Of course what I am about to share is old-fashioned and today I suspect viewed as antiquated and possibly downright offensive, but here goes anyway.

I have worked with funeral home promotions for many years, and have seen some mighty impressive ideas and creativity show up with all sorts of concepts and efforts to make the funeral home more visible (in a tactful manner) in the community.

Here is the story.  When I started college back in another world I worked for a small town funeral home in Western Nebraska.  We did around 60 calls a year, but what we really did was operate a free ambulance service which responded to probably 300 calls a year.  My boss was a wonderful man, generous to a fault, a horrible business person, and just loved running his free ambulance service.  While many funeral directors complained about the ambulance my boss literally basked in delight when he got to turn on the red lights and blast the siren.  He did not make a dime on the ambulance but he had a marvelous time driving that vehicle at light year speed throughout the town and country side.  Looking back I have to admit that some of the most dangerous and life threatening experiences I have encountered was not with the sick or injured people we picked up, but it was riding along when my boss was driving.  He took chances on the road that today would be unacceptable and would probably get him arrested.

However he did two things with his funeral coach and his ambulance that I just thought would be worth sharing and I am not suggesting that anyone adopt these ideas, it is just my recollections of times long gone by.

First was his use of the hearse.  If we went for a couple of weeks without a funeral my boss would instruct us to drive the hearse downtown and travel up and down the streets of our community – and that was it.  The name of the funeral home was prominently displayed in every window so you could not miss or get confused as to who owned the hearse.  My buddy and I drove around for an hour or two.  Just driving that was it.  No waving, no stopping, no conversation – just driving around, and as we all know funeral coaches draw attention.

The first time he asked me to do this I thought he was crazy.  Adding to the nuttiness was the fact that he never took the time to explain to us why we were driving the hearse around in circles, but he was the boss so off we went.

However, and this happened constantly, on our very next call during the visitation period people would come into the funeral home and while they were signing the register book would nonchalantly mention that “good heaven’s you guy’s must have been really busy the other day, I saw your hearse I bet twelve times.”  The truth was we had not had a call for a month, but to the public’s mind we were mighty busy.  Today I call this a mobile advertising effort.

The other innovation that my boss did was with the ambulance.  Years before I went to work for him he had gone to every hospital in the area and offered to transport mothers who had had a baby and were being released from the hospital a free ambulance trip back home.

We even had a special cot with a canopy over the head end so the mother and newborn would not get too much sun.

We routinely took a mother and her new baby back home in grand style.  The ambulance had the name of the funeral home on every conceivable place on the vehicle, including the roof.

My boss gave us explicit instructions.  When we were about two blocks from the home of the mother and new baby we were to turn on all the red lights, and crank the siren up as loud as it would go to draw attention to the our arrival, and sure enough when we turned the siren on most every neighbor came out of their homes, and the family of the new baby was already present, and most everybody had cameras and were (they thought) snapping pictures of the mother and new baby, but what they were also doing was snapping pictures of our ambulance with our name prominently present in every photo.  We took our time in getting mom and baby out of the ambulance, we poised for photographs, we shook hands, we visited, and we basically did great public relations building for the funeral home through our ambulance.  There were some touching and memorable moments when we would take mother and baby back home.

In fact it was not unusual for someone to come to the funeral home to attend a funeral and proudly announce that they were an “XYZ funeral home baby.”  They seemed proud of the fact that the funeral home had delivered them home when they were born.

Today these ideas sound terribly old-fashioned and I suspect there are many reading this who will take justified exception with such past practices, but that is what we did, and here was the interesting fact: the public responded favorably to our innovative visibility ideas.

Anyway friends this is just another ambulance memory and thoughts of an old undertaker. TVB

Talking to groups about funeral service, whether at your facility or at the meetings of community and civic organizations, generates a following and builds relationships, yet few funeral service practitioners make full use of its benefits. One of the profession's best speakers offers a how-to guide for starting—or polishing—your public speaking career.

As funeral service practitioners, we are selling a valuable service, but we should realize that nothing positive happens until a relationship is established. We all strive to build, in our work, a large community network of relationships, old and new. Like any business, we need to constantly find new and innovative ways to generate positive public relations. This goes beyond a simple advertisement, a leaf through the phone book or a referral, all of which could result in contacts. To succeed, human relationships must be established and nurtured with great care.

In the community presentation, we have discovered an invaluable tool that helps build relationships and, at the same time, is cost effective. It provides an information exchange for people and a place where they can ask questions that they would not otherwise have the chance to ask. The group setting is less threatening, and lets people confront topics related to funerals and death in an atmosphere of mutual support. Those who automatically plan ahead in life immediately recognize the community presentation as a not-to-be-missed educational opportunity. They will plan to attend without fail!

This article will provide you with:
• the how-tos of the community presentations,
• tips on developing the talent of public speaking and
• help in understanding the positive impact a presentation can have on our business.

As you read more about this powerful marketing idea, I hope you will decide to embrace it—to put it in Latin terms, carpe diem—seize the day!

The Power of Presentation
The community presentation can be an extremely valuable part of your cemetery or funeral home's overall outreach plan. While selling is described as a marketing task, marketing is a long-range plan with strategies. A long-range strategy for funeral practitioners is to generate a following and build relationships.

More than any other medium, a well-planned community presentation will bring you into direct contact with the people in your community who are receptive to you—they either have invited you as their guest speaker or been invited by you and chosen to attend. All of these are people with questions about your profession, people who, in many ways, want to establish some kind of relationship with you.

Few businesses fully make use of the potential of the community presentation. Perhaps they don't understand its value, or they don't know what to do or don't think they have the personnel or the time to implement it. Up until now, they, and perhaps you, have overlooked a truly effective strategy.

Will Rogers defined speaking as "organized verbal communication that gives a person greater personal power." As with anything else you become good at, public speaking takes practice. It's up to you to view it as an opportunity—it will take extra commitment, especially if you've never done it before and never imagined you would. Rogers would convince you that the personal power you gain is well worth the effort. Can you lose anything by trying?

As you explore the ideas put forth in this article, you will see that speaking before a group is a skill that can be mastered. If you feel ill at first, realize that you are not alone—public speaking is regarded as the No. 1 fear. But there are many, many people who have overcome this fear.

Think about this: If you had the choice of making 50 cold calls or giving a brief talk to a group of 50 people, which would you prefer?

Talking About Death
In reality, funeral directors handle the dead and take care of the living. Perhaps the most sensitive part of your presentation will be explaining to the group how you perceive and deal with death and grief. You may want to start off your presentation with a brief, professional video on the subject to help your audience relax.

Tell the truth about funeral service. People can see the truth behind emotions, whether it's fright, anger, happiness or sadness. Therefore, it is important to be truthful when addressing a group. People tend to listen more when truth is being communicated and the message hits its mark. As a speaker, you will learn to rely on, and fully use, the truth force! By tapping into it, you will find the strength you need to overcome your fears and begin to feel the personal power.

Tell the truth about funeral service, and people will listen.

Communication Tips
You may feel that you're able to prepare your presentation on your own without assistance, but don't be afraid to seek help. The library has excellent guides on writing speeches. If time permits, you might even sign up for a university class on how to make an effective presentation. Often, the classroom experience will offer a chance for a personal videotape and critique. Also, consider the Dale Carnegie course or Toastmasters group (available in many communities) for additional training and support.

Here are some valuable tips on presentations:
•    Thoroughly know your subject. Research, read and double check your facts so that you feel confident.
•    Outline your speech in writing.
•    Memorize the points to be made in the order you want them to unfold. Memorize certain phrases that paint a word-picture, but never recite a speech from memory. Communicate with your audience as if you were having a one-on-one conversation.
•    Tape yourself both in practice and at the actual presentation.
•    Watch your vocal tone. Change that monotone!
•    Expect to have butterflies. They're normal! If you are feeling nervous, concentrate on the message. You're eager to tell people all about your topic. You can't wait to ask for questions!
•    Prior to preparing your talk, don't be shy about asking for constructive ideas from any people you know who are already dynamic speakers. People love to give advice!
•    Familiarize yourself with the facility, where you'll speak and its management a few days before your program. Check the room to know where things are. Make sure you can operate the basic equipment—-test the lights, the sound system (microphone, video cassette recorder and monitor), and locate exit doors and restrooms.
•    Arrive at the location early on the day of the presentation.
•    As the group arrives, mingle with them and introduce yourself in a friendly manner. (The more friends you make before the presentation, the more people you'll have rooting for you during it!)
•    If you decide to use audio-visual aids during your presentation, remember that a person's attention span is about 6 minutes. Stories need to be told in short vignettes or cameos since there is usually only time for two or three points to be made in this short time.
•    Videotapes, audiotapes, slides or films should be quick and to the point. You may have time to show only a portion of your audio-visual.
•    Plant one or more questions in the audience beforehand. People are generally happy to oblige and that one question will help get the audience going.
•    Provide the program chairman with a glossy photo of yourself and a short biography beforehand for publicity purposes. A separate written introduction will also help the chairman. It should be double-spaced and, if possible, ask that it be read exactly as it is written. This will set up your opening remarks.

Types of Community Presentations
There are two types of presentations, the type where you are invited to speak to a group and all of the basic arrangements are made for you; and the type that you initiate yourself, which may occur at your funeral home or another facility.

A general rule about host organizations: Realize that professional organizations or service clubs are notorious for giving you 20 minutes to talk, particularly at lunch time, and then starting late. People may leave to get back to work on time. For this reason, gauge your speech to end in 15 minutes in order to have time for a few questions and answers. Likewise, when you know you have a long time to speak, wind up the presentation 10 minutes early to allow for questions.

If you are hosting the presentation yourself, you must handle a number of important logistical details to ensure success.

•    First, work with your staff to set a convenient date that does not conflict with any other major event in your business or in the community. Also, select an alternate date in case a funeral home or cemetery need arises.
•    Establish the length of time for the presentation (1 to 1.5 hours) and decide where you will hold it. A tour of the cemetery or funeral home is an option, if you are holding the presentation there.
•    Allow plenty of time for questions and answers following your talk.
•    Assemble a guest list. In preparing it, determine how many people usually attend such meetings, based on similar presentations you've given or attended. Perhaps you'll decide to limit it to the families you already know or to reach out by promoting it to the entire community as a free public event. This will increase the turnout and enhance your company's visibility. As part of the guest list for a larger, community-wide presentation, you will want to include prominent business leaders.
•    Prepare and mail invitations. Compose a professional, dignified invitation on stationery, using your funeral home's logo.
•    Create a promotional news release. A news release gives the who, what, when, where and why of a subject. Take the time to prepare it carefully so that the basic information about your event is crystal clear to the reader. Send the news release to selected media, especially to the newspaper that covers your neighborhood, as well as to interested groups. This is the basic promotional tool you'll need.
•    Give your facility a thorough inspection. If you're planning to hold your presentation at your cemetery office or funeral home, take the extra time to make sure it shines, as you would prepare for a party in your own home. This pertains to any size group you are expecting. Although your facility should always be meticulous, now is the time to scrutinize it completely.

Arrange for any special cleaning required of carpeting, draperies or upholstered furniture. Replace bad light bulbs; make obvious repairs-touch up the paint if it needs it! You want your facility to look its best, and it's the attention to minute details that will payoff.

You may have to temporarily rearrange or even remove furniture.

Examine your outdoor parking situation.

