the tax implications of estate settling and how to best provide for your family's financial welfare after your death.
3.    One of our prearrangement counselors, who extols the merits of preplanning, which include taking a difficult burden off your family; making sure you get the funeral, disposition and memorialization you want; and saving money.

The goal: Making the sale
Personal selling is an integral part of the marketing process; this is when all of your marketing efforts are consummated in a sale. At Mount Royal, we use a program called "Integrity Selling."

Integrity Selling is a philosophy that views the sales process as filling needs, satisfying wants or solving problems. It is a strategy for selling that outlines a step-by-step process for doing it. And, it is an ethics or value-driven system that guides a salesperson's activities.

There are six key steps in the process, as follows:
1.    Approach: Establish rapport with your prospects and put them at ease.
2.    Interview: Listen and gather information about the prospects' wants and needs.
3.    Demonstrate: Present a way to address the wants, needs or problems the prospects have told you about.
4.    Validate: Give the prospects information or an experience that will let them know they can have confidence in what you say.
5.    Negotiate: Work through the problems that keep prospects from buying.
6.    Close: And finally, when prospects are ready to buy. ask them to do it.

PRENEED SALES SUCCESS: PART 2 0F 3

The best definition of marketing is that it consists of absolutely every bit of contact your business has with any segment of the public, a circle that begins with your ideas for generating revenue with the goal of amassing a large number of repeat and referral customers.

In part 1 we covered one of the key elements of your marketing efforts, that is, advertising as it relates to media selection and the tracking of results.

In Part 2, we will be covering the critical topic of the content of your advertising, and in part 3, we will begin to delve into other marketing issues such as price, public relations and the customer experience.

A company can advertise in many different ways, including price and item; branding or top-of-mind awareness; and direct response. At Mount Royal Commemorative Services we have made a commitment to a concept called educational marketing.

Our ads, primarily on the radio (as explained in Part 1), have three main components.

First, the "hook." The initial seven seconds is critical if you want to grab the listeners' attention, so our ads start with a question such as: "Did you know that one out of every two Canadians chooses cremation over traditional burial?" or "Did you know that 71 percent of consumers preplan their funeral arrangements when making a will?"

Second, more information. We provide more details on the topic introduced by the question, and relate that information to the benefits offered by Mount Royal.

Third, the call to action. Even though our ads take an educational approach, advertising without a call to action is wasted. Unless you're General Motors or McDonald's, the concept of branding is difficult to achieve when you are working with a limited budget. Advertising involves getting your name out, and branding is simply attaching something to your name.

What call to action do we use? It's simple: ''Call today for your free information kit with no obligation." You need to repeat the phone number at least twice in the ad, and then your company name and slogan.
For example: "Call today for your free information kit with no obligation ... 279- PLAN ... that's 279-7526. Mount Royal Commemorative Services ... tradition ... trust ... tribute."

Bad response rate? It's probably your fault.
Most advertising isn't working like it should, and in most cases the blame lies entirely with the advertiser. Most advertisers insist on repetitiously cramming the name of their company, the name of their product, their business hours and their street address into every ad they buy.

Such ads do a great job of answering the "who, where, what and when" but fail to answer the all-important question "why?" Bad advertising is about the advertiser; good advertising is about the customer.

Alvin Eicoff created the direct-response television industry. A contrarian, his philosophies shocked the advertising community, but his success could not be denied. Eicoff sold product. Lots of product. The phrase "or your money back" is his. Those ubiquitous 800 numbers came into being in part because of Eicoff.

Eicoff was elected to the Direct Marketing Hall of Fame and was cited by Advertising Age as one of the 50 most influential advertising people in television history. His three-part approach for creative advertising was simple:

1.    State the problem.
2.    Explain the solution.
3.    Demonstrate how your product or service best provides the solution.

Another method of approaching ad content:

•    Focus on the prospect.
•    Emphasize your USP (unique selling proposition)....
•    Repeat, repeat, repeat.
•    Add testimonials.
•    Provide a guarantee.
•    Offer a premium.
•    Set a deadline.
•    Tell them what to do.

The educational approach works
Over the last five years, our educational marketing approach has paid great dividends. We have amassed a database of approximately 5,000 prospects, people who have contacted us to request our free information kit.

Some of these prospects have prearranged with us; the others are part of our CRM (customer relationship management) program, which enables us to make many "touch points," including our newsletters and phone calls.

The content of the information kit sent out is very important. Make sure it is filled with relevant information that will pique their interest so you will be able to schedule a follow-up meeting. Our counselors contact all those who receive an information kit within 10 days and try to set up an appointment.

The bottom line is that even a million dollar ad campaign encompassing television, radio, print and billboards will fail without the right message. Stay away from price, clichés and generic death care approaches.

People want more information about our profession, so provide it to them and watch your business grow.

Next: Part 3 will discuss marketing of which advertising is just one component.

PRENEED SALES SUCCESS: PART 1 OF 3

"Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half."—attributed to John Wanamaker (1838-1922)

One of the biggest challenges we face as funeral and cemetery marketers is the ability to figure out what part of our advertising mix is working and, conversely, what part is not. Unless your advertising budget is all placed with one specific medium, this is not an easy task.

The main reason marketers have traditionally used newspapers as their main advertising vehicle is the tangibility factor. Consumers may enter your funeral home or cemetery with a copy of the ad in their hand, giving you the opportunity to see that print works. But is it cost-efficient and does it deliver more than a less tangible medium such as broadcast, i.e., television and radio?

Direct mail is traditionally the most tangible of all advertising vehicles, but without a solid offer, your response rate can hover at less than 1 percent.

So how do we best track our advertising efforts? By making specific offers in each ad that are unique to the particular medium or by incorporating different phone numbers in each medium used.

How does a funeral home or cemetery make an offer? It doesn't have to be a traditional offer such as a discount. If you are marketing preneed, consumers will not make a spontaneous decision based on seeing or hearing an ad.

A simple two-step marketing process would be a "call to action" offering a free information kit with no obligation. Because 87 percent of those who ask for literature expect to eventually purchase, the odds are in your favor.

Select the right media and track results
At Mount Royal Commemorative Services in Montreal, Quebec, we use radio as our primary medium of choice. Why radio? Because of COMQUEST research conducted on the average daily share of time spent with media. The findings are listed in the chart on this page.

With consumers spending 23 hours a week watching television, 21 hours listening to the radio and only 2.9 hours reading the newspaper, broadcast media is the obvious choice. However, advertisers are still spending 55 percent of their dollars on "eye" media and 45 percent on "ear" media.

The radio advertising that we do is tracked scientifically through the use of five different phone numbers on five different radio stations.

Consumers call in to request an information kit, which one of our preneed counselors sends. The names of the people calling in are added to our database and the counselors follow up within 10 days to make sure the kits have been received and to set up appointments. Once an appointment is made, the closing ratio is well over 50 percent.

The advantage of this approach is that we know what stations are working in terms of cost efficiency and which are not.

Radio also provides us with the ability to target a specific customer demographic such as adults 55 years and older, something more difficult to do with other media.

Some AM stations with plenty of inventory may consider working out a PI (per inquiry) arrangement that pays the station a designated amount whenever the phone rings—a win-win relationship for both parties.

The only other advertising vehicle we use is direct mail, which takes the form of newsletters. We use our newsletters to talk to new prospects as well as to stay in touch with the people in the database we have compiled over the years.

Stand out in a crowded field
Consumers today are inundated with advertising messages to the point the average North American is exposed to 3,000 of them on a daily basis.

With a satellite dish, consumers have access to upwards of 500 TV channels and over the last 15 years, the three major broadcast networks have seen their share of primetime TV viewing plunge from 70 percent to 36 percent.

Only 42 percent of readers recall noting a full-page ad in the newspaper, and it would take 18 days of reading at 18 hours a day to read a typical Sunday edition of The New York Times.

Therefore, the third component of an effective marketing campaign, following selecting the right media and tracking results, is being creative.

Because our budgets are limited, every ad we run should include a unique selling proposition, something our cemetery or funeral home offers that no one else does.

How many times have you heard or seen a cemetery or funeral ad that sounds identical to all the others? Rise above the clutter by offering added value, taking the time to educate consumers, and asking them to do something. Marketing is only effective if it delivers results.    

Next: Part 2 will talk specifically about a creative approach called educational marketing.

East Lawn Memorial Parks & Mortuaries has hit on a way to make people look forward to hearing from them.
This "soft sell" approach has brought them community goodwill and a steady stream of people who pick up the phone and call East Lawn.

In the spring of 2000, I was working a preneed booth at a senior exposition held in a hotel in Sacramento, where East Lawn Memorial Parks & Mortuaries is located.

One of the exposition's major sponsors was a local radio station, KCTC, which maintains a format that appeals to the senior market. Dubbed "Your Memories Station," KCTC has a growing audience of senior listeners—our primary target market.

During the exposition I met Tom Pate, an advertising executive for KCTC. While he and I were talking, I shared with him the challenges inherent in marketing cemetery and funeral products and services.

I had been looking for a new marketing vehicle that would be innovative while maintaining the requisite subtlety and dignity. Tom said he'd give some thought to a delivery mechanism that would meet our needs.

Shortly after our initial visit, Tom called me with a program concept and a spokesperson, Jerry Healey. Jerry is a well known voice in the local senior community. He's actively involved in everything from doing ads to hosting senior events and excursions.

Tom and Jerry were getting ready to start a daily radio program called "Feel Good Moments." The concept was simple: Jerry would read a short inspirational story, poem or quotation.  Sometimes the piece would be funny, sometimes poignant. Sometimes it would relate to current events and conditions. Often it would recall ''the good ole days." In all cases, the message is a positive one.

East Lawn became sponsor of this three-minute feature that runs every weekday at 9:30 a.m. Our name is mentioned both before and after the "Feel Good Moments" broadcast. In addition, the station runs promos for the program throughout the day which also mention East Lawn's sponsorship.

An important part of the program is the fact that listeners are invited to call either the station or East Lawn if they want a transcript of a particular "Feel Good Moments" broadcast. Requests that go directly to the station are referred to us.

These transcript requests give East Lawn a chance to contact people directly. We either mail the transcripts, which are provided on East Lawn letterhead, or deliver them in person. We also enclose material about East Lawn, preplanning and other information.

The transcripts invariably end up displayed on the refrigerator or some other prominent spot in people's homes, a constant reminder that East Lawn is responsible for this positive message.

Since the broadcasts began in July 2000, we have received anywhere from five to 15 requests a week for a "Feel Good Moments" transcript. Listeners have been very appreciative of the program and rightly perceived that East Lawn has made these day-brighteners possible.

When we exhibit at senior fairs and in other venues, we promote Jerry and the ''Feel Good Moments" via posters.

After nearly five years on the air, this marketing campaign continues to evoke community interest. The station's listeners reach a large geographic area—as do our funeral homes and cemeteries—and the program has grown in popularity.

The program has become an established favorite for many seniors and I have enjoyed talking to listeners, providing them with broadcast transcripts and sharing with them a little bit about our mortuaries and memorial parks.

One of many 'feel good moments' shared with the public

A transcript of one "feel good moment" sponsored by East Lawn Memorial Park:

A three-word philosophy
I have a friend who lives by a three-word philosophy: "Seize the moment." A wise woman! Too many people put off something that brings them joy just because they haven't thought about it, don't have it on their schedule or are too rigid to depart from their routine.

I got to thinking one day about all those women on the Titanic who passed up dessert at dinner that fateful night in an effort to cut back. From then on, I've tried to be a little more flexible.

How many women out there will eat at home because their husband didn't suggest going out to dinner until after something had been thawed? Does the word ''refrigeration'' mean nothing to you?

I can't count the number of times I called my sister and said, "How about going to lunch?" She would gasp and stammer, ''I can't. My hair is dirty, I had a late breakfast, it looks like rain." And, my personal favorite, "It's Monday." She died a few years ago.... We never did have lunch together.

We live on a sparse diet of promises we make to ourselves, but life has a way of accelerating as we get older. The days get shorter and the list of promises gets longer.
One morning we awaken, and all we have to show for our lives is a litany of "I'm going to," "I plan on" and "Someday, when things settle down a bit."

I love ice cream. It's just that I might as well apply it directly to my hips with a spatula and eliminate the digesting process. However, the other day I stopped the car and bought a triple decker. If my car had hit an iceberg on the way home, I would have died happy.

How can you influence people who choose cremation not to automatically link it with scattering or keeping an urn on the mantle piece? The cemeteries in one Catholic diocese worked with its local association and suppliers on a creative advertising campaign to remind people of the importance of cemeteries.

The Catholic Cemeteries of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis has six cemeteries, one of which is 150 years old and has over 100,000 interments. So we have a long tradition of taking care of Catholic families at their time of need.

After several years of having almost the same number of burials each year, in 2003 there was a noticeable drop in interments despite the fact that the death rate remained virtually the same.

Over that same period of time, the cremation rate in The Catholic Cemeteries went from 18 percent to 21 percent, and the overall cremation rate in the Twin Cities market went from 22 percent to 30 percent. As we all know, these are numbers that will continue to go up.

My assistant Judy Fletcher and I did some research by monitoring the obituary pages. We found that 43 percent of the obituaries listed no cemetery for an interment. This of course raised a red flag. Those people are either keeping an urn on the mantel or scattering the remains.

The idea and the funding
We wondered: How could we educate the increasingly cremation-minded public about the continuing importance of cemeteries, regardless of the method of disposition?

I proposed to John Cherek, director of The Catholic Cemeteries, that we present an advertising plan to the Twin Cities Cemetery Association, a local association with a number of participating cemeteries.

The ad campaign would be designed to stress the importance of using a cemetery. In other words, to create a demand for our product. Of course we advertise to get sales, but we didn't expect this particular program to generate sales immediately. Our goal was to do something about the fact that the death rate has not gone down, but the burial rate has.

In February 2004, with our TV representative and a radio representative, I made a presentation to the Twin Cities Cemetery Association.

I told them that our real competitors were not each other but the ideas that caused people to take urns home or to scatter remains who knows where.

Association members approved the campaign almost unanimously. The next question was where would the money come from to pay for the campaign. We decided the cemeteries would do it.

When you're dealing with a group, there will always be some people who don't go along with an idea. Some cemeteries did not participate financially, in effect getting a free ride, since the ads try to sell the idea of cemeteries rather than a particular cemetery.

We made presentations to suppliers, who we felt also had a vested interest in our success. Most of them embraced the idea and agreed to participate financially in the project.

Action!
I then wrote several possible commercials and presented them to the Twin Cities Cemetery Association members. They selected the ad, which would feature a young mother and her 12-year old daughter, called "Where's Grandpa now?"

Our local television station, WCCO-TV, produced the commercial at no cost to us in consideration of the amount we spend on running ads every year. The child, an aspiring actress, performed for free in order to build up her resume.

We decided that our first campaign involving radio and television commercials would air the week after Memorial Day at a cost of $22,000.

The first year would be the most difficult financially, as none of the cemeteries or vendors had budgeted advertising dollars for this type of awareness campaign.

The association plans to continue running the ad campaigns. We have several 30-second television and 60-second radio ad scripts prepared.

In a previous series of articles (ICFM July, August-September and October 2005), I talked about marketing from the perspective of media choices, creative content, tracking results and other components outside of the advertising mix. But how does it all get started?

The first key to success is the creation of a marketing plan. Why a marketing plan? What will it do for you?

First, it will enable you to focus on your corporate objectives and the strategies necessary to achieve them.

Second, when it's time to bring others into the marketing activities, their roles and functions will be clearly defined.

Third, a marketing plan is good for controlling expenses and offering a rationale for specific expenditures.

So, how do we create a marketing plan without the benefit of marketing professionals? By following a simple seven-step formula.

1. Spell out how you benefit your customers.
The only products or services that succeed are those that offer a benefit to consumers that is greater than their cost. It is essential that we focus on the benefit to our families rather than the features of our products and services.

In other words, the features of a funeral prearrangement might include a casket, a memorial service with music or a reception for family and friends, but the benefits are the celebration of a loved one's life or peace of mind for the family.

Remember the ads for Michelin tires with the baby inside the tire? The feature was the tire quality, but the benefit was the safety and protection of your child.

Your marketing plan, or the way you tell your story to consumers, must convey the essential benefits derived from working with your cemetery or funeral home.

2. Determine your position in the marketplace. What business are you in? It's important to clearly define your position in the marketplace. Are you in the funeral or cemetery business? Or are you Montreal's cremation leader since 1901? Are you the only garden cemetery in your community that offers perpetual care? Are you a low-cost cremation provider with no frills attached? Be specific.
 
Once you have completed this exercise, you can develop your unique selling proposition, your sword in the stone. That message must be the central focus of all your marketing efforts, from both a media perspective and the internal culture. Every employee should be able to explain to any prospect your point of differentiation.

