Page B11 MAY 2023 FUNERAL HOME & CEMETERY NEWS Section B When it comes to branding many people think that it’s your logo. They’ll say, “I need to strengthen my brand. I gotta make a logo.” Additionally, they view branding as marketing, but none of these are true. In short, your brand is your business reputation. It’s the feeling people get when your name comes up and when they do business with you. Do you know what people say when the name of your firm comes up? You better. You might argue, “I can’t control what people say and think.” If that were true I wouldn’t have a job. When it comes to your brand you have control and must take control because your future depends on it. Branding Components When it comes to your brand you have two sides and three pillars. The first is the visual side. This is the side that everyone sees consisting of your logo, uniforms, fleet vehicles, website, social media, etc. Anywhere someone can encounter your brand they’re engaging with the visual side of it. Those areas of your visual brand people interact with are also called touchpoints since they are, in essence, touching your brand. The second side is the non-visual side, behind scenes. This side no one sees, but is actually more important because it’s the foundation the visual side of your brand is built on. This, non-visual side is your business, your values, your revenue ecosystem, your operations, management, goals and more. All of that affects how the visual side of your funeral brand is created, functions and ultimately how successful it is. Let me give you an example. The False Solution Let’s say a restaurant comes to me and says they need to update their branding. Sales are slow and if they don’t do something they’re going to go out of business. They spend thousands of dollars updating the visual side of their brand and it’s beautiful. However, months later sales are still down. They’re furious at me saying I didn’t do my job. They say this was supposed to bring in more business (which it should help), but nothing is happening. So then I dig deeper and ask why did they feel they needed a new brand and what do they think caused the dip in sales? They respond that a rat ran through the restaurant in the middle of the dinner rush. Woah! That changes everything. The cause of the dip in sales had everything to do with the non-visual side of their brand. They didn’t have systems to maintain cleanliness. They didn’t foster strong enough relationships with pest control companies to have routine services done to prevent rats from even coming into the building. They may not even have considered adding such things to their operating budget. Now they’re in a crisis thinking changing the visual side of their brand will fix their sales issues. We sometimes call that shiny object syndrome. This shiny object, a new brand, will fix all my problems. Yet, the root problem hasn’t been addressed. Firms can look at a dip in service calls or an increase in cremations whereas before they did mostly traditional burials and think doing more sales, pre-need, ads or other things is the cure-all. Yet, you need to address the root issues that are causing breaks in the chain that is the brand experience you provide families. Is it a staff training issue? Do families fully understand the things they need to do to ensure they have a healing memorial service? Do your forms and documents make it easy to facilitate that? Are there steps they’re not taking? Are you doing after care? Are you doing content marketing/ education? Not addressing these things will snowball growth and revenue issues in your firm. The old me 15 years ago would have done the first part and just jump in and make what the client asked for. Now the older, wiser me stops and asks why and makes sure the non-visual side of their brand is solid enough to support the creative, visual side my team will create to ensure success. What are your brand pillars? When it comes to your brand I like to group it into three pillars. Those are your brand pillar, business pillar and culture pillar. Most companies usually focus on a singular solution like doing Facebook ads, google ads or even updating your logo. This is mainly because that’s what people see and is a direct response for increasing sales. Yet, there are other aspects of your brand you need to pay attention to that will affect your sales. I believe it’s more important to make sure the non-visual sides of your brand, your business and culture pillar are also strong and functioning well. The reason why is because it affects the visual side of your brand. We talked about how a bad business pillar can affect sales with the illustration of the restaurant. In the same way, you could be paying thousands in a pre-need program or Facebook ads, but if your staff doesn’t have proper training, if you don’t have systems in place for upselling or you’re not creating a deeper experience working with families then you’re wasting your money. Your firm is an ecosystem. One part cannot function properly without the others thus it’s important to make sure everything is proper and it will help you drastically increase your revenue and service calls. Brand Pillar-This is the strategy behind your brand. It consists of your mission and purpose, messaging, logo, brand persona and story, ideal family (let’s be real, not every family in your community is ideal for your firm) and more. Business Pillar-This is your revenue ecosystem, value ladder, how you transform families (more on that another time), how to develop content, creating a local outreach plan and fully developing a service delivery system that truly sets your funeral home apart from others as the best. What Real Branding Is, and it’s Not What You Think By George Paul III Culture Pillar-This is defining your brand values for your team, onboarding and training, identifying lynchpins that could cripple your firm, creating a growth and support system, vendor relations, staff and family check-ins and more. As you strengthen your brand pillars you’ll find that you have a team that’s reinvigorated and excited to work at your firm. They’ll go to bat for you, talk about you and more. Families will clearly see what sets you apart and the transformation you provide them. Even though there’s a stigma talking about death families will talk about you freely to others because they want others to experience the transformation you’ve provided them. You’ll see service calls drastically increase as well as net profit. All of this because you took control of your brand the right way to deliver an experience that families will want to repeat only with you when the occasion arises. I wish you the best in your endeavors branding the legacy you’re building. George Paul III is a branding expert and award-winning designer. Throughout a 20year career he’s leveraged the power of branding to transform businesses into sustainable brands. He’s the founder of Cherished Keepsakes and Cherished Creative. For the last 12 years Cherished Keepsakes has provided personalized funeral keepsakes to families and firms across the country. Cherished Creative delivers agency-level branding, marketing and design services to busy firm owners. His mission is to leverage branding and design to build and honor the legacies of the living and departed. By doing so firms become an integral part of families lives. He can be reached at gpaul@cherishedkeepsakes.com. URLs: www.cherishedcreative. agency and www.cherishedkeepsakes.com. 1.800.321.7479 julie@NomisPublications.com Nomis Publications, Inc., PO Box 5159, Youngstown, Ohio 44514 www.NomisPublications.com Did you miss the Advertising Deadline for the Funeral Home & Cemetery News DIRECTORY Shipping TRADE SERVICE today! EXPOSURE for your get Funeral Home and Cemetery DIRECTORY
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