Do you need to rent additional parking spaces?

Make sure your funeral home's cars are washed, waxed and polished. Also, examine the building exterior, landscaping and lighting. Take action to make improvements where needed.

•    Arrange for refreshments. An appetizing food table heightens the social aspect of the event and promotes relaxation. (Be sure your state allows the serving of food in a funeral home/cemetery.) Consider light refreshments such as soft drinks, coffee, tea, cookies or small pastries. You may want to recruit a friend or family member to assist with the preparation and serving.
•    Order flowers. Fresh flowers will add beauty and a pleasing fragrance to the atmosphere. They can be attractively placed on your registration or food table, or in your arrangements office or chapel/visitation area.

Assembling Information Packets for Your Audience
People love to take handouts and written materials home with them after a presentation. Professional folders can be purchased that will keep all of the information in one place. Items to include are:
•    a funeral home or cemetery brochure (which often contains the history of the home and a list of services);
•    a calendar of any future seminars or support groups; and
•    articles or additional pamphlets on topics such as retirement, preplanning, the value of the funeral, embalming and memorialization.
•    A newsletter kit is also popular. This specifically includes a two-sided quarterly newsletter, retirement information, "Did You Know?" sheets, financial information and light subject matter, such as a recipe.

Prior to your presentation, find out how many packets you'll need. These will generate excellent public relations for your funeral home.

Evaluating the Presentation
Most community groups and professional organizations recognize the value of obtaining written evaluations from attendees at the end of a meeting. Check with the program chair to find out if the group you are speaking to handles its own evaluations or if it would be possible for you to distribute a short questionnaire. (See Sample Questions For an Evaluation Form below)

Sample Questions
For an Evaluation Form

    Was the speaker informative?
    What did you expect to hear?
    What did you learn? (Describe one point)
    What was the most interesting? (Describe)
    Did you feel comfortable throughout the talk?
    Did the video add to the presentation?
    How could we improve future presentations?
    Was the information helpful?
    Can we supply you with more information?

Likewise, you should do this if you are in charge of arrangements. Evaluation is an important step in the process that can help you improve future presentations.

The form should look professional and appear on funeral home or cemetery stationery. Make enough copies for all attending and distribute them at the end of the event. Encourage all attendees to complete the form before they go home. Reiterate its importance and ask them to deposit them in a box near the exit.
 
Leave space for additional suggestions and comments at the bottom of the sheet. Ask people for their names and addresses that can then be added to the mailing list. Some will prefer to remain anonymous, which is fine, too. Perhaps the arranger will even provide you with a group directory of names and addresses, and mark off those in attendance. This specific information will help you with your thank-you note process, another vital follow-up activity.

Arranging Future Speaking Engagements
At the time when you first meet the program chairman and fees are mentioned, your best reply is that you do not charge, but that you do request a testimonial letter if the group is happy with your presentation. This will help you secure future speaking opportunities.

As you conclude your presentation, offer to speak to the group at another meeting and ask them to recommend you to others. This will continue your chain of awareness building in the community. You can also extend your speaking offer in the thank-you note.

Conclusion
After you have given one or more talks, the power of this marketing strategy will become more obvious: Remember: If people, buy what you are saying, they will buy what you are selling!

I know of many funeral service practitioners giving two or three programs a week who report a dramatic increase in qualified leads and actual closings on pre-arrangements. They are convinced that the community presentation has a definite advantage over advertising or direct mail since it opens the door for lasting relationships.

Most importantly, the community presentation allows people to get to know you, up close and personal. When they se that you are a real live human being with your own fears and vulnerabilities, a lot of the mystique about death and dying begins to evaporate. A free-flowing exchange of information is an extremely healthy and meaningful experience for the public and profession as a whole.

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.

Adapted from a presentation at the 2005 ICFA Annual Convention

We all know the importance of media relations in our profession, but we don't all know how to handle it. No matter what the size of your business, some simple tools and techniques can allow you to effectively tell your story and deal proactively with the media.

Those of us in the deathcare profession can no longer afford to have the marketplace tell our story for us. It is our responsibility to become evangelists for funeral homes and cemeteries by working on a program of press releases and greater media contact.

Media relations, a subset of public relations, is what is involved in your efforts to build and maintain a relationship with the media in your community. Building the relationship is the first step, but maintaining it is just as important if you want your efforts to have a lasting effect.

"Media" is usually associated with television and newspapers but also extends to other areas, including the Internet, magazines and radio. There are 30 million Web sites out there today, 17,000 specialized magazines, 10,000 radio stations and 35,000 interviews being conducted daily in America.

What does this mean for the funeral and cemetery profession? It gives us endless opportunities to connect with the public and get our stories known.

Over half of Americans get their news from television, which has increased its news time slots to give viewers more options. Hard news (usually negative) is the story: who, what, when and where. Feature news (usually positive) is the how or why.

Feature news is now growing rapidly as reporters are faced with more time to fill. Both newspapers and television stations often try to localize stories, focusing on a person or business in their readership or viewing area. Make yourself known to your local reporters by suggesting ideas for feature stories and alerting them to hard news stories of which they may not be aware.

Developing a press kit and press release
The first step in dealing proactively with the media is to create an effective media relations program. The basic media materials that should go in your press kit are a company background sheet, fax sheet, business cards, a company brochure and a letter of introduction.

When preparing a press release:
• Keep it brief (no more than a page long) and factual. If the media think there is a story, they will give you a call and come out with their photographer and reporter.

• Be objective. Your press release should be about something important to the media and the public.

• Avoid speaking in lingo. When talking about opening and closing fees, explain what those fees cover. Instead of saying GPL, talk about the general price list. Keep your release in consumer language.

• Create a compelling headline. Think of a catchy and unique headline that will grab the reporter's attention right from the start.

• Use an inverted pyramid. Cram as much as you can at the top of your press release, especially the important information. Often as a reporter or editor is putting a story or segment together, time is short and the last paragraphs are cut. Have a point, and get to it quickly.

• Keep information local. Cater the release and cover letter to your particular community and the publication or station to which you're sending it.

• Send in the press release early. If you wait until the last minute, they may not have enough time to put a segment together or to meet deadlines.

Topics for a press release
Be creative; this list is just a beginning:
•    New programs or services at your business
•    Expansions or additions that have been added to your facility
•    People you have hired or promoted recently
•    Open houses
•    Grief counseling or pre-planning

If you are trying to pitch a story beyond a simple press release, you may be pitching a feature story. Be sure to present the content of the story in the cover letter, explaining why it is important and should be given consideration. Also list materials that you have available such as charts, graphs and photos. Try to make it as easy for the news staff as possible by offering an interview or a tour.

Our profession deals with human and personal lives, so make it a human interest story. Do not give a PR line; rather, let the story do that for you by talking in the media's terms.

Dealing with negative stories
When faced with a negative situation, think creatively to find the positive. One example of this is a funeral director who called up a local radio station after the story about caskets being sold at Costco first surfaced. He took what could have been a negative story about people buying caskets at Costco and put a more positive slant on it by talking about personalization, which is still a buzz word for consumers.

In a radio interview he said that people are generally happy with the current casket selection process. "Directly marketing caskets does not seem to be successful," he said. ''Those places go out of business quickly. People don't go to Costco to buy caskets. How much personalization is available in a catalogue for Costco? A salesperson cannot offer the time or the resources needed to personalize the experience."

As you move forward in building your relationship with the media, remember to be accessible so that reporters know they can reach you. Once you establish a relationship, it can develop into an ongoing stream of publicity opportunities.

When making the first call, offer to stop by to say hello, and drop off the media kit at that time. Once you make a promise to give a reporter access to someone or something, deliver on that promise. If you tell them you will give them an interview or a tour of your grounds, do it.

Preparing for an interview
Finally, here are some tools and techniques for effective news interviews:
•    Be prepared. Do your homework.  Know what kinds of questions this reporter typically asks and prepare responses ahead of time.
•    Be honest. In the age of the Internet, reporters quickly find out if you are lying.
•    Be helpful. Go out of your way to provide information that will help reporters do a story. They are always looking for other sources and other angles, so always have another funeral director in your area ready to be interviewed. You may also suggest they contact a trade association such as the ICFA.
•    Avoid saying "no comment," because it is perceived as an admission of guilt.
•    Avoid yes or no answers to awkward questions. If you are asked a tough question, especially one that is phrased awkwardly, rephrase the question back to the reporter instead of saying just "yes" or "no."
•    Remember the videographer. The person with the camera in his or her hand is just as important as the person holding the microphone or pen. The person who really is going to make you look good is the one behind the camera, so if you offer the reporter a soft drink or coffee, do the same for the videographer.

Dealing proactively with the media is beneficial to you, your business and the profession as a whole. The more we strive to get our message out there, the better the public perception will be of our profession.

Never forget, it's a small world, getting smaller every day, so take nothing for granted. Take every opportunity to tell your own story, so that the marketplace doesn't tell it for you.

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.

An informal open house provides an excellent opportunity to reach out
to the community. By implementing a thoughtful program, you build credibility for your funeral home, cemetery or crematorium; educate the public; and, at the same time, help allay people's concerns about death and dying.

An open house can be held in conjunction with an opening, renovation or milestone celebration of your business or one of its principals. As a community relations tool, this special event "welcomes everyone" and raises public awareness of your funeral home, cemetery or crematorium.

Since this may be many of your guests' first experience with death education, it's important that the open house be handled in a sensitive way. Ideally, the clergy in your community should be invited to participate. They can be reassuring to guests as well as informative. All staff members should fully participate.

An open house can follow many formats. It might combine speaker(s) with an audiovisual presentation and/or a tour with information packets available for general distribution.

Whatever the specific details, planning should begin 10 weeks in advance. Use the planning timeline below as a guideline.

Week #1
Decide on the best weekend. Choose a convenient weekend that will ensure maximum participation. Avoid holiday weekends and focus on a two-day open house, held on both Saturday and Sunday, to generate the most impact. Keep the hours the same on both days, for example 1-5 p.m. or noon-6 p.m. Also pick an alternate weekend date, in case a need related to your business arises.

Consider scheduling special activities each day, such as a program and tour, and advertise these. Perhaps one of the days could be for the general public, and the other day for a specific audience.

Week #2
Determine the guest list. The sky's the limit in preparing the potential guest list, drawn from families and friends, clergy, healthcare professionals, local media, community leaders and members of services affiliated with your funeral home, cemetery or crematorium. (See the checklist below for more ideas.) In addition, your ads and flyers will attract the public, if designed carefully.

If your open house is being held to show off a new or renovated addition, consider inviting the contractors and architects.

As for prominent members of the community, handwrite their invitations personally on your business stationery. These may include political, civic and business professionals.

Remember to keep a comprehensive list with the names and addresses of all invited guests. This is particularly important for follow-up after the event.

Developing a guest list
Think about these groups of people to invite:
•    Veterans of Foreign Wars; the American Legion; the Royal Canadian Legion and auxiliaries of each of these groups
•    Ancillary military organizations
•    Friends/family you've served
•    Clergy, church staffs
•    Mayor and city council
•    Health care professionals including physicians, psychologists, social workers, nurses, hospital and retirement/long-term care administrators and staffs, medical examiner/coroner
•    Local principals of schools and their faculties, especially history teachers
•    Newspaper editors, reporters, obituary staff
•    Florists, printers, funeral home suppliers, cemetery boards, cemetery sextons, cemeterians
•    Other funeral directors, death educators
•    Bankers and accountants

Plan a tour of your facility or cemetery. How you plan the flow of traffic can make or break the success of your tour.