3. Position yourself for your desired target market. Whom is your product or service for? One of the key principles of marketing is that you can't be all things to all people. So how do you establish whom to target? First, use a database to create a profile of your current customer. Are your customers coming from a specific geographic area, are they in a specific socioeconomic group, are they over 55 years of age?

Second, study market research conducted by firms such as Pollara, and see how your current customer profile compares with industry averages.

Finally, decide whether you are satisfied with the type of customers you are dealing with. If not, how do you reposition your company in order to take advantage of the desired demographic?

Positioning involves creating a perception of your company with potential customers. Your marketing efforts are designed to influence customer perceptions. To make positioning one of your success factors, you must learn what's important to your clients, study your competition until you find a competitive advantage and then exploit that strength. To put it in very simple terms: Find a hole and fill it.

The perfect example is 7UP's entrance many years ago in the soda battleground, where the company positioned its product as the "uncola."

4. Devise an advertising strategy. Your advertising strategy takes the first three components and combines them into a plan of attack. A simple summation:
-    Your product or service?
-    Your target market?
-    Your competition?
-    Your product/service benefit?
-    How is your product/service different?
-    If the consumer gets one idea from your external marketing, what is it?
-    What action should be taken?

5. Come up with a budget. The first step in creating a marketing budget is determining what percentage of sales you’ll be able to devote to marketing. A good rule of thumb is anywhere from five to 10 percent. Whatever the standard in your market, plan to invest a little more if you want to attain the position of market leader.

6. Select the right tools. Once you have determined your budget, you must select the tools or media you will use to deliver your message. One rule of thumb is to make sure you don't spread your advertising dollars too thinly. In other words, it makes more sense to use one radio station combined with direct mail than to try and buy three radio stations and two newspapers.

Frequency is critical in achieving advertising success. Television is an excellent medium, but unless you have a substantial budget. it is difficult to buy enough frequency.

Radio is my preferred choice because it offers targetability, affordability and frequency. I don't recommend newspapers because consumers just don't spend enough time reading them, the price is high and there is no frequency.

Direct mail and database mailers are excellent choices as well.

7. Implement a month-by-month marketing timetable. Marketing is a long-term investment. Any marketing plan should be completed on a yearly basis, with a small reserve of dollars for any new opportunities that arise during that year.

Advertising doesn't work overnight. It takes time and a commitment to make an impact in the marketplace; anything short term is doomed to fail. Track your results so that you can determine what works and what does not. This will enable you to hone your plan over time, eliminating the failures and building on the successes.

What worked in the past no longer works in funeral service, and some of the things being tried to reverse the trend are just making it worse. Why? Because they don't address what families want and are willing to pay for, this marketing expert says.

Many articles discussing marketing, whether in the funeral and cemetery profession or any other industry, begin with a definition of marketing as encompassing every activity within the business, not just the sales and advertising functions. Yet most people continue to use the terms marketing and advertising synonymously.

Simply put, anything your company does to generate new business or to hold customers is marketing—new buildings, pricing, employee training, sales tools and advertising all fall under the marketing umbrella.

Many death-care businesses, including vendors, are in desperate need of new marketing plans, and the situation has little to do with advertising. Those businesses suffering from high overhead and shrinking margins—which include most of the funeral homes in the United States—find themselves in their precarious positions because their marketing plans are failing.

Even if their advertising were more effective, these businesses would remain in a precarious position simply because their current plan of pursing additional volume at any cost is not viable at a time when many of the services they are offering are provided at a loss. For this reason, in this article I am going to address the issues of merchandising and pricing, which are integral aspects of a comprehensive marketing strategy.

If it's so popular, why is it so cheap?
Just as an illustration, let's begin with caskets. Casket companies have arguably provided the highest level of merchandising support in our business. Nonetheless, they consistently violate the most basic rule of merchandising: A product's more popular features should be reserved for the highest-priced models.

Everyone in the business knows that pink and blue are the two most popular colors for caskets. We also know that comer pieces, head panel embroideries and other structural features (such as the memory drawers) are very popular. But instead of being reserved for our highest-priced units, these features are (for the most part) available from the top to the near bottom of the line. Is it any wonder the public has difficulty seeing the value in higher-priced units?

Instead of being based on popular features, casket pricing reflects the cost of the materials used in manufacture. Certainly copper and bronze are more expensive materials than steel, and mahogany is more rare and expensive than oak and pine; but 90 percent of American consumers really don't care what the casket is made of.

They simply want an attractive, well built piece of furniture with special features, such as interchangeable corners, interiors that can be personalized and a choice of their loved one's favorite color—and they would be willing to pay for the features they want.

Applying this same analysis to funeral homes, we must ask why they include all of their services in their basic packages, thus depriving families of an opportunity to select—and pay for—additional services they may want. The funeral homes not only deny themselves the chance for needed revenue, they also deny families a choice so that they can select the package that best serves their needs.

Notice to the funeral and cemetery profession:
Consumers like choices.
Funeral homes must learn, as hotels have, that superior profits can be generated only by selling services, not merchandise. As funeral merchandise (caskets, vaults and urns) becomes more available from alternative sources, including retail outlets and the Internet, it will be increasingly difficult to realize a reasonable profit from the sale of these products. On top of that, funeral directors will increasingly face cremation families who will announce that they have no need for a casket or vault.

Profiting from services should be fundamental to the funeral business. Why else would funeral homes build and operate large facilities with rooms appropriate for large gatherings of people? Certainly very few funeral homes have anywhere near enough volume to simply operate as a furniture store; but most do serve enough families to profit as an event venue, making use of all their facilities.

Yet almost no funeral home effectively merchandises its services. Instead of incorporating graphics and other sales aids to help arrangers make effective arrangements, most firms operate under the assumption that families are fully aware of their options and will simply tell their arranger what they want.
 
Preneed lead generation is based on advertising concepts developed in the 1950s when mom stayed home with the children and seniors lived with their children, before answering machines and e-mail.

Cemetery direct mail advertising in the 1950s generated fifty times the results of direct mail today, at a time when postage was just pennies as opposed to $.39 apiece. The cost of getting a direct mail piece delivered is over $.40 apiece, including mailing lists and handling, and this is before the piece is created and printed.

Every knowledgeable preneed marketer in the business knows informative consumer seminars; family follow-up and public relations efforts generate leads of a far better quality than direct mail—at a fraction of the cost. Even so, cemeterians and funeral directors, led by preneed insurance companies, continue to flood the nation with direct mail appeals.

Incorporating consumer priorities into your marketing plan
The popular business book "Blue Ocean Strategy" discusses the concept that all industries operate under certain basic assumptions, so that every company within an industry ends up looking very much like all of the others. This makes price the only differentiation. The ongoing consolidation of the casket companies would be the anticipated corporate response to a declining market. Instead of creating a line of products geared to consumer priorities, the goal is to reduce overhead cost per unit while continuing to sell the same products.

As much as we would all prefer to sell American-made products, following this course to its ultimate conclusion will require funeral homes to offer lower-priced caskets manufactured outside the United States in order to get casket prices low enough so that families can afford to pay for the profitable services funeral homes are going to have to sell if they want to remain in business.

An objective observer of today's funeral homes would conclude that their priorities are, in descending order: 1. service, 2. large facilities, 3. vehicles, 4. clergy, 5. formality, 6. aftercare.

Suggesting "service" is a misplaced priority is tantamount to heresy, but the reality is most consumers are unable to evaluate a funeral home based upon service provided simply because they so seldom visit funeral homes. Furthermore, when people do visit a funeral home, they typically are so overwhelmed by the loss of their friend, the family's grief and the realization of their own mortality that afterward they can't remember the color of the casket, let alone the quality of service provided.

What about priority number 3, vehicles? Consider for a moment the lunacy of trading in a 6 to 10 year-old hearse with 15,000 miles on it in order to incur debt for a new vehicle. I cannot conceive of anyone believing that consumers select a funeral home based on the age of the hearse. Yet funeral homes maintain their vehicles beautifully just to sell them before they even reach midlife.

That money could be put to much better use: Create a reception room where families can socialize after the funeral. Buy equipment for creating video tributes the family will treasure for generations.

Then there's priority number 4, clergy. Research indicates fewer than 5 percent of individuals would consult a clergyperson to recommend a funeral home, yet funeral homes invest an immeasurable amount of time and money in church bulletins and contributions in the hopes of influencing local clergy.

The reality is that families who attend church are already familiar with their funeral home options, and most people without a funeral home preference do not attend church on a regular basis. On top of that, Episcopalians, Presbyterians and some Methodists encourage members to minimize funeral services or to let the church handle the service.

What does research show about how consumers decide on a funeral home? The influences they cite are listed in the table at the top of this page. Looking at this list gives us some variables we can control to produce tangible benefit to our funeral businesses. As consumers ourselves, we can understand why people would be more inclined to contact a funeral home where they know a staff member or one that's more convenient.

But how many funeral homes include in their promotional budget funds for building the community's awareness of their staff? As the second-most-volunteered reason for selecting a funeral home, building the community's familiarity with staff members should be a promotional priority.

When it comes to facilities, the funeral profession persists in building large facilities strategically located in places central to a very large population. Why not build several smaller buildings, each very convenient to a specific population? Families want a funeral home that's convenient for them and their friends, not one "conveniently" located between two fair-sized cities.

Summary
Reviewing funeral service from the consumer's perspective, we find that funeral businesses, like most others, focus resources on areas that deliver little in the way of customer value. This situation offers opportunity to those who realize the current way of doing business runs counter to what consumers want.

To take an example from another business, consider that for generations, roadside motels all included restaurants and lounges with their facilities. They continued to do this even after the interstate highway system was created and hotels and restaurants began to be built near the exits, giving families plenty of alternatives to eating where they were sleeping.

Even though the restaurants and lounges consistently lost money, motels continued to include them until Hampton Inn ignored the well defined norm and opened facilities offering only sleeping quarters and a free continental breakfast. Competitors finally appeared, but for years, Hampton Inn enjoyed a monopoly on this popular concept.

Returning to the funeral business, think about how operating differently would allow a funeral home to offer families better value and a more rewarding service, as well as to build relationships with new families who would turn to them in the future, even though other funeral homes ultimately will attempt to copy the leader's success.

The basic truth is, most funeral homes are suffering badly from shrinking margins, and still looking for solutions in the well worn business practices that brought us to our present state of affairs. Developing a new strategy or marketing plan focused on consumers could be the key to discovering a more profitable way to operate your funeral business.

Theory is all very well, but what sales managers need is a step-by-step outline for putting a sales and marketing theory into practice. Here it is.

A successful marketing effort requires a combination of theory and actionable ideas. In previous articles, I have discussed the theoretical aspects of marketing, so I thought it would be timely to offer seven ideas you can act on. These ideas can be implemented to augment your current marketing efforts or to chart a new marketing course for your funeral home or cemetery.

1. Use the power of radio. As marketers, we tend to gravitate toward the newspaper as a first choice, but research indicates consumers are spending less time with this medium. The average consumer spends only 10 percent of his or her media day with print and 44 percent with radio. Radio enables you to target a specific audience and, because of its afford ability, reach that audience with enough frequency to attain positive results.

Of course, the creative content of your commercials is ultimately what will make the difference. Radio, as with any other medium, requires a specific call to action. Tell listeners what you want them to do in no uncertain terms: "Pick up the phone and call today for your free information kit with no obligation."

Another possibility that radio offers is the PI (per inquiry). Ask your radio sales representative about a PI, which is essentially a campaign scheduled by the station based on availability and paid for by you each time your phone rings.

2. Let someone else tell your story. The use of testimonials is not a novel idea in the marketing world. Having satisfied customers telling others about the benefits of preplanning, for example, goes a long way to enhance the credibility and validation of your company.

We recently ran a television campaign highlighting three individuals who had preplanned with our company. Of course, there was a call to action at the end of the commercial. The results were incredible, with hundreds of phone calls in a relatively short period of time.

Remember, the responsibility of media outlets is to drive prospects to your business, but it's up to you to make the sale. By the way, if you are going to make a television buy, ask your television sales representative about off-peak times, as prime time can be cost prohibitive.

3. Set up a seminar series. A critical part of our marketing efforts at Mount Royal Commemorative Services involves educating the public. In the last couple of years, we have created a "portable" seminar that can take place at a house of worship, a senior association get -together or a civic group meeting.

The seminar includes three experts, since comprehensive final arrangements involve more than just funeral and cemetery preplanning. We include a notary (to discuss the importance of a will), an estate planner and one of our preplanning counselors.

It is important to gather attendees' names and contact information so you can follow up with them in the future. Last year, we did approximately 45 seminars throughout the city, resulting in a substantial amount of revenue.

4. Follow up on prospects. Most marketers do an excellent job in targeting new prospects for their business. However, many ignore the database of prospects who have expressed an interest but have not yet made a decision to purchase.

More than half of the consumers that request information from your business will eventually buy, but only if you maintain consistent contact with them. All advertising leads should be placed in a database so they can be systematically followed.

The follow-up can be in several forms, including newsletters, phone calls, personalized notes and e-mail. Statistics indicate that 80 percent of all sales are made after the fifth point of contact, so it is imperative that you stay front and center in the mind of your consumer or prospect.

5. Learn the value of public relations. Advertising is the wind; PR is the sun. The value of public relations has increased dramatically over the last decade. An article in the newspaper or an appearance on a popular radio show has greater value than a simple advertisement.

Create events that are unique in your market and will attract the attention of consumers. Today's consumer is inundated with approximately 3,000 advertising messages daily, so if you're not being different, you're in trouble. In a book called ''Differentiate or Die," Jack Trout writes about survival in an era of killer competition.

Over the last several years, Mount Royal Commemorative Services has offered the following programs to differentiate ourselves:

-    Open air gospel choir concert
-    Shakespeare in the park presentation
-    Cultural music event
-    Jazz concert in our new chapel
-    Historical walking tours
-    Art exhibition
-    Sunday brunch preplanning seminars
-    Crematorium tour

6. Track your results from advertising. "Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half."—John Wanamaker.

Advertising without tracking the results is an exercise in futility. The vast majority of business owners have absolutely no idea if their marketing efforts are delivering results.

According to Roy H. Williams' "The Wizard of Ads," the waste in marketing is anywhere from 50 to 90 percent. Given that knowledge, we must attempt to analyze our marketing efforts so that we can maintain what's working and get rid of what is not.

How do we track results? There are several ways; the method you use will depend to a great degree on your advertising objectives. If your goal is to get the phone to ring, use different phone numbers with different media outlets. Or, use the same basic message and theme in all of your advertising, but promote a specific benefit unique to each media. A somewhat less scientific method is to ask prospects when they call or come to your cemetery or funeral home where they saw or heard your ad.

7. Choose your words carefully.  Although it is important to target your advertising and maintain enough frequency over time, the essence of your success or failure will be based on what you say in your ad. Avoid clichés, funereal sounding music in the background, and too much time spent on your company.

Focus on the benefits to the consumer. A good ad is about the consumer; a bad ad is about the advertiser. Use a two-step approach as opposed to an approach that says "call us in a time of need." By offering a free information kit and educating consumers, you will position your company as being different from the rest.

Are you spending money on advertising and not getting the results you hoped for? Is your funeral home or cemetery Exhibit A for the statistics indicating that somewhere between 50 and 90 percent of advertising is wasted? Are you looking for a bigger bang for your buck?

Let's take a close look at the six advertising mistakes you should avoid in order to turn your advertising budget from an expense into an investment.

1. Lacking patience. Any advertising campaign will take time to deliver results. As marketers, we tend to be impatient and look for immediate gratification. When you are developing brand awareness for your cemetery or funeral home, there is no sense of immediacy in most cases.

The objective is to be constantly present so that consumers will think of you when the time of need arises or when they have a personal experience that gets them thinking about preplanning. We call this "top of mind awareness."

The ad that creates enough urgency to cause people to respond immediately is the ad most likely to be forgotten immediately once the offer expires. It is of little use in establishing the advertiser's identity in the mind of the consumer.

The essence of branding is simply the perception or idea that the consumer has in their mind when they think about your business. For example, when we mention Volvo, we immediately think about safety; BMW, the ultimate driving machine.

A long term plan in any media generally involves a commitment for a one-year period. On radio, for example, it's a minimum of three commercials per day, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year.

2. Spreading your budget too thin. Advertising success is dependent on two things, the message and the frequency. For a media mix to be effective, each element in the mix must have enough repetition to establish retention in the mind of the prospect.

Too often, advertisers put their dollars in too many places. Instead of advertising on three radio stations and three newspapers with limited frequency, select one or two radio stations and newspapers and make an impact.

Would you prefer to reach 100 percent of the population and convince them 10 percent of the way or reach 10 percent of the people and convince them 100 percent of the way?