First, analyze your facility from the inside out. Indoors, you may have to temporarily rearrange or even remove furniture to create a streamlined path through your building.

Examine the outdoor parking situation. Do you need to rent additional parking spaces? Make sure your company cars are washed. waxed and polished.

Give your funeral home, cemetery office or crematorium that extra shine. As you would do to prepare for a party in your own home, take the extra time to make your place of business shine. You should always be meticulous about keeping it clean, but now is the time to undertake a thorough inspection.

Arrange for any special cleaning required of carpeting, draperies or upholstered furniture. Replace bad light bulbs, dust, make obvious repairs—touch up the paint if need be. You want your facilities to look their best, and it's the attention to small details that will payoff in the end.

Also make sure the exterior of your building is in tiptop condition. Pay attention to landscaping, lighting and condition of the building. If your open house involves dedicating a new building or area that has been recently completed. make sure the contractor has cleaned up. Also, remember to ensure accessibility for the handicapped.

Week #3
Assess expectations. Learn more about your guests and what they expect. Will this be the first time most of them are exposed to death education? Do your best to tailor the elements of the open house to the group's needs and interests.

Order invitations and thank-you notes. Your stationery reflects your professional image. Your printed invitations should be just right, so it's important to work with a printer you can trust. Select your invitations, such as panel cards. with thoughtful attention to paper quality and color. If you have a logo. consider using it. The wording on the invitation should be brief. Make sure you include:
•    the name and address of your funeral home, cemetery or crematorium,
•    the event,
•    date,
•    time and
•    any RSVP information.
(See the sample invitation below.)

Address the envelopes by hand with an attractive script. Simple, dignified thank you notes can match the invitation as to format and typeface, paper and color. Send one to each open house guest. (See the sample thank-you letter below.)

Develop visual aids and handouts. A professional slide or videotape presentation during your open house is a creative way to convey information. This visual medium is a diversion for the audience and can lend an interesting perspective, but it takes careful advance preparation. The presenter must thoroughly familiarize him/herself with the script, slides or video. It is also important to set aside ample time for questions immediately following the presentation.

People love to take handouts and reprints home for later reference, so prepare information packets to give out. Professional folders can hold a funeral home, cemetery or crematorium brochure (which often includes the history and services), a calendar of any future seminars or support groups, plus additional pamphlets on topics such as retirement, preplanning, the value of a funeral and memorialization, embalming and other topics.

SAMPLE THANK-YOU NOTE

On behalf of the staff of the Vanderbilt Funeral Home, Cemetery & Crematorium thank you for attending our recent Open House. Your participation helped make the event a success.

Please call on us at any time if we can help answer questions you may have.

Sincerely,
(Signature)
Rick Vanderbilt Vanderbilt Funeral Home, Cemetery & Crematorium

SAMPLE OPEN HOUSE INVITATION

The staff of the Vanderbilt Funeral Home,
Cemetery & Crematorium
requests the pleasure of your company

at its Open House

commemorating the home's Tenth Anniversary
April 23-24, 2005, noon - 6 p.m.
Vanderbilt Funeral Home, Cemetery & Crematorium
146 Oak Street, Feathersville

Guest Speaker; Janet Storm
"The Value of the Funeral & Memorialization" 2 p.m. each day
RSVP (513) 721-9879

Week #4
Schedule the first staff meeting. Take this opportunity to discuss the details of the open house openly with your staff. Talk to them about the reasons for the event and what you hope to achieve. Make them aware of their individual value as part of the team. (See the proposed staff assignment chart below.)

 
Emphasize these points with your staff:
• Dress, conduct and language used during the open house should be the same as for a funeral or any visit by the public.
• Introductions are important, so meet as many guests as possible. (Staff should wear nametags.)
• Discuss the possible questions guests may ask. Practice clear, short answers.
• Talk about the role of funeral service representatives. Decide which casket, vault and embalming fluid sales reps to include on the guest list they can provide support and answer specialized questions.

Week #5
Invite the clergy. The clergy will add a lot to your open house, so invite them as far in advance as possible. You may want some members of the clergy to participate as speakers or activity leaders. Let those who agree know that they will be asked to attend one organizational meeting about a month before the event.

Arrange security. It is important to provide for adequate security. Hiring off-duty police or security guards will relieve you of extra worry. They are skilled in directing traffic, giving directions and offering assistance to elderly or handicapped guests as they arrive.

Instruct them to come an hour before the open house starts and continue on duty until one hour after it ends.
Spread the word through well planned ads. Working closely with the media to promote your event is vital to getting the word out about your open house. Consider the media the link that joins your message with your targeted audience.

First, you must clarify your targeted audience and then clarify your message by writing it down. Keeping your budget in mind, choose the appropriate medium; in this case, print advertising in your local newspaper.

Newspaper advertising: Newspapers are a good choice because they can quickly influence large markets on a daily or weekly basis. In addition. they offer special-interest sections that help focus your message, and a variety of ad sizes and formats to accommodate budgets.

Request the media kit from your local newspaper. It will describe ad sizes, rates, deadlines and other information. Select the local newspaper(s) with the greatest readership of men and women aged 55 or older. Your newspaper advertising representative will know the latest demographic figures. Establish and maintain a good relationship with this representative.

When writing the ad, make sure it includes the time, date, funeral home, cemetery or crematorium address and phone number. Emphasize the words "open house" to catch the readers' attention. List licensed personnel, if applicable. Mention and briefly describe your speaker, if you are having one, along with his/her topic. As with your invitations, try to keep the message simple and direct.

If you are celebrating a new or renovated facility, include "before" and "after" photos to highlight your progress. Some papers will take the new photo for you. and may also take photos the day of the event.

I recommend a "camera ready" ad, which means that artwork and written copy can be printed as submitted. If you can't find a freelance writer/designer to undertake this project, your newspaper will handle it for an additional charge. Run the ad within the metro/local news section or on the obituary page.

If the budget permits, run the ad for three consecutive weeks before the open house and on the day of the event. If this is too expensive, place the ad one week before and on the day of the open house.

Announcements, fliers and news releases:
• Make copies of your ad in the form of fliers, and ask community service groups to distribute them at meetings or insert them in their newsletters.
• Ask the participating clergy and others to announce the event to their congregations and at meetings. Also ask them to post the flier, if possible, and place an ad in local church bulletins.
• Send the flier to local retirement communities for posting.
• Prepare a professional news release for the local media. (See sample press release below.)  Limit the information to the key facts, answering the six basic journalistic questions: who, what, when, where, why and how. Be sure to list a contact person with day and evening phone numbers. If the open house is celebrating a new or renovated building, enclose a black-and-white photo.

Mail your release to editors at least two weeks in advance. Cover all daily and suburban papers and special interest papers for older adults.

SAMPLE PRESS RELEASE
Double-space your news release for greater legibility.

Vanderbilt Funeral Home, Cemetery & Crematorium
46 Oak Street
Feathersville, OH 45205

NEWS RELEASE

April 4, 2005

Contact: Ralph Bonham 829-0695
After 5 p.m., 829-1078

For Immediate Release

VANDERBILT FUNERAL HOME, CEMETERY & CREMATORIUM SPONSORS FREE OPEN HOUSE TO COMMEMORATE TENTH ANNIVERSARY

Feathersville, OH — In honor of its upcoming 10th Anniversary at the end of this month, the Vanderbilt Funeral Home, Cemetery & Crematorium will present a free open house and program, noon-6 p.m., April 23-24, at its location at 146 Oak Street.

"With this open house, we want to acknowledge and thank the members of the community for their support and loyalty over the last decade," says Rick Vanderbilt, President of Vanderbilt Funeral Home, Cemetery & Crematorium. "As we begin the next ten years, we continue to explore new ways to provide service, education and support."

During the open house weekend, Vanderbilt Funeral Home staff members will conduct escorted tours of the funeral home, cemetery and crematorium and answer questions about the funeral and cemetery profession. A speaker will talk on "The Value of the Funeral"/"The Value of Memorialization" at 2 p.m. each day.

Vanderbilt Funeral Home, Cemetery & Crematorium originally opened its doors at 256 Locust Street in Newtonsville, OH, moving to its present location on Oak Street ten years ago. President Rick Vanderbilt is a licensed funeral director and experienced grief counselor.

#####

Week #6
Hold an organizational meeting. Meeting with the participating clergy one month in advance of the open house is an excellent idea. They will want to learn the details of the event firsthand and have a chance to ask questions. Review the guest list and agenda, the roles they are expected to take and the roles of the funeral home, cemetery or crematorium staff. Distribute information packets with promotional fliers for them to take back to their houses of worship.

Mail invitations and track responses. Now is the time to actually mail invitations. As responses come in, keep a running guest count. Familiarize every staff member with the invitation list, particularly the prominent figures, as they respond.

Order premiums. To add to your guests' satisfaction, offer small favors as tokens of goodwill. Imprint them with the name, address, phone number and logo of your funeral home, cemetery or crematorium. Make sure you order enough to cover the number of expected guests.

Premium ideas include: calendars, magnets for refrigerators, pens or pencils, pencil cups, drink holders, mugs, key chains, appointment books or golf balls and tees.

Week #7
Schedule a second staff meeting. At this follow-up meeting, remind your staff of the importance of guest relations. Emphasize that they should welcome each guest warmly, shaking hands and directing them to activities and refreshments. Tell them to be on the lookout for anyone with serious questions. Again, role-play the kinds of questions that may arise. Advise them of the guest questionnaire (see sample questions below), and designate a staff member to be in charge of distribution and collection.

Possible questions for your evaluation form
Some simple yes/no questions:
•    Was the open house informative?
•    Were all your questions answered?
•    Did you feel comfortable throughout the tour?
•    Did the video add to the presentation?
•    Do you feel more likely to call the funeral home, cemetery or crematorium staff in the future if you have questions?

Prepare a guest questionnaire. Written evaluations from the guests can provide invaluable information to improve special events in the future. The forms must be short and to-the-point. Print enough for everyone on your professional stationery.

Include ample space for comments and suggestions. Some people won't mind providing their names and addresses, which can later be added to your mailing list. Others will prefer to remain anonymous. This information can also help you mail thank-you notes promptly.

Also this week:
• Remember to touch base with the clergy by phone at this time. to see if they have any questions.
• Run your ad for the first time.

Week #8
Select a door prize. A drawing for a door prize can increase your guests' interest and enjoyment. A color TV, purchased from a local merchant, is recommended. This will really get people talking.

Make sure you print up entry forms to include the guest's name, address and phone number. This information can be added to your mailing list later.

Plan refreshments. If your state allows food to be served in a funeral home, cemetery or crematorium, you might consider light refreshments such as soft drinks, coffee, tea, cookies or small pastries.

Mail news releases. Mail the releases at this time to specific editors at the selected newspapers, to church and civic groups' newsletters and to people you know will post them. Make sure all the media receive them, including public service and assignment editors at radio and television stations.

Also this week:
Make sure the premiums have arrived. If they have not, immediately check with your supplier.
• Run your ad for the second time.

Week # 9
Meet with your staff a final time. Discuss any last minute changes and review the guest list. Let them know you will be asking them to critique the open house.

Also, remind them to tell guests that they can leave the tour portion of the event, should they feel apprehensive, and rejoin it later if they wish.

Order flowers. Fresh flowers always add beauty and elegance to the atmosphere. Consider arrangements for the registration table, arrangement office, chapel/visitation area or refreshment table.

Set up a registration table. The day before the open house, set up a small registration table at the entrance, with a book for guests' names, addresses and phone numbers. Assign a staff person to oversee the "sign-in" process.

Also this week: Your ad should run again.

Week #10: The day of the open house
Run a large ad in the daily newspaper. This will catch the eye of people looking for something to do at the spur of the moment, and remind others that "today's the day."

Cultivate a positive attitude. The day you've worked so hard for has finally arrived. Make a duplicate guest list so you and others in charge can refer to it during the event, and keep the agenda of the day's activities handy. It's your job to supervise everything and see that all is on track. Most of all, attend to your guests' needs.

Week # 10: Follow-up
Assess evaluations. It is important to take the time to review these carefully. Meet with your staff to invite their candid remarks about the open house; how they viewed the planning process and the actual day. Don't overlook this valuable opportunity.

Send thank-you notes. Take the time to write a thank-you note to each guest and helpful friend attending and working at the event. This is a thoughtful action that will add to the positive image you've already generated.

Also remember to thank your own staff members in writing.

Initiate a direct mail campaign. To piggyback off the success of your open house, consider developing and sending out a direct mail piece.

You may already have a comprehensive brochure about your funeral home, cemetery or crematorium that's ready to go. You might also consider sending a two-page newsletter that promotes a future seminar or provides other useful information.

Promote future speaking engagements. At an appropriate interval, or in the thank-you note, let it be known that you're available to speak to community groups.

Ask your guests to recommend you to others if they like. This is one way to continue your awareness-building program.

Cemeteries are valuable greenbelts.
You know that, but does your community?
To publicize how your grounds benefit everyone
in the area, try these ways of "spreading the green."

WHAT: One way of using your cemetery's natural assets to generate goodwill is to invite people to enjoy events on your beautiful grounds. Spring Grove certainly does that throughout the year, and your cemetery probably does, too.

But we also believe in exporting a bit of nature as a way to remind people that we're an arboretum as well as a cemetery. We're about the cycle of life, and you can't give people a better symbol of renewal and rebirth than a growing plant.

WHY: Plant giveaway programs can generate good news coverage and draw people in who may not have visited your cemetery before. They don't have to be annual events. Try the ones we describe here, or come up with your own tailored to your community and your cemetery, or to a special event in your community like a centennial celebration.

It's a subtle way to get your name out in front of the community, to be a good neighbor and a good citizen. When an at-need situation arises, maybe someone will remember your cemetery because of one of these programs.

And we can't emphasize enough the need to constantly build goodwill in the community, to generate good news stories as often as possible. Because no matter who you are, no matter how hard you try to have a perfect safety record, there may come a day that something goes wrong and the unhappy family runs to the media. When that happens, you want to have a long history of good news so that people will weigh that against the bad.

HOW: We do "green outreach" in a number of ways; we're going to describe three in detail. We've found these three to be cost effective and enjoyable for our employees and the public.

1. The Pansy Program. This is one we just started last year, so we're still working on perfecting it, but we love this idea. We get some tough winter weather here in the Midwest, and we thought it would be nice to do something to celebrate the rebirth of the outdoors environment as we start coming out of the doldrums of winter. In our area, pansies seem to represent that idea.

We decided we'd give away pansies to everyone who comes into the office. We start in mid-February, which is a little ahead of the curve as far as the end of winter. Occasionally we'll get one of those surprise 6O-degree days, but overall it's one of the ugliest months of the year in Cincinnati. The cemetery looks like it's taken a "whupping," with tracking where we've had equipment even though we tried to put boards down. The sky is gray, there's not a bud on a tree.

Just think how great it is to go into an office, maybe to complain about something, and as you're leaving the receptionist says, "Thank you for corning in; we'd like you to have this nice flower to take home and enjoy." Here's this colorful pansy looking you in the eye. How can you not smile when you see a pansy?

Did the bank give you a flower? No. The dry cleaner? No. The grocery store? No. But the cemetery did, and it brightened up your day. And the employee who handed it to you enjoyed doing it, too.

It's amazing how the expression on people's faces change when you hand them the flower and tell them it's free. We include a brief care sheet telling people they can either put the potted pansy on a windowsill and be inspired by it for a couple of weeks, or place it outside.

It doesn't have to be a pansy. Maybe you want to give out petunias, or some other flower. Pansies work well for us because even though the name makes them sound wimpy, they're actually tough plants. They'll tolerate extremes in temperatures, so the cemetery doesn't have to worry about keeping them inside just because it's going down to 20 degrees at night. Pansies love cold weather, damp rainy weather.

You can order them from a local grower, or grow them yourself in your greenhouse. Bring as many into the office as you think you'll need that day, in little pots. Any you don't give out that day can go back outside—you can't keep them inside too long or they start to yellow.

Start planning now, and say "welcome, Spring 2007" with flowers!

2. The Arbor Day Tree Giveaway. We don't do this every year, though it's not very expensive, and it's a natural for cemeteries. Really, is there a cemetery anywhere that doesn't have trees?

When we do it, we team up with the city's urban forestry division. Almost every city has one, or a parks division or something similar. Call up and say you'd like to partner on an Arbor Day project. (Arbor Day is the last Friday in April, by the way.)

One way is to buy seedlings wholesale, maybe for the top two or three plants for your area, and work with the forestry or park people to get them delivered to any schools or libraries who want to do an Arbor Day planting. Newspapers are always looking for a tree planting to take a picture of for Arbor Day, and if your cemetery donated the tree, you hope that will get mentioned in the photo caption or story.

Another way to give out trees is to announce that you'll be giving away seedlings to the first 200 families (parent or parents and at least one child) who come in to the cemetery during a particular time period, maybe the Saturday before or after Arbor Day. You want the child there to talk to about the importance of Arbor Day and trees in general. Having a child also makes for a better visual for the newspapers or television.

You want the parents there for obvious reasons. You'll have a chance to introduce yourself, hand over a card or brochure and ask if you can put them on the mailing list for your newsletter. So it's a subtle way to get some names of people you can eventually approach to talk to about preplanning.

Don't forget to notify the media that you'll be giving away seedlings. They're on the lookout for Arbor Day stories, so "this year. the ABC Cemetery is giving away dogwoods and blue spruce seedlings to beautify the community and celebrate Arbor Day" is news.

This is something you should start out small with, maybe 200 seedlings, depending on the size of your community. If you run out of seedlings, put people on a list to get one later and have a second pick-up day scheduled.
 
You can get a tremendous number of seedlings for a few hundred dollars. When deciding which seedlings to choose, you want to look for native plants that are reasonably priced, easy to transplant and have a high survivability rate. (You can ask the forestry or parks division, or your local Extension agent, for suggestions.)

You don't want Mommy, Daddy and Johnny planting a seedling, getting all excited, watching it grow and then going outside one day to find that it's died. Fife remembers Arbor Day as being Silver Maple Giveaway Day when he was a kid, probably because those trees can survive anywhere, so that's what everyone handed out.

The bigger the seedling, the higher the cost, of course, but you don't want to give people a tree so dinky that no one can really see it and it's going to get run over and chopped up by the lawnmower. You can buy a decent sized seedling sometimes for pennies and certainly for less than $1 a piece.

We give away seedlings 18 to 24 inches high—significant enough so you can see them. We buy them in bulk and repackage them. You can make a fact sheet with transplant and care instructions on it to give out, and a tag maybe with your logo on it that you can attach to the tree.

Or, since you have to repack the seedlings in planting bags with a little sphagnum moss to maintain the moisture, you could use a bag with your logo and the care instructions right on the bag.

The garden editors come running when we do the Arbor Day seedling giveaway. What better advertising can you get than a picture of a child getting his free tree as mom and dad look on? People look at that photo and say to themselves, "Man, that Spring Grove—they're always doing good things."
 
3, The Patented or Special Plant Program. Spring Grove has a Patented Plant Program—yes, some of our plants have been patented. But you don't need a patented plant to do this, just a tree or flowering bush that's special in some way and can offer "babies" to the community.

Maybe you have a great white oak tree you've been mowing around for years. It's got a majestic form and a huge canopy in the summer; it provides late fall color; its beautiful branches and white bark look phenomenal against the winter sky. You don't have to patent it—just identify it, maybe even name it!

Then make it available to the gardening public. Collect its fruit—the acorns—to give away. You could take the next step, of course, and plant the acorns yourself, then give people the seedlings as little potted plants. Either way, this is a fun giveaway.

When you think about it, a lot of cemeteries have been around 50, 70, 100, 150 years, and have plenty of plants that have endured over time. Take photographs of your magnificent tree or plant so people can see what great stock the acorns or cuttings come from, then write a little story about your giveaway to send to the press.

We sell some of our patented plants across the country through our Web site, popular plants that will grow probably in 60 to 75 percent of American gardens. But we're suggesting this as a low-cost giveaway limited to your community.

This doesn't have to be tied to Arbor Day (though it could be), but should be done during a good planting season, meaning spring or fall. As always, include a fact sheet, maybe saying something such as "this is a direct progeny of the champion/the biggest white oak on Section 23 of ABC Cemetery."

Remember, it doesn't have to be a tree, it just has to be a plant that's relatively easy to propagate. We've done this with some of our shrubs. Check with your Extension agent for suggestions.

Maybe you have a nice flowering vibernum—a plant that's adaptable to 90 percent of American gardens. You recall that the previous superintendent said the plant was there, and thriving, when he arrived 30 years ago. It's endured droughts, severe winter and summer weather and flooding. What better test is there? (Be sure to mention that in your press release.)
 
There's no law against naming it the ABC Cemetery Vibernum, taking some cuttings and offering them to the community. Make sure you have photos of it when it's blooming, or that you send out your press release when it's blooming so the newspaper can get a good photo.

☼☼☼☼☼☼☼

We've tried to plant a seed of an idea with this column. Why not try one of these programs next year? Your employees will get inspired—they'll like being a part of this type of goodwill effort.

After all, being in the cemetery business could be a bit of a downer if it weren't for the fact that we're always trying to do some of these uplifting things, too.

Ever wish the competition would just disappear?
Well, it's not going to happen, and that's OK, says this municipal cemetery manager, because families like having choices. He suggests you learn to thrive on competition rather than trying to eliminate it.

Sometimes competition seems to bring out the worst in both people and companies, but what is our goal in the cemetery and funeral service profession? Is it to steer families to buy the products and services that will help us and our companies, or is it to help families and give them the options that will better serve them?

I like to believe I'm here to serve families. And believe it or not, families that have been treated in a way that serves their best interests rather than yours are more likely to return and reuse your service-whatever the cost-when the next time of need arises.

Badmouthing others is bad for everyone
Last weekend a family called me to ask about the availability of infant spaces at our cemetery. I told them Greenwood has plenty of spaces in our babyland section and said if they wanted me to, I could meet them later in the afternoon to show them the burial options. Naturally, in true dedicated cemeterian fashion, I didn't mention that when their call came I was on the lake fishing and answering it lost me one of the biggest catches of the morning.