Reach and frequency combine to make a campaign effective, but frequency is the more important part of the formula. Media outlets such as television deliver huge reach, but can you afford to impact the audience without investing a fortune?

In our market, there are some powerful FM radio stations that deliver huge, targeted audiences, but the cost is prohibitive if we want to talk to their listeners with any reasonable level of frequency.

3. Selecting the wrong media. Every advertising vehicle has a different purpose. Nonintrusive media, such as newspapers and yellow pages, tend to reach only buyers who are looking for the product. They are poor at reaching prospects before their need arises, so they are not much use for creating a predisposition toward your company.

The patient, consistent use of intrusive media, such as radio and television, will win the hearts of relational customers long before they are in the market for your product.

When marketing preplanning, the combination of radio and TV is ideal. If TV is too expensive in your market or for your budget, radio is probably the most cost-effective media choice available. By educating consumers about the benefits of preplanning, you can ensure that they will ultimately be served by your company.

4. Placing too much emphasis on targeting. Although different media choices offer different qualitative audiences, we tend to spend far too much time on where we are investing our dollars as opposed to what we are saying in our advertising.

Many advertisers and media professionals grossly overestimate the importance of audience quality. In reality, saying the wrong thing has killed far more ad campaigns than reaching the wrong people. It's amazing how many people become "the right people" when you're saying the right thing.

Most advertisers insist on repetitiously cramming the name of their company, the name of their product, their business hours and their street address into every ad they buy. Such ads do a great job in answering the who, where, what and when while failing to answer the all-important question: Why?

Bad advertising is about the advertiser; good advertising is about the customer. Avoid generic-sounding ads that talk about "our family serving your family" and focus on educating consumers and demystifying the death care profession.

5. Confusing response with results. The goal of advertising is to create a clear awareness of your company and its unique selling proposition. Unfortunately, most advertisers evaluate their ads by the comments they hear from the people around them.

The slickest, cleverest, funniest, most creative and most distinctive ads are the ones most likely to generate these comments. See the problem? When we confuse response with results, we create attention-getting ads that say absolutely nothing.

Also, the purpose of advertising is to deliver response that is ultimately up to us to capitalize on. Our two-step marketing program at Mount Royal Commemorative Services simply asks consumers to call for a free information kit with no obligation. Once that step is completed, it is up to us to follow up and convince the prospect to buy our services.

6. Making unproven claims. Remember, there are two worlds of marketing: the world outside your door, which is advertising, and the world inside your door, which is your people fulfilling the advertised claims.

Advertisers often claim to have what the customer wants, such as "the highest quality at the lowest price," but fail to offer any evidence to back up the claim. An unsubstantiated claim is nothing more than a cliché the prospect is tired of hearing.

Have you ever walked into a retail store whose ad campaign touts the ultimate in customer service only to receive the opposite? I once walked into a store owned by a large national retail chain to buy a product and was surprised when the cashier neither spoke nor looked me in the eye during the entire transaction.

You must prove what you say in every ad. Do your ads give prospects new information? Do they provide a new perspective? If not, prepare to be disappointed with the results.

Radio enables you to affordably target the demographic you want and get the frequency you need. Demographics are important. At Mount Royal, our demographic is very clear: Women 55-plus. We can select the radio stations in our city—as you can in your city—that will target this demographic.

What should you say in your ads?

1. Focus on the prospect. A good ad is about the consumer; a bad ad is about the advertiser. Make sure you keep the focus on the benefit of your product or service to the listener.

2. Emphasize your unique selling proposition. What makes your cemetery or funeral home different from the rest? At Mount Royal, we say in our commercials that we've made a commitment to educating Montrealers about the funeral and cemetery profession. We educate by sending out free information kits that are a little bit more than just a simple brochure.

3. Repeat, repeat, repeat. We continue to hammer home some basic messages. We have a simple slogan that we end all of our advertising with: Mount Royal Commemorative Services: Tradition, Trust and Tribute.

4. Add testimonials. Recently we did some television ads. Instead of us telling our story, we used customers who preplanned with us, were happy with their experience, and without having to pay them anything, were willing to come to the studio and be filmed for 30-second commercials talking about why they came to Mount Royal.

5. Provide a guarantee. I know some companies offer a 100 percent service guarantee on all their products and services.

6. Offer a premium. We have to be careful. We can't market like traditional marketers do in terms of offering premiums that sound a little bit hokey. In Canada, you've got to file your taxes by the end of April. In March, we ran an ad that said something like "There are only two things in life you can't avoid; death and taxes. At Mount Royal Commemorative Services we can help ease the burden. With every consultation with one of our preplanning counselors, we give you a free copy of Ufile." Ufile is the number one tax preparation program in Canada.

7. Set a deadline. Deadlines can be as simple as "this offer is available until……”

8. Tell them what to do. Often we'll say, "Get a pen and write down this address. Call us today for your free information kit with no obligation."

This article compiled from an address presented by the author at the 2006 ICFA Annual Convention

Before discussing the kinds of advertising that are most appropriate for cemeteries, it is well that I first impress upon you the necessity of same. We all know that the mind is the intellectual faculty in a man that conceives, judges and reasons before there is an action of any part of the body. No matter how ridiculous the message to the mind may be, they necessitate immediate thought and there is a tendency to comply with your thoughts, though they may be repressed by the contradictory. As an illustration, should I ask you to "stand up" how well does the mind know the parts of the body to command to move? You can almost imagine yourself standing and should there not have been rival thoughts, their action would have been the result.

Suppose you reflect back just for a minute to some calamity or accident; now any sweet music, or song you have heard, now beautiful sights seen. Did you remember first something horrible; then the sounds of charming music; then some vivid picture, whether it may be of someone you admire or some beautiful scenery? These are the results of some impression upon the mind in the past. You know your present thoughts, whether they be upon my subject or on other objects that may attract you and you remember former impressions upon your mind, therefore, I want to impress upon you vividly, that the mind is the controlling factor of the body, and that the sole purpose of all advertising is to impress upon the people's minds that you have something to sell, and it is your desire to control their actions by purchasing from you. The sooner you realize it is the minds of the people you desire to control and plan to accomplish this, the better for your sales account.

As there are two methods of reaching one's mind, both by verbal and written expressions, it may be also applied as the two classes of advertising:

Verbal Advertising

You may be a good conversationalist, yet, if you spend an entire day telling of the beauty and advantages of your cemetery, only a very small per cent of the people would be reached and you cannot get in touch with them by staying in your office or cemetery, therefore, proper verbal advertising would necessitate house-to-house canvassing and this method of selling lots is a position we do not relish. I have only heard of a very few attempting this task and if you cannot realize it being a hard proposition, suppose you try it yourself, just for the experience?

Most people will not talk about buying a cemetery lot with you, and they look upon a purchase with as much horror as you would should an undertaker try to sell you a casket for yourself; yet, you should realize, more so than men in other professions, the certainty of death, as you are constantly attending funerals.

To those who think a well-kept cemetery is their best advertisement, I want to ask them what percent of the people in your city visit your cemetery each day? Are not the majority of those lot owners who do visit? Do you realize that most people are superstitious about visiting cemeteries, and even though you may have an attractive one, people may not know this, because they do not care to visit it.

In many cities, where permits for visitors are required, people who would like to visit your cemetery are deprived of seeing it and if those who do see same were pleased with its beauty, a lasting impression would be made upon them, hence, the necessity of well-kept grounds. A well-pleased purchaser is no doubt a valuable assistant, but do you advertise a friend in business and why should you expect others to do this for you? While if may be true, enthusiastic owners may be willing to recommend your cemetery, but unless people ask them for their opinion, they feel a delicacy in suggesting, because, they would think their neighbor used their own judgment in selecting a house for the living, and why not they exercise the same right while purchasing lots for their dead?

A testimonial, even though spread by accomplices, may never reach the parties desired. The average lot owner, however, does not take the interest in your cemetery to spread forth its advantages nor should we expect them to do so.

Verbal advertising has been the only kind used in a few successful ones, yet this method is bound to be limited, regardless of how efficient a cemetery may be kept, or the popularity of officers.

I have endeavored to show how good results may have been obtained by many, and suggested ideas which may be used to an advantage, but while verbal advertising may assist, yet, it does not reach the masses.

Written Advertising

Man has characters and letters which represent sounds, and when seen by the eye, they are quickly pictured to the mind and an impression is made, as previously explained by the sounds in verbal expressions. Suppose you read an advertisement, "Telephone Jones when you need ice;" now, I do not say that the advertisement would compel you to buy ice from Jones, but when yon read same, you knew that Jones did sell ice, but maybe you preferred purchasing from someone else, yet, some day when you are in a hurry and want ice, you may phone Jones, then, his advertising has produced results. The mind forms habits of thought, and when once established they are controlling factors of our actions; just the same in the purchase of a cemetery lot, as to you and the ice man.

I once read an advertisement of Franklin Murphy & Co., which stated "pure varnish is death to the beauty of anything." While this may be true, still, the advertisement was inexplicit and it leaves you in doubt. Are they the agents of manufacturers? Is their varnish the best or poorest? What brand must I ask for to get theirs? Where is it sold? In order that you may avoid this, write your advertisements explicit1y.

Because you may not care to write advertisements yourself, should not exclude your home advertising; why not employ one who can; especially when you have anything of importance to get out? Should you decide to build a home, you may draw the plan yourself, but likely you realize that an architect could do better; if so, why not employ an experienced advertisement writer?

The eye is like a photographer's camera and when focused at any particular object, other things seem to be blurred and indistinct. The power to attract attention depends upon the sensation or impression made, therefore, novel, artistic advertising and those constantly changed are noticed more than those of gradual changes, or still less are those of the same wording, there being no necessity of doing this, yet, continual advertising is a recommendation for anything, as they must have merit, otherwise, it would not sell.

A child is interested in an often repeated tale and it is well that you occasionally repeat former advertisements, as impressions made gradually diminish unless repetition is made, hence, the necessity of continual advertising, lest the light impressions made are not lost. As these impressions upon the mind are only natural and should you desire to produce them upon the people of your city, the advertiser must not expect to "take the town by storm" within a short time, but realize "he is going against nature" for it may take a year to show results.

Though your cemetery may change the wording of your ads at each issue, yet, it is a splendid idea, to have some characteristic feature in them, whether it may be a special border, monogram, signature, picture, motto, special type, or engraving of your cemetery's name. Do you remember the jolly smile of the Cream of Wheat chef, Forces Sunn'y Jim, Fairbank's Gold Dust Twins, the signature of Coca-Cola, and the monogram of R. J. R. tobacco? Though the advertisements of these articles may contain different wording in each issue, yet, as soon as you see these familiar features you know what they advertise. You know of these articles, yet, you never purchase them and for this reason you should continually advertise if you want to make the same impression upon the minds of the people in your home city that these well-advertised articles have made upon you.

The best way to reach the people is through the newspapers, and should you not run a daily advertisement, at least run them once a week, in Saturday or Sunday's issue. Local papers are eagerly sought and read, not only by subscribers, but by each one in a home, therefore, home papers, or those having a circulation in your district are preferable.

Write your advertisement as though the public had never heard of your cemetery, for while they do not care for its history, they will lead of its advantages, and some day when they have to purchase, they think of the features made known through the press.

Have a photographer take pictures of the pretty spots of your cemetery and have cuts made and by using them with two-column display advertisements, they are attractive to the eye, and are as necessary for you as to merchants, who have show windows, and signs.

If your cemetery is new and has few suitable views, have a photographer take pictures of places to be improved and later, take another at the same places, so as to show the contrast, as both views showing before and after improvements will show you are progressive.

To those who do not desire display advertisements, the one column line reading notices may be properly worded and appear as news items. Write upon one particular advantage at a time, suppose you first tell of the approach and macadamized roads which lead to the beautiful resting place.

2nd - Impress the people that your location is ideal, that it is away from the manufacturing district and that its distance is an advantage, because of the rapid growth of most cities.
3rd - Having streetcar connection and funeral cars can be secured.
4th - The size of your lots and terms of sale.
5th - Single graves of men of small means.
6th – Trees, shrubbery planted to beautify.
7th - Advantages of lawn plan.
8th - Uniform appearance of each section.
9th - Grass mowed on all lots free, none neglected.
10th - Deeds given same as other real estate.
11th - Beautiful flower beds and designs which are attractive.
12th - The subsoil does not easily absorb, or hold water and free from rocks.
13th - All lots perfectly drained.
14th - Attendants furnished at each funeral.
15th - Shelter tents furnished during inclement weather.
16th - Natural drainage, and pipes placed.
17th - Estimate the cost if owners had to care for their lots as in olden days for a period of ten years.
18th - Police protection and watchmen.
19th - Superintendent's, watchman's or foreman's residence within the grounds.
20th - Accurate and permanent records kept, giving number and location of every grave.
21st - Chapel for use of families not having sufficient room for services at their homes.
22nd - Non-sectarian, every creed welcome.
23rd - Not run under old assessment plan.
24th - Perpetual care a blessing to all.
25th – Satisfaction of having your lot cared for even though you go away.
26th - How you guarantee future care.
27th - Amount of endowment and perpetual care funds.
28th - How revenue from investments will be controlled and spent.
29th - Percent of sales you are reserving for future care.
30th - Is your cemetery controlled by politicians, or do you select a force of men of ability instead of a pull?
31st - Do lot owners cooperate and do they meet or elect trustees.
32nd - When new sections are placed on the market.
33rd - Future contemplated improvements.
34th - Modern receiving vaults.
35th - The amount of capital stock which is a guarantee that your cemetery is on a business basis and has sufficient financial backing.
37th - State your acreage which you think is sufficient to guarantee its permanency many years.
38th - Number of interments which is a proof of its popularity.
39th - Having a fair and square policy to all and no favorites either among rich or poor.
40th - Modern plans having been drawn especially for the grounds following the contours.
41st - Lots accessible by walks and drives.
42nd - Describe entrance and gateway or other buildings.
43rd - Landscape work by assisting nature in improving the grounds.
44th - Location of office, whether at cemetery or in the city.
45th - Explain having telephone connections and information will be cheerfully given.
46th - Lakes and streams.
47th - Your mutual or cooperative plan.
48th - For interment of white people only.

I mentioned these features merely to give you an idea of the points that would be interesting to outsiders and it is for you to study your cemetery and its advantages, then you can write articles, as Webster says, "To give to the public notice of, or describe with a view of sale."
 
When we sell a lot or single grave, we keep a record of the relatives and add these to a list of prospective purchasers, and good results have been accomplished by selling them lots, as we constantly send circular letters, folders or booklets telling of Elmwood's advantages. Street car ads, when they have a view of your cemetery and tell what cars reach it, bring results.

Every cemetery should have rules and regulations printed, but they should not be sent as advertisements, as they are only intended for lot owners. Souvenir post cards and calendars are good and though booklets are expensive, they should be printed occasionally, but remember in your advertising try and keep your cemetery's advantages in the minds of the people.

From the publication:
AACS - Proceedings of the 22nd Annual Convention
Held at Kansas City, MO
August 11, 12 and 13, 1908

When Mr. Kel1er wrote that he would like a paper from me I hastily said I would write one; naming my subject later.

I must confess that I was at a loss to find any subject that was new to our association. Under the circumstances I was compelled to name my subject "Generalities", giving me under such a title a chance to write on anything pertaining to cemeteries.

I have been called upon during the past season by several agents who were representing the manufacturers of signs and among their stock has always been a conspicuous sign, "Keep off the grass". One agent told me he had sold a leading cemetery in this state several hundred of these signs. I do not think this is at all consistent with a modern cemetery. We advocate the use of grass paths in order to have large stretches of lawns and by so doing practically invite the public or the lot holders at least, to walk on the grass.

Walking on the grass does no harm unless it is done in a beaten path; in which case there are better methods than signs to keep off the public.

In reading the June number of Park and Cemetery I saw therein that the cemetery of Spring Grove of Cincinnati, OH, had passed a rule prohibiting the driving of automobiles in the cemetery.

This is a subject that is of interest to us all and myself in particular. I feel that no cemetery board has the right to prohibit any automobile from entering the grounds, any more so than horse-drawn vehicles. A reasonable restriction: as to speed, etc., is perfectly right, but to prohibit is to my mind an unreasonable discrimination.

There are in the City of Buffalo today over five hundred persons who are the owners of automobiles and the number grows rapidly. Should any of these persons be the owners of a burial lot half a mile from the entrance of the cemetery; if he should wish to visit the lot he must walk from the entrance; presuming that the cemetery does not allow automobiles entering the grounds. Fortunately this is not the case in our city. As I have had the pleasure of driving one of these vehicles during the past year I am convinced that they are not the harmful things the general public seems to think they are. As an opinion, I will venture to say that I believe that the day is not far off when funerals will be conducted with horseless vehicles entirely. In conducting funerals, one of our leading undertakers has for the past two years gone to the cemetery in an electric automobile.

I believe that if the owner of an automobile would care to carry any case into court where he was kept out of a cemetery he would win. I venture this opinion because I have been watching the outcome of several similar cases.

Now, I believe that there are among our number many who conduct new cemeteries and who would like some points as to how to get more business. I myself am one of the numbers; but believe that a discussion of this subject will interest many of us.

We have resorted largely to advertising and on this subject I can certainly say where it does or does not pay.

A cemetery is a very hard thing to advertise, as it is something the public does not care to discuss unless they have to; it necessarily has to be done with care in order not to offend anyone.

Most of our Buffalo papers publish Sunday illustrated supplements. We find these the best mediums of all. We also find that church papers and programs are good mediums, but as for the daily papers they are worse than useless. We have found that an advertisement is not looked at unless there is an illustration with it. This of course cannot be done to advantage on the cheap paper used in the dailies. We believe that advertising pays in cemeteries as well as in other lines of business.

To write an advertisement for a cemetery takes a little thought. If you advertise bargains or reduced rates it looks too much like a bargain counter and cheapens your cemetery. However, it becomes necessary, if you are selling lots cheaper than your competitor to let the public know this, so we always confine ourselves to the simple statement that the price of lots is very reasonable; leaving the purchaser to find out for himself on inquiry.

The question may be raised by some of our members as to whether a cemetery should advertise. If not, why not?

It makes no difference whether it is a stock company or a bonded corporation, you must sell lots to pay dividends on the former and interest on the latter; I do not think the purchasing public thinks any the less of a cemetery corporation who advertises judiciously. Another subject that I think deserves the attention of the cemetery officials is billboards and advertising signs.

In some of the states there has been legislation prohibiting these unsightly signs fronting on parks, but I do not know of any similar legislation for the benefit of cemeteries. There are many instances of this kind that are a positive nuisance. Some of out cemetery presidents with influence should have bills' passed in their own states prohibiting any advertising signs opposite a cemetery entrance, also the planting of telegraph, telephone, electric or street car poles immediately in front of the entrance. I know of several instances where the latter positively marred some beautiful entrances.

From the publication:
AACS - Proceedings of the 17th Annual Convention
Held at Rochester, NY
September 8, 9 and 10, 1903

The average person regards cemeteries in a community as a matter to be seldom if ever mentioned. To overcome this tendency on the part of the public and enlist them in the good work of having their views and ideas broadened and coincide with the work and aims of the Association of American Cemetery Superintendents is a great object.

We can meet year after year and while we are gaining knowledge and experience in methods of conducting our cemeteries to the best interests of our several communities we do not feel that we have accomplished all that there is to do unless we can interest the public. How best to do this, then, is one of the ideals we have set forth to realize.

For one, I maintain that we each have to set a high standard, in fact one in advance of the community that we are respectively in and plan our work to that end.

Some writers on cemetery topics consider that a cemetery is like a professional man that it cannot with good taste advertise. Practical men realize that the newspaper of today is a great molder of public opinion.  Now, as to localities situated like ours, where we have only a population of 4,000 to draw business from the conducting of the cemetery cannot be carried on in lines parallel to those where a population of one hundred times more furnishes business. There are some matters on which the work would be similar but in details only; the whole general plan is different. Now, as we are situated, the local papers are a great help to us; the newspaper man is glad for us to give him an item when we have in contemplation any improvements, he is glad to note the progress of the work, as well as to give us a write up when the work is completed. This on a scale more or less helps to bring us in touch with our people. Could we interest them to visit the cemetery semi-occasionally without waiting until they come out to bury one of their dear ones, and look around, ask questions, make suggestions and kindly criticism; also a word or two, if merited, to the Superintendent in praise would help alleviate his labors. There is no one as appreciative as he.

After an experience of more than twelve years the Superintendent begins to think he is a judge of human nature, but as in all other arts and sciences he finds that the longer he is in the business the less he gives himself credit for knowing, and were it not for the heart he has he would to some extent becomes a cynic; as time goes on he becomes, so to speak, of the place where the community has its sleeping dead, he feels a responsibility and almost personal interest in each family and to him it has become a sacred trust.

This is truer in a large sense in the smaller communities where the persons committed to his care are known by him. Now, can we judiciously advertise and if so, what is the best method? With some people price counts some, but we notice that the public are willing to pay good prices, provided they feel that they are receiving adequate service. We are of the opinion that our association can and is, doing more for the smaller cemeteries in proportion, of educational work in the right direction, than for the larger and older cemeteries, but we are all of us benefited.

One of our members once said that we ought to make our cemeteries look like parks, plant trees that would give a cheerful look and eliminate as much as possible all the old cypresses• and funereal looking trees once so prevalent in many of our cemeteries; this we know to a large extent has been done, but we cannot make the cemetery a place of gayety either.

We must do something to arouse the public, for it is their best interests, in these matters, that we are conserving; and our efforts should be reciprocated and aided by them.

Frequent reports of our meetings, both by the daily and local papers and a judicious distribution of the reports of our proceedings are doing much in the direction desired, but still for all that we fall short of the standard we set.

One member gloomily predicts that fifty years hence the public will want cremation and that earth burial will be a thing of the past. Now, this, to practical men, would be no argument; cremation has been already in vogue hundreds of years and has not as yet become the favorite mode, for the thought of lying to sleep under grassy mounds and following old Customs in this direction need not deter any of us from the belief that our mission is soon to end. While it is true that the public are seemingly more apathetic in this regard than in anything else, still we have hope that they will in due time realize our efforts are for the best of all concerned and that an orderly, well regulated and properly cared for cemetery reflects creditably on their judgment and community for so maintaining.

From the publication:
AACS - Proceedings of the 17th Annual Convention
Held at Rochester, NY
September 8, 9 and 10, 1903

About twelve or thirteen years ago a young man stood on a hilltop overlooking a small country cemetery of some fifty-five acres. This property had just been placed in his charge. He saw no buildings on the property. There was only a patch of lawn, with a few straggling headstones. Beyond the scant dozen acres of developed ground the hillside rose sere and brown. It was not exactly a scene of surpassing loveliness. The problem of making a notable property out of it was a serious one. It was apparent that its future commercially would not rise above its artistic and esthetic plane.

The young man who surveyed the scene, however, possessed one of those minds to which visions come. He was, as a matter of fact, a rare combination: In the highest sense an idealist, a dreamer of dreams; and at the same time, a practical, trained engineer, who could plan definitely how to make a worthy dream come true. On this historic occasion a dream did come—a vision. He saw, in one swift instant of revelation, what this tiny "God's Acre" might be made into. So real was this vision, so definitely did the philosophy by which it might be realized present itself to this practical man that that very day he put down in writing for his own private guidance, what you might call a Creed. It was a statement of his own beliefs and principles and theories.
And I think no better basis could be laid for the brief discussion which I shall attempt, than to read you this Builder's Creed—the self-instituted guide which was set up twelve years ago for Forest Lawn Memorial Park by Mr. Hubert Eaton: (which has been quoted in Mr. Eaton's address)

"This is the Builder's Dream; this is the Builder's Creed."

This was the vision. Now for the realization. It has only been achieved in part. Naturally, like the horizon, such a sweeping esthetic and spiritual concept must inevitably lift and carry the pilgrim on to bigger and better things beyond. But Forest Lawn Memorial-Park is today a property of about 200 acres. It is bounded on three sides by the everlasting hills, and protected equally from encroachment on the other by the natural situation and location.

Its employees number about 500. Its interments exceed in number those of any similar institution in the West. Its "Little Church of the Flowers," inspired by the historic church at Stoke Poges, England, to which immortality was given by the poet Gray, is the scene of hundreds of weddings each year. The Administration Building houses the executive offices, the well-patronized Flower Shop, a Museum of Antiquities. Its exterior architecture and interior decoration and arrangement are all authentically inspired by the mansion house of an English nobleman of the Sixteenth Century. Just being completed is a second church, "The Wee kirk o' the Heather," patterned after that famous little chapel in Dumfriesshire, Scotland, where Annie Laurie worshipped. The Mausoleum-Columbarium is a stately building of steel and concrete, built against the rock of the hillside in terraces, and upon the roof is now being placed a magnificent Court of Honor at one end of which will be placed a stained glass reproduction of Leonardo's "Last Supper." Surmounting Mount Forest Lawn a rugged Tower disguises its utilitarian purpose (the storage of water) by its allegorical conception and design and forms a landmark famous for miles around the property.

This is a quick sketch of Forest Lawn Memorial-Park as it has evolved since the Builder had his vision, a complete sketch except that I neglected to mention the scores of notable pieces of sculpture placed with great effectiveness about the grounds, or housed in the various buildings.
Now you might properly ask the question: Did advertising build all this? To answer it accurately would be as difficult as to answer the age old question: In the original creation, did the Egg or the Chicken come first? The fact is, the support of the public in the way of sales made possible the advertising, and the advertising helped to build the sales.
 
To most people there is something incongruous at first in the idea of a cemetery advertising far business. It is a common thing for us to be favored with "wise-cracks" and rather labored attempts at humor, when the subject comes up in ordinary conversation with the lay man. But we think we have discovered that Mr. Average Man’s heavy efforts at humor in connection with such a subject are what the psychologists call a "defense mechanism." Most people instinctively shrink from the thought or discussion of death. It seems like opening the door to morbid reflections. But it is also a fact that if death is faced courageously, accepted as a natural part of life, it begins to lose its power to terrify. Forest Lawn Memorial-Park holds boldly to the theory that a rational discussion of death and the problems which death creates for those left behind, rather than hastening one's end, operates in quite the opposite manner. We ask people to accept the unalterable fact of death, and to make wise, rational preparation for it, as they would for any other event of which they had certain foreknowledge.
 
Approaching the problem of selling a cemetery from this standpoint, the sales resistance is much more theoretical than real. It shrinks to a practical minimum indeed, when coupled with the utilitarian features of a cemetery property, you are fortunate enough to have esthetic, civic and artistic considerations on such a prodigal scale as happens to be the case with Forest Lawn.
 
Now of course what Forest Lawn is really doing is to create what is virtually a great composite memorial perpetuating not simply the memory of one individual but of all the brave souls who have gone on before us, from this community. Every owner of Forest Lawn property thus becomes a partner in this great enterprise. The fact that it has a commercial aspect in no way lessens its civic, esthetic and spiritual value to the community.
 
In fact, its commercial foundation is one of its outstanding virtues, because out of its sales is set up a perpetual fund for care and maintenance, which is a guarantee for all time to come that this area dedicated to a great purpose, shall forever remain dedicated to it, shall forever grow in grandeur and beauty, shall forever continue to evolve into a monument more and more fitting and adequate.

So this brings us to the practical problem of continuously making sales. These sales automatically group themselves, as you know, into the two classes: those made by natural exigency or "at need" and those made in advance or "before need".
 
Both classes of purchases are influenced tremendously by the good will or prestige of the institution. The sales force which is maintained devotes its efforts to the making of "before need" sales. Selections of this character naturally represent a greater volume in money than an equal number of "at need" sales.

I think I have sketched sufficiently the background of Forest Lawn to show you where advertising comes into the picture, to accomplish that which no other force could accomplish within the same time. May I remind you of an axiom very familiar to advertising men—that no business can succeed with advertising unless it would and could also succeed without it. I think that is generally true enough to set it down axiomatically. But what is implied in that axiom is this that advertising can be compared to the glassed houses of the florists, or the fertilizer and watering or the farmer, which renders success more certain and also encompasses it within reasonable time limits, as human lives and activities are measured. The "mouse trap" theory of Elbert Hubbard's, while it contains a considerable portion of truth, is yet dangerous in this modern day. Life is too short to wait for the world to beat a path to your door. If you have something worthy for the people, you must tell them if you want to sell them.

So it comes down to the question of telling. Who is going to do it? The Forest Lawn story—as I think I have sufficiently indicated—is no ordinary story. The average salesman will be able to do it but scant justice, even if the ordinary prospective buyer has the patience to listen or the intelligence to grasp quickly. Furthermore, if you have an important property, conducted on an ambitious a scale as Forest Lawn, you will not want to entrust its telling to the average sales force. If you have 50 people, you are bound to be creating at least fifty different versions of your story.

Forest Lawn boldly tells the public its story, in its own way. It uses for the purpose, practically every legitimate medium of advertising—radio, newspapers, billboards, theatre programs, direct advertising through the mail printed literature, and publicity.

Every character of Forest Lawn advertising goes through the same process of meticulous care in preparation: that is to say, no amount of time or pains is spared in the writing of copy, the preparation of art work, the arrangement of printing, so that precisely the right shade of meaning is conveyed, and so that the advertising shall always and everywhere be upon a very high literary, artistic and spiritual plane.

Radio has been found astonishingly effective in directing public attention upon the institution, and creating for it a most favorable association of ideas. A thirty-piece symphony orchestra and an ensemble of approximately sixteen singers of very high professional caliber are used one hour each week, together with a carefully written continuity. The programs are selected about two weeks in advance. Each program centers about one outstanding theme. The titles of some recent programs will give you an idea of this: Songs of the Sea—The Old Corner Book Shop—A Night in Havana—Russian Nights—A Night in the Theatres—"Chimes of Normandy"—Love Songs of the World—Evolution of the Dance—Wheels of the World—and Music of Devotion, which is the title of the Forest Lawn radio presentation to be given this Friday evening.

Practically all the music is rehearsed, and the entire program is approved by us before it is presented. The same hour and the same night each week are used, and since the advertising has now been running over the air for practically forty weeks, I think it is not too much to say that the Forest Lawn programs have become a recognized institution on the Pacific Coast. Emphasis is placed in the announcements on the cultural and esthetic features of Forest Lawn, the important works of art and notable buildings are repeatedly mentioned, and there is always an invitation to visit the Park as one of the best known places of interest in Southern California. Radio is one of the great new factors in advertising, but its technique is difficult and subtle, and offers the grandest opportunity of any medium open to the advertiser, for him to demonstrate how little he knows what the public wants. A certain well known national concern decided a few years ago to go on the air, and among their directors was a fine old gentleman who in his early youth had had it musical education. He volunteered—in fact, insisted—that he would take charge of the radio advertising. He searched the musical libraries of the new and old worlds for fine music which had never before been played. He announced that he was going to raise the standard of musical taste in America. After the company had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars it was unanimously agreed to abandon the idea of education. The fact is, that radio is a new and curious combination of art and showmanship and advertising. It is not absolutely necessary to be crazy to handle radio advertising, but you will get along better if you are!

Before we used the radio we used the newspapers, and in them presented the Forest Lawn story week after week. Copy and art were pitched upon a high plane. This newspaper advertising was widely read and commented upon. But when we began using radio we changed the character of the newspaper ads somewhat: that is, we now use the newspapers to advertise the radio programs. However, with each advertisement, there is also a straight Forest Lawn advertising message.

I think perhaps this would be as good as place as any for me to remark that the newspapers are much more effective since we have used the radio and the radio undoubtedly has a larger and more impressible audience because we use the newspapers. And this holds true of all our advertising, just as it holds true of advertising in any other field. When you use two mediums instead of one, you more than double your returns, because you increase the effectiveness of each one.

We use painted billboards, illuminated. Here we have only the briefest telegraphic message. Just now we are beginning the first of a series of symbolic messages. The one on the boards now is just a beautiful painting of the sea, no land or other objects in sight except clouds. Our copy reads "Eternal—as the sea." Then at the bottom of the board, FOREST LAWN MEMORIAL PARK IN GLENDALE. The next board no doubt will be just a painting of infinity, that is, a point far out in space, with the stars and planets suggested and again the phrase "Eternal—as the heavens." These boards are symbolical, suggestive, and carry the thought so necessary to get over, that Forest Lawn is an institution which shall endure for all time to come. Of course, there is a psychological association also, for it directs the mind, very subtly and without even appearing to do so, to the unalterable fact of earthly change but Eternal persistence of the human soul.

Though this discussion is not intended to be metaphysical or theological, we are not ashamed to say that Forest Lawn believes in eternal life, and we don't hesitate to say so in our advertising. We try to take the morbidity out of death, and the institution we advertise does not parade grief and woe and disconsolation, but typify and symbolizes in every way that ingenuity can suggest, abundant, endless and joyous life.

Right along this line, may I say that my company is at present  preparing a beautiful book which will probably be called "This Continuing Life" and in it will be quoted the best thought in prose and poetry of the whole world, bearing on immortality. The purpose of this book will be to serve as a courtesy or good will present, to patrons, without charge whatsoever, but as a subtle and delicately expressed gesture of understanding and sympathy with the bereaved. Surely it is not preaching to say that the surest and in fact, the only solace, which we can give to those left behind, is some concrete expression of our own conviction that their separation from their loved ones is out temporary.