I cleaned up and met the couple at the cemetery. Now, since Greenwood is a stand-alone cemetery and not a combo operation, I deal mainly with land purchases and opening and closing charges. The couple said they had been to a funeral home to make arrangements, and when they asked about getting space at Greenwood, the funeral director was adamant that we were sold out! He urged them to consider another cemetery. I was not surprised, when the couple told me which cemetery he had suggested, that it's one owned by the same company that owns the funeral home.

So here was a family distraught over the loss of an infant being told a "tall tale" by the funeral director. They were furious over the time they ended up wasting checking on cemetery availability because of what they viewed as games being played by a funeral director they had assumed was there to help them in their time of need by looking after their best interests. Do you think what this funeral director did will generate any future business for his firm?

When I contacted the funeral director to ask why he tried to keep the family from looking at Greenwood, his response was, "I lost a 3 percent commission on the cemetery sale." Let's see, using my admittedly very Southern math, his commission on what would have been about a $500 land sale would have been around $15.

If it were me, I would much rather have the family happy with my service and open to coming back to my funeral home in the future than to pocket the $15, make them mad and have them bad-mouthing me all over town.

In another case, a funeral director (one I had recommended) told a family a simple concrete burial container would not meet our requirements and that they had to buy a special vault, at an additional cost to them of several hundred dollars. When the family mentioned this at the burial, I was speechless.

I hate to compare our profession to car sales, but I think it's interesting that car dealerships have found that they are more successful when they all operate in a geographically concentrated area and let the merchandise speak for itself.

In most cities, the dealers locate next to and/or across the street from their competitors. This allows shoppers to easily compare vehicles and make an informed decision based on their needs, desires and budgets. Most of us leave our house with a certain make and model in mind but want to shop around and feel comfortable with our decision about this major purchase.

Bringing the concept back to our profession, funeral service guru Todd Van Beck talks about getting his first job at Heafey & Heafey on Omaha, Nebraska's "mortuary row," where there were 10 funeral homes in a 12-block area, so the idea isn't foreign to funeral service.

Instead of badmouthing the competition, concentrate on highlighting the best of what you offer families. Every funeral home and cemetery offers something unique and different to enhance its service. Some might offer night and weekend services, others a fancy hearse; some give back generously to the community; some showcase their facilities through tours and open houses.

Knocking the competition in an attempt to close a sale simply puts the entire profession in a bad light, and as families become more educated about our profession (something that is getting easier to do in this Internet age) and make their own comparisons, they are left with a bad taste in their mouths if they have been misled.

Our cemetery is one of the only ones left in the area that allows upright memorials. Some families come to us for this reason, while others couldn't care less about having this option.

Our cemetery encompasses over 100 acres and bellows Southern charm, with huge trees hung with Spanish moss and acres of old monuments. Some families prefer a small cemetery, or one with highly manicured lawns.

Our cemetery sits in the heart of downtown Orlando. Some families do not want to fight the traffic to get to the cemetery and would rather have their loved ones interred closer to their neighborhood.

Do any of these reasons for a family not choosing Greenwood bother me? Not one iota. In fact, if you visit our cemetery, I have brochures and business cards from my competitors, both corporate and independent, displayed in the front office.

I am confident that Greenwood offers a unique and special burial place that many families will willingly choose. I would much rather have a family make an informed decision to use Greenwood than "settle" because they felt they had no choice. A family that freely chooses your funeral home or cemetery tends to be a more understanding client in those cases when things don't go exactly as planned.

Get to know the competition
When we offer the public fun and educational programs, I extend an offer to my competition to attend. Why? Maybe they can learn something that will enhance the level of service they offer their families. And why not let them know firsthand what we are doing? If they don't know, they might make it up, so why not make sure they have the straight story?

Our municipal cemetery averages about 12 burials a week and has no preneed or telemarketing sales program. We do no print advertising. Everybody who walks through our gates wants to be here, has family here or has gotten a recommendation to use us from someone else.

In October, our local newspaper ran a story announcing the opening of 220 new spaces at Greenwood. They sold out in six hours. The demand for these spaces was humbling. There are cemeteries in the area that offer extended payment plans, insurance assignments, free coffee and a good looking office staff. We offered a very simple financial plan—one payment, no interest—and still families were lined up to buy.

What you offer to families year round is what entices them to your funeral home or cemetery, not what the glossy new ad states on Sunday. Sure, some families are drawn to your location due to slick advertising, but wouldn't your bottom line be better off if it were based on return business generated by how well you meet your families' needs?

Embrace the competition, show off your accomplishments and make decisions that enhance your level of service. Speak with your competitors; get to know them. Sell yourself and your business—don't knock the competition. Strive to create new and exciting programs; be a leader in your community. Offer programs designed to educate families so they can decide what they want, not to maneuver them into making the purchases you want.

These are the things families will remember.

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.

Many cemeteries and funeral homes have at least one minority ethnic or religious group to which they want to appeal. St. Michael's Cemetery in Queens, New York, has them all. Well, maybe not all, but as the most diverse community in the United States, Queens presents the sales staff with a special challenge—and opportunity.

When St. Michael's Cemetery was established in 1852, Queens had plenty of farmland that could be turned into cemeteries as the island of Manhattan became more crowded. It was a different era, and the names on the memorials reflect a homogeneity long since gone.

The cemetery is part of St. Michael's Episcopal Church, but is open to people of all faiths. It began its life as a potter's field. As the population of Queens grew, it welcomed the burial of those who wanted and could afford the memorials and statuary that marked the Victorian era.

At one point not long ago, St. Michael's had become dependent on an Italian market that was shrinking due to age and an increasingly transient population. Today, St. Michael's tries to reach out to all the ethnic, cultural and religious communities that now make up Queens, determined by the U.S. Census to be our nation's most diverse community.

A sampling of whom we serve: Hindus, Buddhists, Italians, Romanians, Bulgarians, Albanians, Greeks, Croats, Irish, German, English, French, Spanish, every South and Central American country you can name, Chinese, Koreans, a few Russians. Some speak English; others do not.

As head of community relations and sales, I must reach out to as many groups as possible. I accomplish this in a number of ways. My advice:

1. Read newspapers aimed at specific groups. Some of them are published in English, some are not. For those that are not, find someone in that community who will translate for you, or will look through them and tell you about events taking place that are important to that community.

2. Advertise in these newspapers. For example, I advertise constantly in the Greek Herald and the other Greek newspaper, the Hellas. In addition, every year at Christmas we run a full-page ad celebrating life in the Greek community and we do the same thing when the community celebrates Easter.

3. Meet the leaders of these groups; invite them to your cemetery or funeral home and talk to them about their traditions and desires. When planning new facilities and services, consult with them early in the process.

For example, St. Michael's decided to build a crematorium in the 1990s. We knew the Hindu community would be an important constituency for the facility. We kept this is mind in the design. In fact, if you take a look at the stained glass that Pickel Studios created for us, you'll see that for the most part it is devoid of religious symbolism. But at the very center is a Hindu symbol.

After doing some research, we ended up meeting with the head of the Hindu Association of America. She spent several hours with us, educating us about what a Hindu family looks for in a cremation facility. She explained that the eldest son or eldest male in the family has to initiate the cremation process, and the family must view it. The family wants to be right where the retort is. We had not been aware of this, an important consideration for planning the design of the building.

Also, Hindus park the hearse away from where the casket will be placed, and have to stop and place the casket on the ground five separate times while carrying it. It was intriguing to learn.

In some cases, it's important to learn about another tradition so that your staff knows what to expect. Some people in our Eastern European community, when attending a traditional grave burial, will not allow us to lower the casket until some member of the family defaces it. They actually stab it, hit it with chains and otherwise damage it.

It was a real shock the first time I saw a family do that. Then someone explained that in the "old country," it was not uncommon for cemeteries to remove the body from a casket in order to resell it. Defacing the casket was the family's way of making sure this would not happen.

The African-American community has chapel services for cremations, with the funeral director acting as the lay minister. It surprised us to learn that regardless of what kind of service has already been held at the funeral home, before the casket is moved from the crematorium chapel to the retort, the funeral director is expected to deliver a sermon for those in attendance. We included a podium at the front of the chapel to make it easier for the speaker.

Another thing we heard from several groups is that they felt rushed when they wanted to use the chapel in connection with cremations. We therefore decided that one of the things that would differentiate St. Michael's All Soul's Chapel and Crematorium was that we would extend the typical chapel time scheduled to half an hour (the norm in the area was 10 to 15 minutes). We try our best to allow families to remain in the chapel as long as they wish.

In fact, as a result of the input we got from different groups as we planned the crematorium, we went from envisioning the crematorium as the focus with the chapel as an adjunct to the exact opposite view, with the chapel as the focus.

4. Invite religious leaders from all faiths to participate in events as appropriate. We have an annual service in honor of the Queens firefighters who lost their lives on September 11, 2001. We offer everyone from our community representation. We've had Buddhist, Muslim, Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Jewish religious leaders participate.

5. Hire counselors from key communities. Everybody knows to do this, right? But you need to go beyond that initial step to fully reap the benefits.

Like most urban cemeteries, St. Michael's has limited land and is counting on mausoleum space to extend its active life. Part of my job is to sell out a new building every two years, at the rate of about 600 preneed mausoleum spaces annually.

We have a very large Greek community in the Astoria area of Queens, which is not far from our front door. The members of this community have historically been traditional grave purchasers, reluctant to even look at spaces in a community mausoleum, fearful of cemeteries and never preplanning.

I wanted to hire a Greek counselor, so I attended a lot of Greek churches and met a lot of people. Eventually I met the person I wanted to hire, Nicholas Papamichael, a young man who was running a food business but had a great personality.

After he was on board, I invited the local Greek newspaper to come down to St. Michael's and do a story on him. They wrote what turned out to be a four-page story on the advantages of preplanning and about how community mausoleums are a great advance over traditional ground burial.

In the past, the Greek community would have been responsible for maybe 2 to 3 percent of our mausoleum sales, purchased at-need. Since that article, close to 18 percent of our pre-need mausoleum sales are in the Greek community.

6. Look for ways to be a community facilitator. The past few years, we've managed to reach out to every elected official in Queens, partly through our Queens 9/11 memorial and service. We know them; they know us.

As I keep tabs on what's going on in different communities by reading their newspapers and talking to their leaders, I look for opportunities for St. Michael's to help out.

If there's a group trying to place a bench in a park, clean up a neighborhood, get a traffic light or stop sign installed or secure an increased police presence, it's not uncommon for us to get a phone call requesting help in getting the attention of the appropriate elected official. But we don't wait for the call. If we learn of a need, we offer to help.

It also works in reverse-our Congressional representatives view St. Michael's as a community resource and will come to us for help in reaching out to constituents.

7. Make your facilities available for use by community groups. Organizations need places to meet. A local Kiwanas group uses our chapel for meetings; so does a Queens Library committee. Sometimes Rep. Carolyn Maloney holds meetings on local issues there. A local businesswomen's group meets there.

8. If you're a cemeterian, think of funeral directors as a group you should cultivate as you would any other. This is crucial for stand-alone cemeteries. I belong to the Metropolitan Funeral Directors Association and the Long Island Funeral Directors Association. I participate in their events; I advertise in their journals. St. Michael's sends a newsletter to 224 funeral directors.

I do whatever is required to make sure that every funeral director in the area has a positive view of St. Michael's. Funeral directors know that if they need something they can call me and most likely my answer will be "yes."