So fast are precious objects of art from the old world being added to the already large collection in Forest Lawn, that we find it necessary quite frequently to reissue the official souvenir of the Park, called "The Chimes." This is a beautifully illustrated and printed booklet, in size 9" x 12", showing the latest and most attractive views of the grounds, buildings and statuary. As time goes on, The Chimes is growing further and further away from a commercial booklet, and tends to become more artistic and more truly a souvenir. This book is sold for a nominal price at the grounds, or is sent by mail in response to newspaper and other advertising.

Regular mailings of letter campaigns are maintained. We have tried to cover the "before need" sales story by letter but just now we are using a very short letter, with which is enclosed a simply written booklet with the sales story.

We have another booklet, called prosaically, "The Truth. About Burial Customs and Costs," and our advertising is keyed for this booklet also, which is distributed gratis. It is a plain story of the': subject, as its title indicates.

Still another booklet, which is growing more and more important as time goes on, is the Official Guide Book. This is practically a cyclopedia of all the interesting features of Forest Lawn, describing in detail the grounds, buildings, statuary and other objects of special significance, interest, or historical association. This booklet, on thin Bible stock, is in great demand by visitors.

The use of theatre programs for cemetery advertising may seem incongruous, but our experience and observation is that this is a most valuable medium. It reaches a good class of people, it profits by the very fact that it is different from any other advertising in the program, and we know from actual tests made in the theatres, that it is read perhaps more thoroughly than even our newspaper insertions.

We are fairly generous patrons of some of the higher types of class publications, such as women's clubs magazines, musical publications, etc., going to special groups. When we do use these mediums, we exercise exactly the same care in preparation that we would if we were going into the Ladies Home Journal or Vanity Fair.

Then of course, we attempt to secure all the publicity to which we are entitled by virtue of the news value of the events which occur in which Forest Lawn figures. The acquisition of new statuary or buildings makes legitimate news. At Easter Time a sunrise service is held on Mount Forest Lawn attended last year by 40,000 to 50,000 people. The Little Church of the Flowers attracts many notable weddings, which are the basis of legitimate publicity.

I should not be surprised if some of you are mentally asking the question: which advertising, medium is most profitable. I have always tried to live up to the legend that an advertising man is omniscient, but in this case I will imperil my reputation, if any, by saying that I do not know. I think I am safe in saying that, taken all together, they are profitable. My recommendation to any cemetery is that if they are using practically all media, and the sum total of results is pretty satisfactory, leave well enough alone. It is entirely probable that some of those media are pulling only 50 percent, some 90 percent, some 100 percent, and maybe others 200 percent. If it was my money I wouldn't care. I have seen too many instances where it was attempted to get exactly 100 percent out of each and every cog in the wheel. Don't look for perfection in every piece of advertising, any more than you do in every individual in a given group. We ought to be happy if the general level of the group is pretty high, in a world which is still able only to approximate perfection in any line of effort.

From the publication:
AACS - Proceedings of the 43rd Annual Convention
Los Angeles, CA
September 3, 4, 5 and 6, 1929

Our Singing Tower at Mount Hope Cemetery in Topeka came of age this¬ year. It was 21 years ago when Mount Hope opened its new Fairlawn Addition of garden sections that the Singing Tower was built as one of the new attractions. Evening concerts of recorded music during the summer months proved quite popular but after a dozen years or so, the novelty wore off.

When I joined Mount Hope four years ago the cemetery was using just a Sunday afternoon recorded program. In searching for a new angle we came up with the idea of having programs direct from the cemetery property. This worked fine until one Sunday just before the scheduled time of the concert the heavens open and how it rained! It completely washed out the program and since in this type of thing a double-header is not too advantageous, it meant a complete revision of our summer’s schedule with subsequent inconveniences to the choirs.

However, like other problems, it gave birth to an idea new to us of working out a radio program in which we would screen the choirs to insure top quality, and would contact all necessary persons instead of the radio station. This included approval of the minister for his choir to participate, and then the cooperation of the choir directors, organist and members. We also wrote the radio scripts so that the station announcer merely had to read them.

We went to our first radio station three years ago. In our best selling technique we asked the manager whether he wanted to be the first in the city to have a series such as we proposed or if he wanted one of the other three stations to pave first opportunity. Needless to say, he thanked us for coming to him first.

In the past three years we have made a number of changes as far as the mechanics of the programs are concerned. At first we made arrangements for the choirs to go directly to the radio station on the night of their regular choir practice. The early programs were recorded on the large 15-minute transcriptions. The station would then play the transcriptions the following Sunday usually shortly after noon. After the half-hour radio broadcast we would pick up the transcriptions and play the entire program at the Singing Tower later that afternoon or early evening. In many instances the choir had worked up a 45 minute or hour program, in which case we transcribed the entire program at the station. Then at the conclusion of the radio broadcast the announcer would invite all listeners to drive out to Mount Hope and hear the complete program from the Singing Tower.

Such a change in the method of handling our concerts not only widened the scope of our listening field but also permitted the members of, the choir themselves to hear their program twice.

Last year we changed from the large platter transcriptions to tape recordings. We investigated all of the leading wire and tape recorders on the market before making our selection and finally chose tape principally because of its better reproduction of music. We also permit our salesmen to take the recorder home to improve their sales presentations.

The one big thing that the use of the tape recorder did for us was that it made it possible to go into the churches themselves and record the program there amid surrounding that were familiar to the choir. We found immediately that the choirs were more relaxed and sang better than they did in a strange radio studio. It also assured us a tailor made program. Previously 25 minutes of fine music on transcription could be ruined by a poor solo part in a single number when some young soloist became nervous and didn't sing up to par. With tape, whenever a selection is bad or not done according to the director's standard of quality, the number is merely erased and done over. On the final program the re-sung selection cannot be detected.

At the present time we start our Singing Tower broadcasts at Easter time with an oratorio by the combined choirs of the Council of Churches, usually either the Messiah or the Elijah. We follow with school groups as long as the schools are in session and then for the remainder of the summer use church choirs and other vocal groups of Topeka. We use the directors or the ministers to give the announcements, for we have found the listeners like the added local touch of having a member of the group do the announcing.

When we started using school groups we thought it was necessary to use high school age students to insure better quality. Now we feel differently. We now use both junior high and grade school groups with this principal change¬ we divide the half-hour radio program so that the time is shared with at least one and sometimes two other schools. This permits 10 or 15 minutes by the younger groups, which they can do very well, whereas a full half-hour would be asking too much. At the same time we have found that the children in the grade school age will get their parents out to the cemetery to hear the program more successfully than do the high school students.

Originally we also felt we had to use only the choirs from the larger churches. Now we have discovered that congregations of some of the smaller churches follow their choirs better than do the larger ones. Moreover, for a radio program it is not necessary to have a big group of 50-60 voices. Many of our better con¬certs have been by smaller choirs of 12-15 voices.

Some of our largest Sunday crowds have come out to hear spirituals sung by our Negro choirs. One of them gave us an anxious moment this year when they handed us the list of selections and the first one was "Dig a Little Deeper." I thought, "Brother, this is going to be something for a cemetery!" It turned out the full title was "Dig a Little Deeper in God's Storehouse."

We usually tell the music director to use his own judgment as far as the selections he feels his group will do best. The only selection we have ever turned down was once a high school quartet wanted to sing a special arrangement of "Dry Bones." Personally we enjoyed it very much but thought some of the listeners might not appreciate it!

We have found the programs have been a most satisfactory way to keep Mount Hope in the news both through the papers and the radio. The choirs and other groups are very appreciative of the honor of being invited to participate. I am sure many of you can duplicate and improve such a series in your own properties. Thank you very much for your kind attention at such an early hour.

From the publication:
“1950-1951 Cemetery Yearbook”
NCA 21st Annual Meeting
Hotel Schroeder, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
October 18, 19, 20 and 21, 1950

Mr. President, Members of the ACOA and Guests:

Of the economics of advertising there is already too spacious and too specious a literature. Therefore, I shall not burden you with my remarks about its extraordinary increase within recent years, its blessings, or even enter into the controversy as to whether it tells the truth, or, telling the truth, serves a useful social purpose. My concern is not with its ultimate validity, scarcely at all, indeed, with its content, but with its form.

"What you are," said Emerson, "shouts so loudly I cannot hear what you say" and often today, "What you say", thinks the reader of an advertisement, "is not nearly as important as the way you say it".

Layout is the "way you say it". Layout is the means by which adver¬tising secures its readers, creates first the favorable impression which is advertising's prime aim, and achieves the penetration of the message into the mind of the prospect.

Layout is the art of advertising's appearance. Layout determines how the bare bones of advertising's verbal message may be created into the full-blown personality of the persuasive advocate. Often, indeed, layout is in great measure the message itself. Few are the products or services which have so definite a selling message, so factual a "reason to buy", that put into words arid printed baldly without benefit of layout, it could be depended on to have a potent effect.

In the discussion of the technique of advertising layout, I shall include the following subjects under separate divisions - Attention Value, Bal¬ance, Movement, Emphasis, Unity, Specific Appeal, Simplicity, White Space and Continuity. Lettering and typography could properly be included, but I have decided that they themselves are subjects so broad that it would be better to treat them separately. In addition, special attention will be devoted to some of the problems peculiar to newspapers and direct advertising pieces in view of the particular interest in these media.

In order for an advertisement to accomplish its mission successfully, it must first attract attention. Attention-arresting qualities are secured in various ways, and each advertising message should suggest its own appro¬priate means for the accomplishment of this. Strong contrasts, color, un¬usual treatments of interesting headings and illustrations, generous amounts of white space or a blond handling of the entire layout, are a few of the ways in which attention may be claimed.

Naturally, a newsy, unusual or sensational statement contained in the headline itself will draw attention, if it is forcefully and interestingly presented. The recent use of bleed edges has attracted attention to their messages on account of the freshness of the styles. It should be remem¬bered, however, if all advertisers should adopt this style, its attention get¬ting qualities would be greatly diminished.

I believe the reader of advertising is inclined to respond to a more dignified approach from the advertiser. A product which may have real merit is not given the opportunity to create a good impression when brought to the attention of the reader with too much rough and ready flippancy.

Good judgment must be exercised in the choosing of methods for gaining the reader's attention, and it should always be borne in mind that it would be a mistake to allow any attention-getting device or style to become so important that it becomes the sole interest, or so powerful that the mind of the reader will be distracted from the advertiser's message.

The layout of an advertisement, when well balanced, is pleasing to¬ look upon, and invites interest because all elements have been brought into a nicely related adjustment. If a composition is unbalanced, the lay¬man may not be able to tell you what it is that disturbs his eye, but he is conscious of something wrong and turns away with an unpleasant reaction.

There are two kinds of balance, formal and informal. Formal balance is arrived at by placing each element squarely on an imaginary central vertical line or by duplicating exactly each mass, shape and line that appear on one side of this vertical in a corresponding position on the other. The result is perfect symmetry.

Decorative design, which consists of the regular repetition of a motif, has formal balance as a basis. A number of the, early religious painters, notably Raphael, employed this type of compositional balance in their pictures, thus bestowing on their work a quality of dignity and formality considered to be in harmony with the subject portrayed. The advertiser, wishing to get these same qualities into the advertisement, will choose this form of arrangement as best suited to his purpose, and any advertiser making a statement of a conservative character will find this type of bal¬ance desirable in the presentation of his message.

Usually in picture making and advertising as well, the monotony of the strictly formal is to be avoided. A much wider scope for original and ingenious compositions is offered through the use of informal balance. Variety, informality and the element of surprise, which are characteristics of informal balance, make its use more often advisable. With it the dar¬ing and unusual effects so frequently required by the advertiser can be achieved.

Informal composition consists of balancing the elements over an imaginary central vertical, but in an unsymmetrical manner. For example, a large or heavy mass placed near the center may be balanced by a small one placed on the other side of center, but much farther removed from it.

The movement in a composition has much to do with the success of the advertisement, and it is one of the most important features of adver¬tising design. Its control leads the eye from unit to unit, in the exact sequence desired by the advertiser, moving the reader's eye from the focal center - strongest unit in power of attraction - through the advertise¬ment in a smooth, natural way, thus accomplishing a registration of the complete story.

It is obvious that the layout man must be careful not to place an element so that its movement will lead the eye out of the advertisement or into a neighboring display, yet this mistake is often made. From the time a young child is taught to read, his eye is trained to travel from left to right. This is a practice which should be remembered and considered when designing the layout. It is usually better not to place a disturbing element immediately to the left of an important unit, over which the eye must stumble before it can get at the real interest. It should always be made as easy as possible for the eye to grasp smoothly and quickly, and in proper sequence, the real essentials of the advertisement in the shortest space of time.

Emphasis is necessary in advertising, as in all the arts. Through emphasis, the advertiser stresses some vital element which quickly registers on the eye an important part of the story. Through its use, a monotonous appearance is prevented. The elements that will compose the advertise¬ment must be studied and their relative importance analyzed to decide upon the vital point to be brought first, or most forcefully, to the reader's attention.

After this is done, it may be emphasized either by the use of illustrations, panels, hand-lettering, large type, white space, blacks, prominence of position, color, or by combinations of these mediums. Some character¬istic of the product, or the advertising idea itself, may possibly suggest the method to be employed.

Underscoring of type to stress certain points is not generally practiced in advertising. The skillful advertiser resorts to other methods more at¬tractive and just as effective, such as special lettering, a change of type face and style, color and by other means. The underscoring of an occa¬sional word is in good taste if a real necessity for it exists.

Real emphasis is obtained, whatever the means employed, through sparing use. Only one element or thought should dominate. Should the plan for an advertisement seem to be composed of two dominating inter¬ests, neither of which can be subordinated to the other, it will be more sensible for the advertiser to plan two separate advertisements.

Unity is a quality injected into every good layout. A composition without unity seems to be falling apart, and produces a spotty effect. Unless compactly arranged, a jumpiness results; and the reader soon tires of the effort required in deciding which unit to look at or read next. This inde¬cision is brought about by too much space or air between pictures, head¬ing, type and logotype.

Unity of related elements of a layout must also be watched. It would be unwise to separate too widely with space or other units a heading, sub¬heading and text, all of which are required to be read in unbroken, sequence to complete the advertiser's message, to the extent that the trend of thought contained in the three would be broken.

The specific appeal of the advertiser's message will, to a large extent, affect the physical dress of the layout. When a product is being featured which appeals only to the feminine world, the layout should be designed in a manner that will appeal to the feminine mind and tastes. This will be accomplished through delicacy, refinement, decorative qualities and various other means. When it is the purpose of the advertisement to interest the masculine world, stronger colors, blacks and heavier type are appropriate.

The style of hand-lettering, if used, will be affected by the special appeal of the product, and a line of words in a delicate script would seem to be more appropriate if directed to women than at men.

In many cases, aside from the masculine and feminine appeal, some quality of the product will suggest whether or not the layout should be strong and black, or delicate and white.

As astoundingly large number of compositions in all branches of pub¬licity lack that simplicity of arrangement so vital to the success of adver¬tising. In too many instances an utter disregard of the value of this element is indicated, and in some cases, it actually appears that a delib¬erate attempt has been made to see how complicated and confusing the layout can be made.

A complicated layout will surely hinder, if not destroy, the successful delivery of an advertising message. It is the advertiser’s job to see that this does not happen.

The factor which usually contributes most to the destruction of sim¬plicity is that too many individual units or spots are permitted to appear separately in the layout, each with its individual eye appeal and interest. While each unit may be necessary to the full delivery of a complete story, it is not necessary to allow each to appear singly and as scattered items in the composition.

Blank paper too often is considered as merely space to be filled. Because of the high cost of this space some advertisers feel it necessary to fill it to the very corners with type and pictures, just to get full value for their money. This is a grave mistake. While it is the material upon which the advertising message is printed, it can be used as a very important part of the advertising story itself. There are times when white space can actually say more than printed words and say it more rapidly and forcefully.

For attention value, white space is as powerful as solid black. A small unit surrounded by a large white field will gain more emphasis than a large one in a crowded setting.

The advertiser should realize that white space is one of the most valuable materials with which he has to work, and perhaps no other has so many uses. If skillfully applied it will flood-light the layout and give the advertisement the distinction of aristocracy, spectacular interest, refine¬ment, beauty, legibility, individuality, and it is, moreover, a power for attaining continuity in a campaign.

Continuity of style in advertising stamps the manufacturing concern and its product with a certain definite personality and identity which pre¬vails throughout the entire campaign. There is a greater possibility of recalling clearly to the mind of the reader a series of advertisements collectively if there is family resemblance than if each individual advertise¬ment is unrelated in its physical dress to the others.

The advertiser has a real opportunity to use his creative ability and ingenuity when devising the element of continuity for a campaign. Among the important methods of giving family resemblance are by ingenious arrangement of units; by rendering or treating illustrations n an unusual style; by hand-drawn lettering; by the use of distinctive typography; by panels or odd shapes; unusual perspective; the distinctive use of white space, or of blacks; by borders, by the use of color; and by the use of photography.

LETTERING

The vast use of printing in modern life has not reduced the importance and the widespread use of hand-lettering. In fact, lettering is relatively in greater demand at the present time than it has been during any period since the invention of printing. And it is important, for lettering is today one of the great creative forces in advertising art.

The use of hand-lettering is a valuable means of giving emphasis and artistic distinction to the advertisement. It may be designed to express dignity, refinement, style, grace, delicacy and formality. Movement, power, common sense, jazz, antiquity and many other feelings and effects may be expressed if the advertiser chooses the right styles. But, like every other item that is employed in an advertisement, it should serve a definite purpose, and the decision to hand-letter a heading or slogan should be based on a good reason.

The advertiser should always guard against the use of styles of hand drawn letters that are complicated and difficult to read. When legibility is destroyed they are absolutely worthless regardless of the high degree of craftsmanship they may possess.

Type can do many of the things that lettering does; more things every year, in fact, as new faces appear with a freedom and feeling and color older type designers never dreamed of, and as typographers grow more artistic and more able. This is eminently natural, because, so far as the individual letter is concerned, type is lettering in its most polished, fin¬ished form. But as soon as one letter is put next to another, type's short¬comings and limitations begin to appear. Type is rigid, and bound by its mechanical needs. Of the myriad gradations of spacing between letters necessary to maintain evenness of color as the two juxtaposed letters vary, or as letters are spaced out to fill a line, type can offer only a pitiable few.

In display, in the publicity that beats about the headline, the limitation of type is often glaringly apparent. Here lettering alone can have the final perfection of balance and color, of character and design. Lettering alone can soar or "punch", whisper or shout, point the moral and adorn the tale.

Good type is frequently better than poor lettering; excellent type is often quite adequate where only a certain level of effect is sought. But the very essentials of good lettering are themselves reasons for not using type and no type can approximate the effect of good lettering at its best. Comparing type with lettering for advertising display is something like comparing photographs with drawings or paintings. Photographs are often lively, artistic and perfect in their class. They tell their story and have their excellent uses. But a good painting, or a good drawing, has some subtle artistic element, arouses some response in the human heart that the best of photographs can never hope for. No product of any camera will ever replace Rembrandt or Michelangelo, Rockwell Kent or Norman Rockwell - and type will never replace good lettering.

TYPOGRAPHY

Good advertising typography is intended to convey specific and coher¬ent ideas, and it attracts attention by its treatment. It is expressive of the product, appropriate to it, and' well suited to the development of the mer¬chandising idea; elements are emphasized in the order of their importance; the emphasized units and accents are balanced, and the entire arrange¬ment is orderly. When type meets these requirements, it has succeeded in fulfilling its mission in advertising.

All principles of composition, movement, balance, emphasis, unity and use of white space are applicable, though the layout consists wholly of type. An uninviting and monotonous appearance could easily develop in a solid page of advertising print, but these effects may be overcome by the use of bolder type in the proper places for emphasis; by combinations of words set in Roman and italic; by capital and lower case letters; changes in sizes, initial letters; interesting indentations and arrangements of para¬graphs; type ornaments and rules.

If type is set in measures that are too wide, the eye finds it difficult to read it with smoothness and ease. In reading, the eye consumes a certain amount of time in returning from the end of one line to the beginning of the next, and it is quite likely it will lose its way if the distance is too great. When this occurs confusion results. Through the breaks in the continuity of the thought, the reader is forced to labor and he is .almost certain to lose interest.

At this point I wish to remind you that the average person who looks at the advertisements usually will not read the text. It is, therefore, highly necessary that in the handling of the text type everything possible should be done to promote easy reading.

Nice proportion should be maintained between heading, sub-heading, and text. The balance of sizes as well as of color should be carefully considered. If the variance of type sizes is too great, the result will be detrimental to easy reading. Harmony should also be sought between picture and text, and this would be destroyed if a very small light face type were used with a large, black illustration.

Many type faces are available, each with its own individuality. In general, simple, legible types are best for body matter, and the more decorative faces for headings, sentences or phrases very short in length. It is usually better to use as few different type faces in an advertisement as possible. When several are used they should be harmonious in char¬acter.

The advertiser's main standbys are Caslon Old Style, Garamond Ken¬nerley, Cloister, Goudy Old Style, Cooper Black and Bodoni, although European type faces have had a prominent place in advertising typography during recent years, and the novelty afforded by the newcomers has, in many instances, been refreshing. Some of the most popular importations are Bauer Beton, Trafton Script, Futura and Signal.

The character of the layout will determine the style of initial to be used. If the composition is very plain, a swash or "stick up" initial will add a decorative touch. On the other hand, if the arrangement is ornate, a simple initial can often be used to advantage. The size of the initial should be determined by the size of the text type used. Ordinarily, it should be from two to five lines deep, and should fit closely so that there is no break between the initial and the remaining letters of the word.

Modern typography is sensible, simple, legible, colorful, and virile, with all, meaningless decoration omitted. It quickly and powerfully registers an impression through which the reader’s interest is aroused, and that is its primary function. In order to do this it must be legible; and no matter what other merits it may possess, if it is hard to read, it is worthless. Lucidity, clarity, and fitness are the qualities desired, and its execution calls for taste and skill.

SPECIAL NEWSPAPER PROBLEMS

While all the basic principles discussed previously apply equally to layouts for newspapers, magazines and direct mail pieces, there are, never¬theless, a number of factors distinctly peculiar to newspaper advertising that deserve special consideration. For in newspapers, unless very large space units are used, all advertisements must appear with many others. Therefore, the advertisement will more likely have severe competition in securing the reader's attention and interest. It is absolutely necessary, for this reason that the advertiser considers these competing interests and provides means for overcoming them. The other displays may be larger or smaller in size, stronger or weaker in contrast value, and each wages its separate battle for the reader's attention with varying degrees of success.

The advertiser has no means of knowing beforehand whether his care¬fully planned display, directed perhaps to the finer tastes of the dis¬criminating reader, may be surrounded by incongruous advertisements featuring insect exterminators, a deodorant, washing machines or corn plaster. He must attempt to anticipate such possibilities and endeavor to counteract the effect of neighboring advertisements in the physical aspect of his own composition. Only in this way can we reduce outside influences to a minimum. There are several methods which may be employed; the use of wide margins of white space; the use of borders or rules; the use of appropriate designs or ornaments advantageously placed; and if he thinks the other displays will probably be heavy with the use of blacks, he may provide contrast by giving his advertisement the opposite appear¬ance. The value of the latter method will, of course, depend to a large extent on the correctness of his guess.

The mechanical limitations of newspaper printing also bring added problems. Such a handicap, however, does not prevent excellent results when the layout, art work, typography, engravings and electrotypes are expertly prepared, and, if the final result is unsatisfactory, the fault does not usually lie entirely with the publisher.

When a number of advertisements appear together, the layout man must take particular care that each unit within the arrangement is so manipulated as to lead the eye into and hold the attention within the dis¬play as long as possible. If this is not done, the eye may actually be diverted into an adjacent advertisement, defeating the effort to give the reader a full registration of the story.

Illustrations to be used in newspapers are usually rendered in pen and ink or dry brush, since .the best printing results on newspaper are gen¬erally obtained with line plates, on account of the quality of the paper and inks used. Half-tone plates are used successfully if they are large, and the composition simple, and when coarse screens are used.

It is good practice to be reasonably generous with the size of type in newspaper advertising, in order to facilitate the speed of reading. Wide leading of type lines is favored also for this reason.

DIRECT ADVERTISING

Designing the physical appearance for the various forms of direct advertising literature furnishes the layout man with practically unlimited opportunities for creating attractive designs. In preparing layouts for magazines and newspapers, the designer has the paper stock, methods of reproduction, printing processes, page size and shape of space all pre¬determined; while in planning direct advertising a much wider latitude for creative effects is offered in these respects. In direct advertising the layout man can himself decide or recommend the quality and color of the paper to be used, the size, shape and fold of the mailing piece, the method of reproduction and the number of shades of colors to be employed.

Illustrative letters, letterheads, announcements, catalogs, booklets, broadsides, house organs, envelope and package enclosures are the prin¬cipal forms of direct advertising literature, and all rules of good layout are to be applied to each. Each must assist in the sale of goods or serv¬ices by attracting interest and getting the message read, and by impressing what it says on the memory of the recipient. This will be accomplished best if the message is presented in a simple and graphic manner. The ap¬pearance and general character of the mailing piece will produce impres¬sions that will assist or hinder the business relations which it's expected to develop. The advertiser should keep in mind that the reader judges him by his advertising as well as by his product, and the good taste and fine appearance of the mailing piece will instantly suggest the real merit of a product.

Generally, in direct advertising, the copy need not be as concise as in the newspaper, since more space is usually available. Also, it can be as long as is thought necessary to build up a complete statement for the reason that there is more text to be read, however, it is essential that a careful selection of type be made, and that it be arranged and treated in a manner to make it interesting, legible, and inviting - despite its length.

Attention value is one of the primary requirements in all forms of direct advertising. Paper stock, layout, typography, hand-lettering, shape, fold, size and color prove effective allies in giving a mailing piece striking character. Originality, based on good taste and common sense in the use of these will enable the layout man to bring forth a mailing piece that is different from the ordinary run of printed messages and the more individuality it possesses, the better opportunity it has of gaining attention and delivering its message.

In conclusion, let me say that in my remarks today, admittedly more than was originally intended even though the surface of the subject mat¬ter has been but sketchily, examined, I trust I have at least shown that there are innumerable ways for the enterprising advertiser of hitting the nail on the head, which is always preferable to hitting the nail on the thumb.

From the publication:
“1940-1941 Cemetery Handbook & Buyers’ Guide”
ACOA 11th Annual Convention & Exposition
Hotel Statler, Buffalo, New York
September 8-11, 1940

PUBLICITY for the Halberstadt Sales Campaigns includes the use of NEWSPAPERS ... RADIO ... MOTION PICTURE SHOWINGS IN CHURCHES AND LODGES and the DISTRIBUTION OF THE PRINTED MATTER OF THE CEMETERY BY THE SALES REPRE¬SENTATIVES.

1. NEWSPAPERS. Only a sparing use of the newspapers is made chiefly because of the expense. When we do run an ad it is usually a rather large one and is the broadside announcement of the launching of the campaign or the completing of some feature of the construction program. It is always accompanied by liberal use of pictures. Attached hereto is a sample of this type of announcement. Tear sheets are bought from the papers and become a part of the salesmen's literature. We do not make regular weekly use of the papers.

2. RADIO. It is our opinion that the radio, judiciously used, offers a better medium of advertising our product. Beginning in 1928 we have been on the air continuously. Our program on KDKA in 1928 was I think the first use of the radio by cemeteries. For several years we experi¬mented with various types of radio material till in 1931 we adopted the OLD SONGS OF THE CHURCH program, on WFI in Philadelphia, and since that time have used nothing else.

The hymns of the church are associated in the mind of the public with the same basic things as the cemetery, hope of a life to come, resurrection, reunion with loved ones and everything connected with the doctrine of immortality. THE OLD SONGS OF THE CHURCH pro¬gram therefore offers a very proper and fitting "vehicle" for the message of the cemetery.

Not only so but it is probable that more people like this type of music than any other kind. The most often-requested song, sacred or secular, on the air today is Dr. George Bennards "The Old Rugged Cross". After all the effectiveness of an advertising medium is measured by "coverage". In Radio this means the listening audience. From the advertiser stand¬point the purpose of the entertainment part of his program is to capture an audience and engage their attention so that, at not too frequent inter¬vals, the announcer may slip over to them some thought about his product. Amos and Andy gather such an audience nightly for the sole purpose of giving Bill Hay a chance to plug now and then for Campbell's Soup.

The character or make-up of the audience is of course important. It would be foolish to use a children's program as the vehicle for advertise¬ment of ladies’ wearing apparel. The audience of the Hymn program is made up of Protestants. They are the only ones that use the hymns we feature. Seldom do we get a reply from a Catholic and never from a Jew. The significance of this is that a Non-Sectarian cemetery is always at least ninety-five percent a Protestant Cemetery. Thus our radio program enlists an audience of persons most likely to be prospects for our product.
Of recent years we have broadcast almost wholly by transcription. Two considerations enter into this. One is that really good talent is so difficult to secure, especially in the smaller places, and the other and chief reason is that we wish to use Mr. Rodeheaver's voice, not because it is the finest in the world but it certainly is the best-known in the entire Protestant world and the best-loved. No one even remotely approaches him in his fame as a leader of gospel song. It is his book that we give away and the link¬ing of his world-wide renown with our own radio program is all to our good.

With Mr. Rodeheaver's recorded voice we feature a mixed quartet singing the same type of music. Both the Rodeheaver and the quartet recordings were especially made for this purpose and the master records all belong to the Halberstadt Organization.

At the close of each broadcast, a fifteen minute program on Sunday, we offer a free copy of the Hymnal to all who will send for it. The salesman delivers the book of course and it is his introduction to the person, usually a lady, who asks for it. We have given away more than four hundred thousand of these books ... and sold several millions of dollars worth of cemetery lots to the persons receiving them.

3. MOVIES. The use of motion pictures is dictated by the same awareness of modern methods of reaching the public as the use of radio. Over a period of time we have gotten together a four hundred foot reel of beautiful colored film showing typical modern cemetery development from coast to coast. Even the titles are in color and the showing of the reel, which lasts about fifteen minutes, is not only not boring to the audience but actually affords much pleasure. In every audience there is someone who immediately solicits their showing in some other organization to which she belongs. All of our appointments are obtained that way and we keep busy from fall till spring each year.

We mince no words at these meetings as to why we are there and they are frankly told that a salesman will call on them some day. We leave each meeting with the names and addresses of all present and always with their cordial good-will. We consider these the most productive leads we have and the salesmen prefer to work them to all others.

4. DISTRIBUTION OF LITERATURE BY SALESMEN. This title is not quite accurate nor is it sufficiently descriptive. As a matter of fact we put less and less emphasis on printed literature as the years pass. We certainly have long ago given up the notion that large and expensive brochures are needed or even desirable. Our printed matter is simple and rather inexpensive, just something that briefs the story told by the sales¬man and then left by him as a help to the prospect to remember the high¬lights of what he said to them. It is our conviction that nothing can take the place of the word-of-mouth testimony of the man himself, and it is our experience that loading him up with printed matter encourages him to mental laziness and to simply make crutches of this material on which he hobbles about ineffectively.

Our main objective therefore is to train him properly and then develop means of putting him in contact with people who are his most logical prospects. The hymn book requests from the radio serve this purpose only. The fact that the lady wrote in for a book indicates nothing one way or the other as to whether she is a prospect. What does it do? It gives my salesman an opportunity, under pleasant circumstances (he has brought her a present), to find out whether she is or not. It engages him in a conversation with her that, if judiciously directed by him, will lead rip to his finding out whether this family has a cemetery lot, if not why not, and why not in our beautiful place.

SUPPLEMENTING THE RADIO and in order to have a sufficient volume of these contacts for the men from week to week we use a News¬paper Advertisement of the Hymn Book at intervals of several weeks. We have newspaper mats for this ad and it contains Mr. Rodeheaver's picture together with a picture of the book itself. It DOES NOT mention us, the cemetery company I mean, but directs mail inquiries including the coupon attached to the advertisement to be sent "Old Songs" at our down-town office address. These returns come in by hundreds, some¬times more than a thousand from one insertion. In the south we indicate that requests from white people only will be met and in all cases we restrict the free book to "persons living in the city and immediate sub¬urbs." This restriction does not keep some inquiries coming from a distance but it frees us from having to respond to them. A copy of the mat used in papers is attached hereto.

ALSO SUPPLEMENTING THE RADIO AND THIS NEWSPAPER EFFORT we have printed by the thousands a duplex card, post card size, on one section of which is Rodeheaver's picture and a description of the song book which anyone may have FREE by return of the attached section of the post card. This is a postage paid card and is addressed back to Old Songs at our office address. It also is free from any mention of the cemetery company.

These cards are put under people's doors by salesmen. They keep a supply of them in their cars at all times and whenever they finish a call they do not leave the neighborhood without sowing a few of these cards roundabout. In a few minutes they can put out a hundred. Some of them have their ten-year-old sons to distribute them thus. The result of this is that every day the salesman gets some of his cards back thru the mail and every morning therefore he leaves the office with several places he can go and get an interview.

This latter is the most reliable and most prolific source of leads we have. When all others fail this one works. And the fine thing about it is that it never runs out. We have gone right back over the same territory, around the same blocks, for years on end and we get about as many replies from the tenth or twentieth distribution as from the first.