When All Souls Chapel was complete, the first thing we did was notify the funeral directors that it was available-free of charge-for any need they might have. Some of them are members of fraternal organizations that require a place to meet; others want a place for their own special events.

Each year Farenga & Sons funeral director Gus Antonopolous observes All Souls Day with a candle-lighting service in our chapel. He's also used the chapel for Greek Easter, New Year's and other occasions.

 
No business can be all things to all people, but as communities become increasingly diverse, we need to find ways to reach out to more people. At St. Michael's, we try to reach beyond the cemetery's gates and become a partner in the lives of our c1ients and potential clients.

A sweet way to help the local landscape and generate buzz about your cemetery

Beekeepers look like exotic creatures, wearing protective hoods, risking stings to rob hives of honey. But beekeeping has an undeserved reputation as a dangerous occupation, and having an apiary can be a great way to help the community while generating good publicity for your cemetery.

WHAT: Spring Grove has eight honeybee hives, taken care of on a part-time basis by one of our grounds employees, Paul Westerback. The bees help our seed production and provide pollination for the surrounding community, as well, since bees will roam up to 2 miles from their hive. They also provide us with hundreds of jars of Spring Grove honey to hand out as a goodwill and publicity gesture. There's nothing like a thin layer of honey slathered on a slice of wheat toast to bring you to a new energy level!

WHY: Spring Grove produces patented seeds and gets requests for them from all over.  About 20 years ago we felt we needed to increase our seed stock because of the fragility of some of the seed. We decided the way to do it would be to increase the number of pollinators at work, which would also help out the cemetery overall. The fact that improved pollination would also help local agriculture sealed the deal.

When you're talking pollinators, you're talking bees. Sure, an ant might pollinate something accident, but for bees, it's their life's work. Historically, Spring Grove has always had a hive or two. After all, hundreds of acres of greenery is bound to attract some bees to set up housekeeping. But 20 years ago, we got into beekeeping in a serious way.

Apiaries have taken on greater importance nationwide—worldwide, really—in the past couple of decades. Bee populations have been decimated by parasites, threatening crop production, so anytime healthy hives are added to a community, that's good news. You shouldn't have any problem getting your local media out to the cemetery to do a story about how you're helping local farmers and gardeners by boosting the local bee population. Bees are crucial to the survival of many types of plants.

One of our community outreach programs is called Heritage Days. We always have a honey booth, and it's probably our most popular booth. We give away 500 jars of honey every time we do it, which means it's sitting on the breakfast tables of 500 families.
Parents bring their children to hear Paul talk about bees and answer their questions.
Paul built a bee-viewing area so people can see inside a hive; see the worker bees doing their thing. It's phenomenal to watch him gently take the hand of a 6 year old child, move it along the glass and ask the child to tell him when the glass feels warmer. Then he'll say, "Look under your hand; there's the queen right there." The queen generates so much more heat than the other bees that you can feel it through the glass. The kids get excited; the parents say, "Wow—I didn't know that!"

Local bee pollen is a great allergy fighter, too. Raw honey has some pollen in it, so eating honey produced locally helps decrease any allergic reaction you might have to stings from local bees, and it can help decrease your allergic reaction to local plants, too. Cincinnati is one of those places where people seem to suffer from a lot of allergies. We're not going to make any claims or give anybody medical advice, but we've had people tell us that since they started eating Spring Grove honey and pollen, they don't need to take antihistamines anymore.

Beekeepers are said to have the lowest incidence of cancer of any occupational group—even lower than quilters. All we know for sure is, our beekeeper is retirement age and looks 20 years younger—he's great testimony to the benefit of a diet that includes raw honey on wheat toast!

HOW: The way to put more bees to work in your cemetery is to set up hives.

Step 1: Locate a beekeeper.
Obviously, if you're going to set up and take care of hives yourself, you need an employee who is knowledgeable or willing to become knowledgeable. Getting educated about bees and making or buying hives is no problem at all. There are beekeeping groups all over the country, and they love to initiate a new person into the group, to share information.

We were fortunate to have Paul on our staff, because he's been interested in bees since he was a child. For him, being put in charge of Spring Grove's bees was like giving him a bunch of pets.

But we don't want anyone reading this to say, "We don't have anyone interested in bees, so we're dead in our tracks." If you don't have anyone who can take this on, but you do have room for some hives, go ahead and contact the local beekeepers association and offer a place for someone who wants to keep bees but doesn't have a place to do it, or would like to expand his operation. Even if you have to let him keep all the honey, you can reap the good publicity.

Step 2: Figure out where to put the hives. At the Grove, we've now got eight hives. They give us all the pollination we need to fill our seed requests. Our hives aren't all set up in the same areas, though you can set them up back to back, have two or three in the same area. We put them in different areas where they'll have plenty of plants in their range but not be too close to developed areas.

We have some near the maintenance service barn area, about 100 feet away from our equipment buildings, others in undeveloped sections. Paul always wants them to be facing the east so they get early morning sun. That warms them up quickly and gets them started early to do their daily work. You can move hives, and of course we don't have exactly the same hives we started with 20 years ago. We've lost hives; we've had weak hives where Paul had to send for a new, more aggressive queen to replace a weak queen.

Beekeepers know how to approach a hive so the bees don't get agitated. They use a smoker to calm them down and then use the tricks of the trade to keep them calm. This is where trading information with other beekeepers is so important Paul does get stung sometimes, but he's not allergic, and he says it just boosts his immunity to some of the other challenges of life.

In 25 years, we've never had a customer complain about being stung by a bee. Even if someone got stung, you'd be hard pressed to figure out if the bee was from one of your hives or was a wild bee. We keep our hives out of the developed areas, since there are going to be a lot of bees in the immediate vicinity of the hive.

Step 3: Select a docile breed of bee.
Honeybees do have a powerful sting, but they sting in response to something you've done—they're not out to get you. Those yellow and black insects you find on your can of soda pop when you're at a picnic, just waiting to sting you right on the face, are yellow jacket wasps, not honeybees.

Even so, some breeds of honeybees are more aggressive than others, and you want to make sure you get one of the more docile breeds. Ours are midnights, known as one of the mildest.

Step 4: Consider making use of the honey. You don't have to take the honey. Bees make honey as food for themselves, but they're so efficient, out there just cranking this stuff out, you’re wasting a product if you don't take some. It's called robbing the hive, but you're not threatening their health as long as you don't take too much. Paul—or any beekeeper who's done his or her homework—knows how much he can take from the hive. He calculates how many degree days (a measure of how cold the weather's going to be) are left in the winter, how much honey the hive needs to remain stable.

The hives, as you can see in the pictures, are wooden boxes, called supers. Paul used to just take the end off the super, cut the end off the wax the bees use to seal in the honey and then slowly drain it into a pan. It’s a slow process, of course, since honey is dense. When we decided to get more serious about honey production, we decided to invest in some equipment, which we keep in the basement of one of our buildings. For example, you can get equipment to spin the honey out using centrifugal force. Again, being in touch with your local beekeepers is a good way to find out about equipment deals. Periodically a beekeeper retires and sells off equipment.

The beekeepers association has a standard label you can get at very low cost and then add your logo or name to. We used to go that route, with a label that said Ohio Apiaries and had the Grove logos underneath, but we recently designed our own label to make the Spring Grove name much more prominent. With today's computers, it's easy to work up something slick, print it out on label paper and stick it on your jars.

Jars are easy to get from any jar supplier.  We're not selling the honey, we're giving it away to generate goodwill and publicity, so we want to give out little tastes and reach as many people as possible. Our jars hold about 4 ounces. We never give a garden talk without taking some Spring Grove honey with us. You can just imagine the positive comments we get on this program.

Even though there are costs involved in running our apiary, we don't have a separate bee line item. Paul handles his bee-related maintenance when he has down time from his other duties. Maybe it's raining and he can't do anything on the grounds, so he works on his bee or honey equipment. The apiary program is not a high-cost one, and we feel it's valuable.

Step 5: Don't forget the paperwork.
You have to register your hives with the state. It's a simple, routine thing to do, and in return you get support from the state regulators. We pay $5 a year, which is ridiculously low for what they do. They inspect your hives annually; let you know if you have a problem. If you have a weak hive, they might advise you to build it up by feeding the bees some sugar water. (A weak hive might have 15,000 bees, a good colony from 80,000 to 100,000 bees.) If you've got mites, they'll tell you to put mite strips in the chamber.

Paul attends the local beekeepers' meetings and also goes to the state apiary meetings. We're trying new methods to avoid the parasite problems bees have been having.

Bees have gone through some tough times, and we're proud that Spring Grove is part of the "save the bees" movement.

You believe a positive news story is a lottery you win. It's your local TV station, radio station, newspaper, calling to say they want to do a positive story on you. My message to you is: The phone works both ways.

There are two times in our lives as reporters when we need your stories: During horribly slow periods and during "feeding frenzies."

Every government holiday is a slow news day. Thanksgiving week there won't be any school stories, no court stories, no city hall stories.

When was the last time you turned into your local news and heard the anchor say, "Sorry folks; nothing happened today. Here's 'Gilligan's Island.''' The newspapers are in the same jam.

We're so predictable that we can be used to get out your positive stories. All you have to do is circle the government holidays and the days surrounding them and you're going to find a predictably slow chunk of news time to stage your story: Memorial Day, Labor Day, the Fourth of July.

Stories we would never care about during a normal news cycle suddenly become interesting when nobody else is feeding the media.

Why press releases aren't working
The press release system in America is broken. It worked in the '50s, '60s and '70s, but by the '80s everyone had a fax machine, by the '90s, everyone had e-mail. At my station in Dallas, we get 300 paper releases every single day off the fax machines, and 700 e-mails. Who can read a 1,000 page book every day?

When bad news happens
It's never the mess-up that gets them in trouble—it's the cover up.... If you messed up, fess up! If you show up and there's a TV camera parked there and the TV person jumps you and say" "We talked to this widow and she says she was overcharged, blah, blah, blah." What do you do? Always, always, always cooperate. Do you know what she's praying you'll do? She's praying you put your hands over the lens and say, "Get that camera out of here.” Because NOW she's got a highlight film. "Coming up tonight at 10, what does this person not want you to see?"

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

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

Since the earliest history of man, the mystery we know as death has been an event in the life of the individual held in reverence and awe. Even in the most savage tribes of which we have knowledge, the burial of the dead has been surrounded by many customs peculiar to the particular belief or religion of the tribe. From time immemorial, therefore, the cemetery has been a community institution of the utmost importance.

It is interesting to examine briefly the history of burial practices, not¬ing the various changes which took place out of which has evolved our modern cemetery of today. In fact, it is necessary that such an examina¬tion be made if we are to judge the modern cemetery and its relation to the public as a community institution.

During the known history of mankind, there have been three great epochs or periods of burial practices prior to our modern times, and we may now consider ourselves to be in the fourth period.

The first epoch was the era before the invention of writing - the era of hieroglyphics. The chief source of information regarding this period has come from excavations and from the colossal structures still standing as monuments of those times. The masses of the people were ignorant and dominated by the despotic rule of the priests and kings. Millions upon millions of man-hours of labor were spent in building the great temples, palaces and tombs of that day. Examples of this era are the pyramids at Memphis and the sepulchers’ at Thebes, with their tunnels boring deep into the bowels of the mountain through solid rock, in some instances for as much as two miles.

In the second epoch, the world had advanced in intelligence, and was that period after the invention of writing but before the art of printing was discovered. The tombs of this period were far less magnificent than those of the first era, but the priests and kings still maintained their sway over the minds of the people. In this age it was customary to burn the relics of the dead and to deposit the ashes in urns. This period dated from the beginning of Greek culture to the fall of the Roman Empire.

The third epoch was that of Christianity, where knowledge and cul¬tivation had spread among the common people through the equalizing influence of the new religion. It was then also that the people began to feel the influence of tender sentiments connected with the dead, which are most observable in highly civilized people. In this period, the highest honor that could be paid the individual was to accord him burial within the church; and, since there was not room for all within the church, the churchyard cemetery was born. In this age, great expense was still lavished on the tombs of kings, princes and nobles, but in a less marked degree.

The fourth epoch is that in which we are now living, is that of the rural or park like cemetery and is comparatively recent date. It has been developed more fully in the United States than anywhere else. More stress has been placed on attaining quiet restfulness in the cemetery, as expressed by the beauties of nature and art. The masses of the people have become vastly more educated, and in our own country the traditional barrier between rich and poor, between highborn and common people, has been largely erased. It is this fact, perhaps more than any other, which has made possible public acceptance of non-monument cemeteries. It is also this fact that convinces us that the non-monument cemetery fills a public need, and is here to stay. How far the trend toward the non¬-monumental idea will go is a very controversial question. Only the pass¬age of time will provide us with the answer. Sufficient for our purpose at this time is to state only that the public demands should be served, whether monument or non-monument, and particularly in those communities of a size to need but one cemetery, a combination of monument and non-¬monument sections would seem most desirable.

We have thus briefly traced the evolution of burial practices, out of which has come our modern cemeteries of today. We have seen the pyra¬mids of the Pharaohs transformed into the well designed monument or marker of today through the great leveling agency of education. More recently, we have watched the development of the idea that the cemetery should serve not only a utilitarian purpose as a depository for the mortal remains of the deceased, but that the cemetery should serve the living as well as the dead; that it should not be a cold; dank, dreary, forbidding place, but a place of light, of beauty, of warmth and sunshine which will teach us Nature's lessons and strengthen our faith in a life beyond the grave.

What then are some of the factors which determine whether or not our cemetery is functioning as a community institution of the highest order?

PHYSICAL FORM AND ADMINISTRATION OF THE CEMETERY

We shall consider first the cemetery itself - its physical form and administration. Of first importance is the matter of proper planning. St. Gaudens, the famous sculptor said, "There is nothing that needs proper supervision and planning more than the modern cemetery, for there is nothing that suffers more from vulgarity, ignorance and pretentiousness on the one side, and grasping unscrupulousness on the other". We are all familiar with and know instances of cemeteries which find themselves hemmed in on every side by undesirable - that is, undesirable from the cemetery viewpoint - industrial development; cemeteries that are in the way of necessary street widening or other public improvement. Fortunate¬ly, an abundance of good highways and the automobile have permitted cemeteries to locate far from the centers of dense population, thus mini¬mizing the dangers of future encroachment. When planning the new cemetery or new sections in an established cemetery, too often the local architect or engineer is given the job - to keep the work at home is the excuse - when he has no qualifications whatever for the task, although he probably is perfectly competent in his own line of work. To transform farm and woodlands into a beautiful cemetery, to take every advantage of the topography of the chosen site, demands skill, creative ability and resourcefulness of the first order. This is an age of specialization and many able architects who specialize in cemetery design are now available. So why not employ specialists for the task of planning our cemetery?
Our cemetery should be a beauty spot. The beauties of nature, of art and architecture exert tremendous power in easing sorrow. Let us make our cemetery a profusion of beauty, where the families and friends of deceased loved ones will come again and again to assuage their grief in the healing powers of nature and art.

The importance of good landscaping in the creation of lasting beauty cannot be overemphasized, and unless cost of maintenance and replace¬ment are no governing factors, the landscaping materials should consist in the main of native trees and shrubs. The development of points of interest is essential, and may take the form of statuary, art glass, dis¬tinctive architecture, rock gardens, sunken gardens, formal gardens, lakes, ponds, pools, streams, fountains, specialization in particular species of flowering shrubs or particular varieties of flowers. Quiet nooks screened by shrubbery for rest and meditation are always appreciated by the ceme¬tery visitor. That these points of interest need not be elaborate or expen¬sive to be effective was most forcefully brought home to me this summer in my own cemetery.

We have a mirror pool in front of our mausoleum. Each spring we have been stocking this pool with large size gold fish which we obtain for a nominal sum from commercial fishermen who net them in Lake Erie. This year, for some unknown reason, the fish we placed in the pool were diseased and all died within a few days, and were not replaced. During the summer we have had dozens of inquiries as to why there are no fish in the pool. You may be sure that hereafter there will always be fish in the pool. Many of the old established cemeteries have some of the points of interest mentioned, or lend themselves admirably to the establishment of several without excessive expense; and of course the removal of grave mounds, curbing, lot fences and the widening of drives where possible will do much to further beautify the established cemetery.

Proper rules and regulations should be adopted by our modern ceme¬tery and after adoption, strictly enforced. While enforcement of the rules is no easy task for cemetery employees, tactfulness and patience will win in the end. We should also not forget that the passage of time and chang¬ing conditions will require periodic changes in our rules and regulations; that out of date rules may sometimes be worse than no rules.

The proper upkeep of our modern cemetery is due to the Perpetual Care Fund and the perpetual care system is the result of putting our cemetery on a paying basis. A modern accounting system and a complete set of records is a necessity if we are to be provided with up to date infor¬mation as to which of our operations show profits and which show losses. A readily accessible, accurate list of lot owners and of interments should be revised daily. In this connection, the historical record of interments is being used by more and more progressive cemeteries. In generations to come, such a record will be of priceless value to the community that has it available. For the long established cemetery, the difficulties encountered in reconstructing authentic lists of lot owners and interments are obviously great, but truly remarkable results have been achieved by those cemeteries willing to give time and honest effort to the task.

PERPETUAL CARE

Perhaps no phase of cemetery operation has been so much abused as has the Perpetual Care Fund. Only a small percentage of the cemeteries in this country claim to have a care fund; and only a very small percent¬age of those who claim to have such a fund, really do have one. Many have had one; many have one, with but few or no assets in it. Some mort¬gages went sour; some bonds defaulted; the secretary - a trusted local banker - speculated, lost the fund and was not bonded; the principal of the fund was used for operations; in anyone of a hundred different ways the fund has been dissipated. The need for a permanent care fund is apparent. Proper maintenance of our cemetery must eventually depend upon the income from it. So let us establish an honest-to-goodness Per¬petual Care Fund. Let us set up an irrevocable trust; let responsibility for its management be divided between the cemetery trustees, a corporate trustee and representatives chosen by the lot owners. Let us set up accurate accounting methods and send a monthly check to the trustee of the fund. For if we do not do these things of our own volition, sometime, in the not too far distant future, someone outside the cemetery business is going to force us to do so. Much has been said during the past few years about outside interests trying to tell us how to run the cemetery business. Most assuredly, outside interests will run our cemetery for us if we do not ourselves operate it for the public benefit. So let us have a real Perpetual Care Fund, and see that it is administered in strict accordance with the best trust practice.

PUBLIC RELATIONS

Our modern cemetery's relationships with the public are many and varied. Of primary importance in public relations are the employees of our cemetery. To the visitor within our gates, the employee is our repre¬sentative, and our cemetery is judged by its employees. It naturally follows that our employees should be quiet, intelligent, tactful and understanding.

It may seem superfluous to mention that a complete, well kept grave service is necessary to our modern cemetery. The need for complete, neat grave-side equipment and clean, attentive employees is essential. Music during the interment service is coming to be an accepted, integral part of the service. In my own experience with music covering more than four years use, there has been only one instance when it was requested that music not be used for the committal service. And in this lone instance, the lady who was responsible afterward told me she was sorry it had not been used. The truth of the matter, she explained to me, was that prior to the burial of her loved one, she had never heard music at a committal service and thought it would intensify her sorrow. But after she had heard the chimes and organ during a burial service, her mind had been changed completely. The service of' the cemetery to the family of the deceased should not end with the burial, but should be a continuing service. Those cemeteries following the practice of making personal follow-up calls to the family after each interment have been well rewarded by increased good will, by the establishing of closer relations with the family, as well as showing increased sales directly attributable to such calls.

The relations of our cemetery with the public must be upon the high¬est plane. The profit motive must be entirely subordinated to the obliga¬tion our cemetery owes to the community. The management must have the interests of the public at heart if our cemetery is to be a community institution in the truest sense. It would seem that the description of St. Gaudens’ concerning the suffering of cemeteries from "vulgarity, ignor¬ance and pretentiousness on the one side, and grasping unscrupulousness on the other", would fit many who have been in the cemetery business in the past few years. Our profession has no place for the unscrupulous pro¬moter who flits from place to place, and whose only interest is in the amount of money he can make. Happily, the number of such unethical promoters is rapidly decreasing, and his total extinction is not far distant.

Our public relations through the medium of ethical advertising can be most beneficial, both to our cemetery and to the community. Everyone is agreed that before need buying of cemetery lots is advantageous to both seller and purchaser. Consistent, persistent advertising has done much ¬will do much more - to increase before need sales.

The quality of our service will depend much on the degree of our co-operation with allied services, such as the funeral directors, the vault manufacturers, the florists and the memorial craftsmen. If we work in complete harmony with these allied interests, our service to the public is bound to be improved.

And finally, our relationship with our competitors should be friendly and cooperative. Let us not permit competitive methods of the cut-throat variety to be the cause of our rendering the public an inferior service.

SPECIAL FEATURES

The development of special features and services is a proper function of our modern cemetery. Easter Sunrise Services, Memorial Day, Mother's Day, Armistice Day and Christmas Day services have been highly success¬ful when properly handled. In my own experience, I can say without hesitation or qualification that the Easter Sunrise Service has been the finest thing my cemetery has ever attempted. It has created immeasurable good will for the cemetery, and given us publicity which is literally priceless; although I wish to emphasize that the favorable publicity has been a by-product of the Sunrise Service, and was in no sense our motive when inaugurating it. The taint of commercialism will utterly destroy the value of any special day service, for the public as well as for the cemetery. Many cemeteries are veritable Edens for the student of nature and bird life. Such study we can encourage by labeling trees and shrubs with the common and botanical names, and by the erection of bird houses and feeding racks. Flower shows and exhibits are always successful and highly appreciated by the public. Amateur photographic contests will encourage an, enjoy¬able hobby and will furnish our cemetery with many valuable pictures.

CONCLUSION

If you asked a dozen people what a certain cemetery in their com¬munity meant to them, the chances are you would get a dozen different answers. To some it would mean a hallowed place where loved ones lie sleeping, to others a place where the annual Memorial Day Services are held each year. To some it would mean a quiet place for the study of nature, and to still others it would bring to mind a riot of brilliant fall colors.

But back of all these should lie the concept of our cemetery as a good citizen of our community, with a good citizen's responsibility and attitude, and that concept should be for our cemetery a matter of fundamental policy. In short, we should seek through all our activities to be good citizens of the community - and of the country - in which we live, for it is upon the progress of the whole people and all their communities that the future welfare of each of us depends, association, corporation and individual citizen alike.