Salesmen have a very great reluctance to "cold-turkeying" a cemetery sales campaign. And you can't blame them much. We have found that if you can give them something in the way of a "lead", even if it is nothing more than introduction, they will make the calls. These post card requests do just that, they introduce the salesman to a person to whom he brings a gift, a religious gift, something that the lady wanted badly enough to write in for. She of course thought that it would come by mail, if she gave it any thought at all, but we did not say that it would. Anyhow here it is a present and she is never discourteous. Old Dr. Charles Sheldon used to remind us that the first and absolutely essential thing to be accomplished in making a sale was to "secure favorable attention". The song book does just that, only that, but does it perfectly.

We are asked why we do not attach our name to the newspaper ad or put it on the song book card mentioned above. For the simple reason that we get vastly more replies without it. As advertising the inclusion of our name would have little if any value. The purpose of the ad or the card is to get replies that will bring us into contact with these persons. In the resultant interview the salesman can do the "advertising" necessary and can leave them all the advertising matter he wants to when he leaves.

About the only publicity we do is a little in the newspapers, continuous use of the radio and with a transcribed program it is not expensive and the distribution of these cards, which is our unfailing, source of leads. Whenever a salesman gets shy of leads, he can always get a few more by spending an hour or two around the block or sending someone else to do it, and they begin to come in within 24 hours, and he has some place to go.

You sales managers know after a sales meeting each morning when the salesmen get down to the foot of the stairs or the elevator, about 80 percent of them don't know whether they are going up the street or down. They have no program for the day. This gives them one. The cards are always in their pockets. If they work this a little they have a few places where they know they can go, be cordially received. As I said in the paper the fact the lady wrote for a hymn book doesn't indicate anything one way or the other. Whether she is a prospect he can soon find out and he comes in contact with her under the most pleasant circumstances. She may come to the door with blood in her eye. He may be the sixth door banger and she is getting her dander up a little, but when she opens the door and he has her name on the post card and he introduces himself and says, "Mrs. Brown, I have brought you the hymn book you wrote for," he takes all the fight out of her. Nobody is impolite to anyone giving them a Bible or hymn book. She is engaged in conversation. That has overcome the greatest obstacle, the greatest mental handicap, the fear of the beginning of the interview.

It is easy to switch over to the cemetery theme after that. He asks her if she has ever seen a cemetery that is without tombstones, or if she has been to the cemetery since we built the fountain, - any kind of a question. He has gotten her mind off of the hymn book. If he is half a salesman that conversation will lead up to his finding what he wants to know¬ whether they have a cemetery lot or not. That is the purpose of it and that is the story.

MR. E. C. HINDS (Memphis): What is the cost percentage in what size city, Doctor? Have you the cost of securing these prospects with that feature?

DR. HALBERSTADT: No, we never had. You put these out and maybe 5 or 10 percent come back the first time. You can go again in three weeks and you get about that many again, and they are inexpensive.

MR. HINDS: Compared with radio contests, you think that is the most economical?

DR. HALBERSTADT: This is the most economical. If you forget the general idea of the radio as a means of getting leads, contacts, places to go, this is the cheapest of all.

MR. L. S. WRIGHT (Buffalo): What percent of the returns are sales?

DR. HALBERSTADT: We have never been able to tabulate that from any source of our leads. The final information attached to the sale is more or less clouded and frequently by the salesman himself who doesn't want to reveal it.

MR. A. L. GROVES (Davenport, Iowa): I have used this program and have kept a very accurate record in regard to the contacts from the radio program and we used your cards. In regards to the cards, in a town of 60,000 we put out 15,000 cards in a year's time. We had pretty nearly 40 percent return on the cards. In regard to the radio program, during the 13 weeks we were on the air with this particular program we found our cost, including our newspapers and all printing matter, was about 6 percent of our sales, but we found that this carried over for pretty nearly a year to 14 months when it finally ended up, our sales cost to use this program was less than 1 percent.

DR. HALBERSTADT: This that Mr. Groves has stated is what makes it difficult to compile the cost. You are getting sales two years later, or from the radio or any of these, that are deferred sales and it is impossible at any time to say how much you have gotten back from any particular use of it.

MR. WM. GALL (Cleveland): Regarding the radio program, we have had some experience with it. I was interested in behalf of that program in knowing what size city is favorable to use a radio program in?

DR. HALBERSTADT: We have used it from cities of 20,000, like Bristol, or 18,000, I guess is the size of Charlottesville, up to the large cities as great as Washington or Philadelphia, or Denver.

MR. GALL: Have the results been correspondingly favorable in the large cities as in the small?

DR. HALBERSTADT: Yes.

MR. GALL: We spent several thousand dollars this year in a radio program and, unfortunately, it proved a total failure to us.

MR. GEORGE YOUNG (Dallas): You use those cards only in connec¬tion with your radio program?

DR. HALBERSTADT: No, we use them in connection when we have a radio program. We use the cards and it is an advertisement of the radio program with the announcement they can get the book also, either by writing in or sending this card in, but in recent years we have used it independent of the radio program. It is just really an advertisement of that hymn book, that the lady can get Mr. Rodeheaver's book if she sends the card in. That has widened its use tremendously.

MR. COWAN (Chicago): How do you key the card to the particular salesman?

DR. HALBERSTADT: Every salesman has a number, as they do in Sing Sing and places like that, and before he puts his cards out on the return portion of the card --- you have to warn him about that, some salesmen are so dumb they would put it on the part she keeps - on the return part of the card he puts his number up in the corner and the girl in the office hands him a bunch of cards. She separates them. It is a postage paid card. We pay only for those that come in. It is two cents.

From the publication:
“1940-1941 Cemetery Handbook & Buyers’ Guide”
ACOA 11th Annual Convention & Exposition
Hotel Statler, Buffalo, New York
September 8-11, 1940

Probably each of the four men who are to discuss this subject have many ideas in common concerning the value of publicity. However, we all know that there are many ways of getting publicity and we may not agree as to the best type of publicity or how to secure it. Nevertheless, the fundamental fact remains that publicity of the right kind pays dividends. It is the proud boast of the Company which I represent that if you were to stop 100 people on the main streets of Seattle and ask them the name of the principal cemetery in our town, 80 of them would say “Washelli” and the other 20 would be divided between the other proper¬ties of Seattle and those who did not know. This gratifying result has not been obtained by hit or miss methods, nor has it been a mushroom growth of just a few years. Systematic publicity is the answer. Washelli is over 50 years old, it having been established the same year that Wash¬ington became a state. Every time there is a celebration by the State of some anniversary connected with the date of statehood we tie Washelli right into the proposition. For instance, last year was the 50th anniver¬sary and the Washington State Progress Commission had 50th anniversary programs all over the State. So we had one also and all through the year we kept informing the people that 30 years of Washington and Washelli were being celebrated simultaneously. We had a well-known poet write a poem on 50 golden years of marriage and we have presented hundreds of copies to couples who were celebrating their 50th anniversary anywhere in the West.

We have three properties in the same vicinity, each one operating under its own name although the properties are owned by one company and operated as a unit. This makes it more difficult to secure publicity which pays. It is necessary to impress on the public mind the name and location of your property. We had three at the same location so we picked the name which was most distinctive and have majored it in our advertis¬ing of all kinds. The word "Washelli" is distinctive. Therefore, on our radio programs we feature the Washelli Quartet. Washelli lawn seed is sold by one of the principal seed merchants of Seattle. Easter Sunrise services are sponsored "at Washelli" by the Seattle Council of Churches. In Washelli is held the principal service of Veterans on Memorial Day.

All of these things produce much publicity for Washelli to the neglect of Evergreen and the Pacific Lutheran Cemeteries. But we do not mind this in the slightest. If we can get people out to see Washelli we can take them to Evergreen and the Lutheran Cemeteries. However, we do not ignore the other two properties but endeavor to keep them before the public. In the Lutheran Cemetery we have a special Memorial Day service for all Lutherans who are buried there. No.1-We have a moving picture film showing practically all the Lutheran churches in Seattle and in the film many pictures of the Lutheran Cemetery. This film is in demand with the Lutheran people and it has been presented in the main church auditoriums taking the place of the regular Sunday eve¬ning service. Also it has been shown at many ladies' aid societies, etc. We have another version of the film which shows the Veteran’s section of Washelli and activities in it on Memorial Day. This film is shown to veteran organizations. We are also preparing a film of Evergreen which will be used in connection with other Protestant churches.

Previously I mentioned briefly the Easter Sunrise service held in Washelli. If the theme of immortality means anything at all, the proper place to hold the Easter Sunrise service is in the cemetery. This year we had our 11th Easter Sunrise service, bringing thousands of worshippers to the Cemetery at dawn. While a large percentage of those in attendance have friends or relatives in one of our cemeteries a considerable number are attracted there for the first time each year. A deep sense of religion characterizes all of these meetings. We have never permitted in that service anything which distracts from the religious significance of it. If you do not have an Easter Sunrise service in your town, start one next year. You will be surprised at the way the newspapers give it front page publicity which you could not possibly buy with your dollars. On the morning following Easter, our daily papers usually carry on the front pages pictures of the two Easter Sunrise services held in our city which are sponsored by the Council of Churches. They also carry a description of the services and a synopsis of the sermons. As a result of this Easter Sunrise service and of the Memorial Day service we have, the name of "Washelli" has appeared on the front page of our daily newspapers hundreds of times. You must agree with me that publicity of this kind pays.

There is another form of publicity which is of equal importance to that of newspaper or radio. I refer to the publicizing of the people who are prominent in your organization. No.2-In my judgment social publicity is not of any value. But there are other forms of publicity for the heads of your business which are productive of good results from a best stand¬point. I refer to an active participation in the civic affairs of your com¬munity. I am not so much interested in partisan politics as I am in activities such as Boy Scouts, Campfire Girls, P.T.A., your symphony orchestra and your art museum and the many other organizations which have as their object either character building or the betterment of your community. Most high grade funeral directors take an active interest in all these community matters and look upon it as one of their best means of publicity for business connections.

Our radio program, now in, its 7th year has developed to the point where those taking part in it are in demand for entertainment at churches, lodges and many other places where they bring the message of Washelli and Evergreen along with their entertainment. This kind of publicity cannot be spasmodic but must be continuous and of a character which will reflect favorably on your institution. This program is an example of a specific job accomplished by constant repetition, to wit, overcoming feeling that our prices were higher because of superior beauty.

No. 3-The best kind of publicity is "one friend tells another" so publicity can be materially aided by making friends through better service to all. No. 4-Recognize the principle of repetition in publicity. "It's the constant drip of water that wears away the hardest stone. It's the constant gnaw of Towser that wears away the toughest bone."

This is how repetition helps in publicity. In obit stories in daily, weekly and all other publications, not the paid obituary but the news stories in the editorial column. Supply the information about each deceased, accurate and well written, always including place of burial. Papers are glad to have it and in appreciation for sending it, invariably include place of interment.

Send to all papers wherever any kind of tie-in is possible. For in¬stance, if a man lives in one district but works in another, send to district paper where he works, as well as where he lives. Send also to district papers where relatives live; to the papers of the lodges with which he is affiliated; to papers in district where he formerly lived. Be sure that the particular tie-in is apparent near the very beginning of the news story, or else it might hit editorial waste basket. Sometimes a little note to the editor explaining it will help.

No. 5-All these tie-ins can be uncovered through the use of "His¬torical Record" which also are a valuable aid for prospects for "before need" sales (other branches of family, pall bearers, etc.). One of the problems in publicity for profit is keeping bad publicity out. This can be done by maintaining friendly relations with editors. They'll give you a fair break.

Finally, your publicity should be directed towards the class of people who are more or less the backbone of our nation, the solid, substantial middleclass. I am not interested in advertising Evergreen and Washelli to the very rich or the extremely poor. No. 6-I want the best of that great mass of so-called middle-class of people. They are the ones who create the memorial of love and affection, they are the supporters of the churches and they are the ones who help us create beautiful cemeteries because of their abiding faith in immortality.

No. 1: Incidentally, at that service we read the names of all Lutherans ho have been buried in that cemetery during the past year. That list runs anywhere from 125 to 175 Lutherans in the year and it doesn't take too long and it pays to read the list, at your Memorial Day service:

No. 2: Now neither of the other speakers have mentioned this phase of it, yet I think it is a very important thing.

No. 3: Speaking of that particular job, because we feel our radio program has done that unusually well, many people thought because we had developed our properties far beyond that of any other cemeteries in our locality that our prices must necessarily be much higher. We overcame that by constant repetition on the radio by saying prices were as reasonable as in any other cemetery.

No. 4: If we can get the people whom we serve to go to their friends and say, "My, but we had a nice service at Evergreen or Washelli. Wasn’t everything beautiful and handled in the best manner, possible!” That is the best kind of publicity you can get.

No. 5: For instance, if a man in one district works m another district, I would send it both to the local papers in the two districts. I would send it to the district papers where relatives live, to the papers of the lodges with which he might be affiliated, to papers where he formerly lived. In other words, get the publicity concerning the death and burial of that man in just as many mediums as possible.

No. 6: Now just briefly about one problem of publicity. That is the problem of keeping bad publicity out. There is only one way to do that. That is to keep on friendly terms with your newspaper editors and pub¬lishers. Meet them and know them, get acquainted with them. Then if some bad publicity comes up, they are going to consult with you before it is printed and if untrue or unfair it will not be run.

For a dozen years I have entertained newspaper reporters and editors with a week-end party up at the place I own on Whitby Island, in the State of Washington. We go up there and have a grand and glorious time. They will give you a fair break, if you keep on friendly relations with your newspaper men.

Now finally your publicity must be directed toward the class of people who are the backbone of our nation that great middle class of people, just like you and me, who are predominant in numbers in using our cemetery properties and who are the real people to whom we must look for our business. I don't care much about selling the wealthiest of our people. I don't care much about selling the poorest of our people. In neither case are the relations apt to be the most satisfactory. But I want to sell that great mass of the so-called middle class of people.

CHAIRMAN HATTEN: I might ask Mr. Harley if the funeral directors most of whom furnish this publicity service along an obituary nature if they resent your stepping into that field.

MR. HARLEY: Apparently not. In fact, I talk to them very frankly and tell them I think when they are sending a story to the newspapers they should include the place of Interment, saying that is just of as much interest to the public, who read the stories, as the place where the funeral, is going to be held, and it is. We have had many, many telephone calls from people concerning the burial of some particularly well-known man or woman, where the interment place was not mentioned in the news article and they have called us up to find out where the burial was going to take place.

CHAIRMAN HATTEN: Do you have many services in your chapel?

MR. HARLEY: None at all.

MR. SANGER: I would like to ask Clint, how far you have been able to kill that idea of "too expensive" – “with all this beauty the price is over our head". How do you kill that in addition to using the radio?

MR. HARLEY: In our advertising - radio, newspapers, booklets, word of mouth - we emphasize the fact that prices in modern cemeteries are no higher than the ill-kept property which does not have modern conveniences, modern aspects. It is a question of constant repetition all the time.

MR. J. T. SHEA (Houston, Texas): Mr. Chairman, does the under¬taker prefer to have the funeral conducted in his parlor and don't they resent families going to the chapels? Don't they miss bringing the families into their place of business?

MR. HARLEY: We do not have any services in our chapel. The serv¬ices are all held either in a funeral home or at the grave.

CHAIRMAN HATTEN: We will take that question up in the general discussion, John. Anything else?

MR: L. O. MINEAR (Washington): I would like to ask Mr. Harley if in his advertising, where he is trying to build up the thought that his property isn’t too high, he uses the price of the property. Do you quote prices?

MR. HARLEY: No, we do not.

CHAIRMAN HATTEN: Anyone else?

MR. WORK (Clinton, Iowa): I use the name of my employees in the "display advertising frequently. They have many friends and it is very helpful to use their names. We say, "Ask for Mr. So-and-so when you come to the park."

MR. HARLEY: I think it would be helpful.

CHAIRMAN HATTEN: Anyone else?

MR. GEORGE YOUNG (Dallas): You have a Veterans' Plot don't you?

MR. HARLEY: Yes, sir.

MR. YOUNG: How large is that plot and what do you call it?

MR. HARLEY: We call it "Veterans Memorial Cemetery" and it is large enough to take about 4,000 burials.

MR. YOUNG: In it do you permit the other members of their families or just the veterans?

MR. HARLEY: Just the veterans alone.

MR. YOUNG: Do you have an adjoining section?

MR. HARLEY: We have an adjoining section in which we put the veterans’ families on a considerably larger plan.

CHAIRMAN HATTEN: How do you like the plan?

MR. HARLEY: It works.

MR. CHESTER SPARKS (Philadelphia): Did you have to give the veterans a lot free?

MR. HARLEY: We didn't give them any free sites except a place big enough for them to put a chapel, a circle 24 feet across.