In this necessarily cursory discourse on the cemetery as a community institution, there has been time to present only a bare outline of what our modern cemetery should be, but it is hoped that there has been created in each of us an incentive for all of us to work out in our own cemetery for the benefit of our community, the thought of Robert Browning when he said,

"The common problem, - yours, mine, every ones'¬
Is not to fancy what were fair in life
Provided it could be; but, finding first
What may be then find how to make it fair
Up to our dreams"

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

The subject under discussion in this symposium, the problems of the cemetery in the smaller community, might better be stated "How to make Our Community cemetery-conscious with the least possible expense."

We, who are directing cemeteries in smaller communities, must realize that the answer to our problem, since we operate on a limited budget demands more ingenuity and originality than the larger cemetery with its more extensive funds.

If our property has been established for many years it is unfortunately taken for wanted as a part of the background of the community. If it is a new project, the general attitude of the masses is that we must be a group of "no goods" just trying to "wheedle" money out of poor John Q. Public.

Typical of the great thinking capacity of the masses is the reaction we have had from numerous families in Erie. I am managing Lakeside Cemetery there, a property of great natural beauty that has been in existence for forty-five years. Now that we have taken over the property and are in the midst of a progressive development program we find that some folks want to wait to see if this plan "goes over" or if this is just one of those "new-fangled ideas."

Unfortunately with many of us, who have been established in a com¬munity for some length of time, our thinking relative to our own particu¬lar situation is colored by a constant association with that one cemetery. We mentally reach a sort of stagnation point - when it seems almost impossible to present our subject from some new interesting angle. Because we think and talk our property morning, noon, and night we are under the erroneous impression that everyone in the community knows our cemetery intimately. If only that were true! I have tried to keep uppermost in my mind my own experience with cemeteries prior to join¬ing forces with this modern crusade. I lived in a community of some 60,000 souls, to me and my family there was only one cemetery in the city - we knew there were others, the names of these other properties were familiar but that was the extent of our familiarity. I know it would have been a distinct shock to the managers of those cemeteries, after all their efforts, to know that hundreds of families were no different from my own.

Why did such a condition exist - these other cemeteries were good properties - well kept - fairly well managed. My only answer is they did not bring the cemetery to us-they did not excite our curiosity-they allowed us to forget their very existence - we took them for granted ¬to us they held no important place in the realm of the sun. An ex¬tremely important part of our job is to make our cemetery interesting enough and talked about enough to arouse the curiosity of the public to the point of driving out to our properties to see what the devil all this fuss is about.

As kids we have all gone through the castor oil stage. At my own home that was always a screaming ordeal. When people finally learned to disguise this "bane of childhood" in odd concoctions, screaming time was cut to a minimum. That same principle is true today. People still hate to be told what is good for them; however, if they can be sold our idea indirectly, they pat themselves on the back for having had the fore¬sight to prepare for their families in advance of need.

One of the reasons for the success of showing moving pictures to church groups is that we convey, our idea, to the people, when they are in a relaxed state of mind. In that same category of indirect salesmen are numerous types of good competitions and special services. Intelli¬gently handled, contests can give us a tremendous amount of favorable publicity that will arouse the interest of a large cross-section of people within our communities. Any contest should be so planned that the participants, will of necessity, visit our cemeteries. It invariably will attract a sizeable group who have either never been in or have not visited the cemetery for years. Isn't that all we can ask of any form of publicity? A dignified, well-planned contest takes the cemetery out of the staid position it has always held within the community. It creates the feeling that the cemetery takes active participation in the life of the city.

A precept for any successful contest is to make the group involved m the contest of primary importance and the cemetery itself secondary. Our experience has proven that newspapers are quite willing to cooperate with us in regard to a contest involving different civic groups, even though they had been reticent in directly publicizing some garden or development plan we had in mind.

Finally, and of prime importance, a contest makes the public conscious of our existence.

In arranging a competition to be sponsored by the cemetery, there are a number of general rules worth following.

The spirit of competition is more important than the amount set aside for prizes. From three to seven prizes comprising a total expendi¬ture of from $25 to $50 has proven adequate incentive.

The age of the group that you are appealing to is relatively unimpor¬tant, since the families naturally become involved if the subject-matter appeals to minors.

Very definitely the contest should be planned so that the results of such competition would be usable later by the cemetery.

Be certain your approach to the contest does not smack too much of commercialism. Always keep foremost the value to the group involved. The dignity of our service to people must be kept in mind as the yard¬stick for the possible success of any contest.

Make either the contest itself - or the results of it - bring people to the cemetery.

In your publicity and literature put out relating to the contest keep two ideas always foremost - originality of approach and fresh sparkling copy can do much to arouse public interest.

I will try to give you, in a rather sketchy form, a number of good possible contests. Frequently, as I stated in the beginning, your perspective becomes clouded through too constant association. An Essay Contest stimulates wide interest in your property; and, at the same time, is a fine source from which to glean new angles in presenting your cemetery.

This type of competition offers a challenge to a wide variety of people of all ages. To write intelligently on the subject people, of necessity, must visit the cemetery.

In most communities you will find the newspapers willing to publish the prize essays.

Excerpts from the better essays can make a very effective mailing piece. Here are a number of suggested subjects to use for such a contest:

1. Blank Cemetery, a Civic Institution
2. Why Blank Cemetery Appeals to Me
3. Blank Cemetery, A Living Inspiration
4. Blank Cemetery, Truly a Garden of Memories

If we can take advantage of a general hobby or temporary fad we have the basis for a successful competition. The Camera fan today is a growing army in search of new fields to conquer. Every community has a surprising number of these addicts - to say nothing of our own group here today. In preparation, for launching such a contest next spring at Lakeside, I have checked its possibilities thoroughly. As a result of this survey my enthusiasm for it grows. The sizeable number of possible contestants, the good shots that will result from such a competition, the unlimited uses for these pictures and the fact that people are impressed when they see others frequently taking pictures of the property, all adds up to a most valuable contest.

Here are some helpful hints that may assist you to plan a similar competition.

Your community has in it a number of active camera clubs. It is also possible that the High Schools in your city have such an organization. I plan upon contacting these groups, personally presenting the plan of the contest.

Write and have printed an interesting announcement including in it the rules governing the contest. This piece can be given to members of the camera clubs and can be sent to your lot owners. You will find all of the photographic supply stores more than willing to use them as a stuffer in each envelope of prints made for their customers.

A number of items can be placed in the newspapers -- announcement and follow-up articles.

The general rules and regulations can be copied almost verbatim from the national photographic contests - copies of which can be had at your photographic supply store.

Make a group of window display cards announcing the contest - the supply stores will again cooperate by putting them in their windows.

Plan the contest to cover a three-month period through the spring and summer.

We plan using the following prize set-up:

(1) $20.00 (3) $7.50 (5) $2.50
(2) $15.00 (4) $3.00 (6 & 7) $1.00

Most amateurs with their own enlarging equipment can make 5"x7" prints. Be sure to specify in your rules on the contest that participants submit un-mounted, glossy prints 5"x7" or larger. If you do not mention un-mounted prints, some of the art work of entries would possibly take prizes in a surrealist art exhibit. The glossy print is; of course, necessary for reproduction.

An extremely important rule of the contest should read as follows:

"All prints submitted become the property of Blank Cemetery to be used at their discretion,"

The newspapers will print the winning pictures if the cemetery will pay for the cost of cuts.

Your larger supply stores will be willing to exhibit the pictures. Another splendid spot for exhibiting is the Public Library. The first showing of the results of the competition should be at the Cemetery, in possibly an open-air exhibit, similar to the P.W.A. art exhibits in New York City. There, by the way, is one good idea that can be credited to the New Deal.

The possible uses of the prize-winners and better pictures are too lengthy to cover at this time.

If you are fortunate enough, in your particular situation, to have many old trees scattered through your property you are in a fine position to operate a contest that can have lasting effects. I refer to the possibility of playing up the idea of your cemetery as a Bird Sanctuary. In Riverview Burial Park in Lancaster we had such a situation. We operated there a Bird House Contest, sponsored by the Boy Scouts of America, with excellent results. Here is how we approached and operated the contest.

The most important factor is to get complete cooperation from the Chief Scout Executive. Having been a scout, during the World War, I am familiar with their desire to find worthwhile projects for the boys to work on. The approach must be from the standpoint of the interest to the boys and the value of a bird sanctuary to the city.

The best time to hold such a competition with the scouts is during the winter when their activities are at a minimum. We held ours from January first to March fifteenth.

Our prize set-up consisted of: 1st - Complete Boy Scout uniform or a week at scout camp; 2nd - A week at camp; and 3rd - The official Poncho. In addition to the individual prizes we offered a prize to the troop turning in the best group of houses - the prize was the troop flag or the American Flag. Our total prize cost was $25.00.

We sent an announcement of the contest to the complete list of Scout¬masters - this can be had from the Chief. This was followed up with a form letter once a month and, finally, a personal phone call ten days before the closing date.

I would suggest your writing the articles for the newspapers but allow the Scout office to handle the placing of the articles with their regular publicity.

In addition to this we wrote a series of articles for the Scout bulletin. In writing these articles, remember you must keep in mind the fact that you are writing from the viewpoint of boys, from ten to sixteen years of age.

We chose as the judges of this contest the present and past president of the Bird Club and the Chief Scout Executive.

At the completion of the contest after the judging had taken place we exhibited the houses at the cemetery over two week-ends. Announcements in the paper and a postal card sent to a selected list of people built up our attendance at the exhibit. Here is the copy we used on the card of announcement:

B. S. A. HOUSING EXHIBIT

YOU'VE heard of PWA, FHA and AAA. BSA - means Boy Scouts of America. Housing Exhibit - means you are cordially invited to inspect the results of a Contest the boys have been in - building bird houses to be placed in Riverview Burial Park.

You will be impressed by the ingenuity and cleverness of the Scouts in building these bird homes. They range from one-room bungalows to small villages that will appeal to the most particular of birds.

SATURDAY and Sunday, March 18 and 19, and March 25 and 26, the houses will be on display just within the entrance of Riverview on South Duke at Ann Street. The Scouts will welcome your inspection.

There were eighty-some houses submitted in the contest, many of which were very cleverly built. Today every one of those houses has a tenant there in the cemetery. You can be sure the families of the boys that built those houses have a warm spot in their hearts for that particular cemetery.

I am sorry that the time allotted me will not allow me to go into further detail in regard to the operation of these numerous contests. Although they demand a lot of work our experience has proven them to be one of. the most inexpensive methods of accomplishing the great major problem in cemetery management - namely, arousing public inter¬est in your property, making people feel that your cemetery is an integral part of the life of the community, and most important of all, bringing, them to your property to see what there is about it that makes their neighbors ask, "Have you seen what they are doing out at Blank Cemetery?”

Mr. Chairman, I have said very little in this paper relative actually to the direct subject. Because of that, I would like to agree with Mr. Sparks on one remark he made. My connection in this business has always been in cities of between 30,000 and 60,000 population, up until just a very few months ago. Coming to these meetings and contacting men who are operating much larger properties, I have found that practically all the ideas that they have been using in those properties were applicable to cemeteries regardless of the size of the cemetery. We don't work them necessarily the same way but we use the principle. And I feel the principles I am speaking of here will work any place and it doesn’t make any difference whether it is a cemetery in a community of 20,000 population or over a million population.

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