MR. SPARKS: We will call you a miracle man.

MR. HARLEY: We didn't give to a man and they pay for every burial and I have 700 burials in this plat started three years ago.

MR. YELLAND (Norwalk, Conn.): Is the plot more expensive than in the outlying section? May I say one more thing in explaining the question, which might seem to be impertinent? In our case the outlying sections are mostly country cemeteries that are beautiful but are also very much cheaper. We would have a difficult time in saying as you say.

MR. HARLEY: I am referring to comparable property inside the city. I am not referring to the country cemeteries. In fact, we have very few of them. We are just youngsters. We are not 400 or 500 years old, like you fellows. I don't know where you live. The first baby that ever lived in Seattle just died a mature man the other day, this year, so you can see how young a town we are.

MR. J. T. FREES (Atlantic City): Clint, concerning your Memorial Circle - we have an All-Wars Circle in our park and when we first started out in 1928, I wrote a letter to all the American Legion camps in our section and told them that we were rendering a service to any soldier that had served his country in time of war if he died without a place, had no relatives, no friends, no money, we would bury him in this circle with¬out any cost whatever. We have about 15 burials we have made or prob¬ably 18 in that circle that have cost us $30.00 every time we made a burial because we brick-line the grave and stone-cover it. We have found that has made the people in Atlantic City think we are rendering a service that nobody ever thought of, and it has brought us back a hundredfold.

MR. HARLEY: That is good publicity. When I said we never gave the Veterans anything - I am a veteran myself, and I think one of the damnable things of the American nation at the present time is the fact that the Veterans are always demanding something extra for themselves over and above the rest of the people. I am a veteran and I can get up and say that. I think it, is rotten. I think a veteran should not be entitled to more than any other man or woman who has raised a family in this country. We charge the veterans just the same. I say to them, just as I say to every minister and every organization, "if you have somebody in your circle of friends that has died and has no place to go, you can come to Evergreen or Washelli and we won't charge you a cent." I don't care whether he is a veteran or not. We do that right along.

From the publication:
“1940-1941 Cemetery Handbook & Buyers’ Guide”
ACOA 11th Annual Convention & Exposition
Hotel Statler, Buffalo, New York
September 8-11, 1940

The definition of publicity that I like best is given in The Second Edition of Webster's New International Dictionary. It is as follows: "Any action or any matter spoken, written or printed which secures public attention; also the attention so gained". Therefore it is very evident to me that publicity in connection with any project is most important and especially if one is to secure profits through this publicity. Profits as well as losses can come from this source. Due to the very nature of our business which in my opinion borders on the sacred, it is very important to guard against the wrong kind of publicity. There is another reason too that the cemetery industry should be especially careful of its publicity and that is because of the unfavorable publicity that has been widespread through the nation from various sources known to most of us.

Let us analyze and see what the best type of publicity for our industry is. In my opinion it should be that publicity that creates good will for your enterprise. This, of course, can be printed publicity, and in my opinion this is the best type because it reaches more people, or it can be through the acts and actions of your organization. To me it seems that this type is effective because generally personal contact in some manner is necessary and results definitely in sales which mean profits to the organiza¬tion if it is properly handled. Then, of course, there is the radio which is very popular and effective just now, and also there are the various types of memorial services to be held on the property that have an appeal to others.

Let's see which is the best way to secure the various types of publicity; first, the printed type can be had effectively through newspaper adver¬tising, direct mail advertising, and news items. I prefer the latter because it is read by more people and does not smack of advertising. Then, of course, it can be secured through the use of booklets, circulars and all types of literature. The second type can be had through personal contact of your organization in executing the various services in connection with their work. This is especially effective when done at the property at the time of interments.

Third - Radio - I like radio publicity very much although great care should be given this type of advertising by the person in charge because today radio programs to be effective must be well done and executed only by people who are expert in their line whether it be musical or vocal. To me nothing creates a poorer impression than a radio program badly done by amateurs to the extent that it is at least uninteresting. It is my belief that a radio program should not be too long. A minute or so to talk about the thing you wish to publicize, a few minutes of diversion that will hold the interest of your public and then another spot, very short, giving more details of your commodity or service.

Fourth - There is however another type of publicity that in my opinion is very good. That is memorial services of various types that can be participated in by the public such as religious sunrise services on Easter Sunday morning; memorial services by the various military organizations on Decoration Day; various types of memorial services other than these two and especially those held during the holidays, such as Thanks¬giving and Christmas services. The various features in the cemetery such as the chapel and musical devices are very important in connection with the holding of these services. These features can be called to the attention of the public by their use on these particular occasions rather than publicly pointing them out to the individuals. Along this line can also be services conducted by garden clubs, the art departments of the large stores, and also the public schools.

It is my opinion that all publicity should be handled by a person well qualified for the work as it is especially important that only the right type of publicity come to the public attention. This person of course should know every phase of the business so that only publicity of the proper character should go forward. This covers many angles. First it should be of a character representative of the commodity to be publicized. In our business especially it should be dignified, sympathetic and sincere with an appeal to the public that would create a desire for your services. It should be honest and contain no misleading or half-truth statements designed to create the wrong impression. Great care should be given in order to guard against illegal or fraudulent statements which might result in bad publicity and great loss to your particular property and the entire industry has in my opinion unfavorable publicity in connection with any project which is a reflection against the entire business.

It is my opinion that the cemetery business has resulted almost entirely in the sale of service while the property itself is only incidental to the complete service. In all publicity it is my suggestion that service be stressed more than anything else. The attention of the public should be called to the fact that the cemetery organization is only a service organi¬zation caring for that obligation of your clients that it is impossible for them to perform for themselves. If this service is rendered sincerely, honestly, efficiently, and proper provision made for all of the years to come, and properly publicized so that there is no question in the minds of your clients that this service will continue through all time, certainly nothing but profit can result from publicity. Of course to secure the best results from any of this publicity it is necessary to have a follow-up system that will result in personal contact between your organization and the public so that sales of your services may be consummated.

MR. McBRIDE: I have attempted to cover just in a general way different pieces of publicity that have been profitable to us and other organizations I know. I didn't go into detail at all in this short paper.

CHAIRMAN HATTEN: Mr. McBride, would you say a word about publicity at the property at the time of interment?

MR. McBRIDE: I mean by that, Mr. Hatten, the actions of your organi¬zation in handling not only the interment itself but the people that attend the services. It is not what you would call advertising, but in my opinion the result of those actions at that particular time is publicity in a subtle manner, however, but it is very effective. It creates and breeds good-will for your cemetery and certainly, if properly done, leaves a favorable impression that later on results in business. That is what I meant by that. That can extend from the lowest employee in your organization to the top of your organization. One bad move can result in bad friends to your organization. Our particular type of cemetery is non-monument. It is now, and we are the only non-monument organization in our territory, and we feel that we cannot afford to have any unfavorable actions by any of our organization or employees so that unfavorable publicity or bad feeling might be created.

MR. L. S. WRIGHT (Buffalo): You mentioned those who attend the service. Do you refer to those who are the family?

MR. McBRIDE: I mean those who attend the service on behalf of the ¬bereaved; in other words, the people that attend the funerals. We try to give those people as much attention as anybody else. After all, they come to the cemetery to attend the interment of some friend but nevertheless if we can create the impression for Forest Lawn that they might like to come there eventually, we feel that is good publicity.

MR. CHESTER SPARKS (Philadelphia): What do you mean by giving them attention early?

MR. McBRIDE: Courteous attention. In our chapel about 60 percent of our services, Chester, are conducted. We try to provide people in our organization who can usher them to their seats and be very courteous to them and we provide a lot of little things in the family room for the family and their friends, so that they will remember us. I don't mean we pass out literature or anything of that sort, just personal courtesies.

MR. SPARKS: I think by just the personal attention to the family and their relatives and the people who attend the services that later on contacts can be made in those things you have in mind giving to them. In other words; as Dr. Halberstadt's postal card, it provides a door opener.

MR. REX KEIFFER (Zanesville, Ohio): Mr. McBride, on that 60 percent of your chapel services do you hold your committals there to?

MR. McBRIDE: Very often, Rex. Our plan is that the services are held in the chapel, and most all of the people including the family attend and the undertaker leaves unless the family wants to leave someone and from there on our organization takes the casket to the grave and makes the interment. Occasionally - I would say half the time - the family will leave someone of their group there to see that the inter¬ment is finally made, but half the time that doesn't even happen.

MR. WM. A. HOEFGEN (Indianapolis): Who do you charge for that chapel service?

MR. McBRIDE: Nobody. Our service charge is $25.00 and it includes either the tent service at the grave or the chapel.

MR. HOEFGEN: Do you always furnish the tent?

MR. McBRIDE: We furnish the tent at the grave, but we do not furnish the tent where the chapel service is held.

MR. E. C. HINDS (Memphis): Mr. McBride, would you say it would do any good or build good-will to have a card on the chapel tent to say "Service by J. T. Henton and Son."

MR. McBRIDE: You mean the undertaker's name? We provide our own tents.

MR. HINDS: I mean to say "Service by Henton and Sons" or what¬ever the case might be. I never tried it.

MR. McBRIDE: As the man on the program this morning said he didn't want to be in the cemetery end and he didn't want the cemetery people in the undertaking business. I feel any advertising or publicity to be done by the cemetery should be done in behalf of the cemetery. That is the reason we provide our own tents, and on it we mention the words "Forest lawn."

MR. HINDS: I do that, too.

MR. McBRIDE: At least we try to be courteous to the undertaker and do everything we can for him. I know that has never extended to the extent of advertising for any of them on our property.

MR. HINDS: A member came in, named Bowen, and said, "Mr. Hinds, I would like to compliment you on your service. We had ice water here.” It was a very hot day and he was evidently thirsty and got the service. The children were crying for water. He sent an agent and complimented me. I didn't ask him whether he had a lot, but I sold him a $350 lot because we had the ice water in the cemetery.

MR. McBRIDE: The particular kind of publicity that the various people feel is the best is the kind that works for them. Dr. Halberstadt's system, of course, is marvelous. There is no question about it. You have gotten a sale out of personal service at the cemetery. I think all of those things are important and if properly done can result in profits to the organization.

MR. COWAN (Chicago): I understand you have a very beautiful electric fountain in your park. Have you had any publicity out of it and, can you trace any direct sales to it?

MR. McBRIDE: Leonard, our system of selling never has provided that information. We have been very lax in that a plan whereby we can trace direct sales to any of our various features has never been worked out. I do know that when we were more active than we are now and would advertise our musical concerts on Sunday afternoons or in the evening, great numbers of people would come. In fact, they do now, even without our advertising them and it has created a lot of interest and good-will for the cemetery, and I am sure it has resulted in sales. I can't tell you how many or what percent or what they have cost. It has created a lot of interest favorably and we think it has definitely resulted in some sales.

MR. W. H. YELLAND (Norwalk, Conn.): Don't you think the least advertising that is done, especially of an obstructive nature at the time of interment, the more it would add to the dignity and general fine impression of the whole thing?
MR. McBRIDE: Very much so. It must be done in a manner that isn't offensive. In fact, it should be done without anybody knowing it is done. If they feel it is advertising or sales effort, in my opinion the benefit is lost. In fact, I think I said it must be sympathetic, efficient, and well done and not too commercial.

MR. YELLAND: You wouldn't think it would be nice to put a card on a tent saying Mr. So-and-so supplies the flowers?

MR. McBRIDE: We wouldn't do it.

MR. HINDS: I never did either. I have just heard people talking about it.

MR. CLARENCE SANGER (Detroit): Earl, I would like to ask if you have ever had any reaction from the funeral directors because of the name of your cemetery on your tents.

MR. McBRIDE: No, we haven't. We purchased our tents early in the game because we didn't know much about it and we thought that was the part of the equipment that we should furnish. We found later on that some of the undertakers, a very small percentage of them, had their own tents, and we were glad that we were able to supply them or had supplied them. I don't believe we have ever had a kickback on that.

MR. SANGER: For your information, we have watched that pretty carefully and we used to have the name of our park on our chapel tents and we never had any serious kickback, but we would occasionally hear whispering among the people, and once a funeral director discussed it with us. We felt it was better to take it off, because the value as an adver¬tising feature is very small, and we felt there was a slight reaction.

MR. McBRIDE: When we bought our equipment, as I said before, we were very ignorant about the whole thing. I think Mr. Vale suggested the name "Forest Lawn" be on the equipment, and that is the reason it was on there. It wasn't put there with any thought at that time of advertising even our property, but I feel that is much better than anybody else's name on there.

MR. R. D. ROSENBERGER (New Castle, PA): Earl, have you ever had the experience of having the undertakers charge for your tent service?

MR. McBRIDE: No, we haven't, Ross. We have never inquired. I wouldn't say we have never had the experience. We never knowingly have had that experience. We try to conduct our business and that part of the business of the interment, - that is ours directly with the individual. We break over at times and conduct it through the undertaker. We make no effort to find out what he charges or what his charges are for. I am sure we have never known about his charging for that service we provide, Ross. It might be done, but I am sure we haven't known of it.

MR. E. O. WORK (Clinton, Iowa): I just wanted to mention that, but he got up ahead of me. We have had scores of those cases where the people pay the undertaker and come and tell us what a fine service the undertaker provided at the cemetery with carpets and tents. We have had quite a time knocking that down and if you haven't looked into it, maybe many of you fellows are furnishing this and the undertaker getting the credit.

MR. McBRIDE: As I say, Mr. Work, most of our business is con¬ducted at that time directly with the family or some representative of the family, and we call their attention to the things we furnish.

CHAIRMAN HATTEN: How do you bring that about?

MR. McBRIDE: It is all done, Roy, by our superintendent who is a very diplomatic man. I think Dr. Halberstadt knows him and knows he was cut out for the job.

MR. WORK: Does the undertaker have a flat charge, including ceme¬tery charges that include in their price $12.00 or $15.00 for full tent service and charge your people the same price you furnish the tent for?

MR. McBRIDE: It might be. I have never inquired about their charge.

MR. ROSENBERGER: Do you think you get credit for providing the tent?

MR. McBRIDE: Probably not, but I know we get credit whether or not they like the service they get at Forest Lawn. I know the cemetery gets a lot of benefit from that. If they are badly handled and something offensive occurs, we get blamed for it. On the other hand, we get a lot of credit for the manner in which our interment services are conducted by our people, and that is more definitely brought to the attention of the people in the chapel service than it is in the tent service.

MR. L. S. WRIGHT (Buffalo): Mr. McBride, if the Association at the time of interment would issue an opening and closing order which would prescribe the entire service, including the cost, wouldn't those who arrange for such service know what they were purchasing?

MR. McBRIDE: I would think so.

MR. WRIGHT: That is the way we do.

MR. McBRIDE: For every service there is an order signed. Now we haven't gone to the extent that you have suggested, in other words, of detailing it. We haven't gone to that extent on our order blanks.

MR. CLARENCE SANGER (Detroit): I would like to ask you, Earl, what has been your experience or observation with respect to your chapel service as it is accepted by the public? Do they seem to appreciate the chapel service over the graveside service?

MR. McBRIDE: The ones that use it, yes, Clarence. In fact, the only trouble, and it is not anything serious, that we run into is having them have the service in the chapel. The reaction after it is done is very good, we find. Now most of that reaction comes from the fact that it is new, from the fact that somebody in connection with the interment feels that somebody else is trying to take something away from them, but the people themselves after they have had that sort of service, I would say almost invariably, like it and talk about it and feel good about it and remember Forest Lawn for it.

MR. SANGER: That has been our experience. If I may just take a minute Roy; in my talk this morning I mentioned our big mausoleum as not being finished yet and several in the audience got the impression that I was inclined to feel that I regretted that we built our mausoleum. I want to correct that impression. Our experience has been that it has been worth doubly all and any grief we have had with it. I have been always keen for a chapel or mausoleum where we could hold indoor services, especially in this northern climate.

MR. McBRIDE: We have felt at times maybe we spent too much money on our chapel. If we had done it purely from a commercial stand¬point maybe we did, but I am sure over the period of years we will find it has proven a good job.

MR. SANGER: We have several funeral tents, and a time or two in a small town cemetery where they had no tents and a nice family to be buried; we have permitted the Funeral Director to use our tents without charge. We have also loaned them out to small nearby towns on days like the Fourth of July, where they wanted to use them perhaps for a Red Cross emergency tent, or the Boy Scouts wanted to use them, or something of that kind. We have loaned them out in this case, not to the funeral directors but to the officers of the town or the chief of police and there has been quite a lot of good come from it. Where they haven't, this equipment, it has been loaned by White Chapel.

From the publication:
“1940-1941 Cemetery Handbook & Buyers’ Guide”
ACOA 11th Annual Convention & Exposition
Hotel Statler, Buffalo, New York
September 8-11, 1940