An important part of any marketing strategy for a funeral home is how
merchandise is presented to families. In the case of the cremation family,
this is especially important.

With the help of casket vendors, most show rooms reflect a marketing
strategy intended to help the family select the casket that is best for them.
The same kind of thought and care should go into the urn display. Here are
some basic concepts for selecting and displaying urns.

Selection		

Arriving at the right selection of urns for your funeral home is challenging.
In many ways, it is a "balancing act" between too-many and too-few.

The number of urns you have in your display will affect the overall sales
of urn. The tendency to "collect" urns under the guise of offering options,
often ends up in a hodgepodge of inventory that collects dust. On the other
hand, to avoid offering urns because "our cremation families don’t want
anything extra," is a self-defeating mindset.

Usually, a selection of between sixteen and twenty-two urns works well.
Choose urns that you like and see value in. You will feel good about offering
what you like. However, if you find that one or two of the urns you initially
select aren’t selling, consider changing them. Be flexible. Find vendors
that will support you in determining the best selection of urns for your
firm. This takes time and listening to your families. SinoSource will "switch
out" urns that haven’t sold for another design or style, and will work with
you to make your urn display work for you.

You can orient your selection of urns to your geographic area and demography.
Examples of this are those urns that reflect a specific geographic feature,
an activity or theme, such as boating, golf, fishing, military service and
religion. Keep in mind that these urns have significant meaning to some
individuals, but their appeal is very focused and specific.

Be conscious of variety. Here again, balance is required. There are so many
kinds of urns made of varying materials that to carry all of them would be
too much. Families need to have choices, but too many choices can be
overwhelming, and will ultimately detract from your efforts.

Four or five main categories of urns are about right. For instance, wood,
sheet bronze, cloisonné, marble and cast bronze. Three or four urns in each
of these categories will fill out your urn display, and give you the price
points you want. It is generally not a good idea to have only one urn in a
specific urn type. It may seem like this would call attention to the urn,
but in fact, it will inhibit sales. People do want a choice, and if they see
the same urn type in different designs, shapes, etc., your sales will be better.

Pricing		

Pricing of your merchandise is an important business decision. Start by
determining what your goal for the average urn sale will be, usually between
$250 and $500. You should have a low-end urn and a high-end urn, with the
greatest number of urns falling in the price points surrounding the dollar
amount of your average urn sale goal. The rule of thumb is to have 30% of
the urns in your selection priced below your average sale goal. Avoid having
too many low-end urns.

Make the price point steps from the minimum urn you offer to the first urn
in your target range easy enough for a family to consider moving up to the
next urn, usually about $50 to $80. Avoid having more than one low-end urn
in the same price point.

Display		

The way you display urns has as much to do with how well they sell as any
other factor, including the price. There should be a logic to the
display. Many urn displays are arranged by the material the urns are made
of: cast bronze, marble, wood, etc. Some displays arrange the urns by function:
traditional, art, keepsake or memento, scattering, etc. Both these strategies
keep the focus on what is most meaningful for the families. Generally, urns
should not be arranged by price.

Where you display urns in your facility is an important consideration. Some
funeral directors display urns in the room where the arrangement conference
is conducted. Some have set aside a special room for cremation merchandise.
Some urns can be used as decorative and accent items in the lobby and hallways
of your funeral home, which may give your families ideas on how they might
memorialize their loved one. The casket display room is another option, though
this has proven to be less supportive of urn sales than the other alternatives.

Each urn should be accessible. Urns behind glass, in cabinets or on bookshelves
make the urns hard to get at and give the impression that they are to be only
looked at and not touched. Displays should encourage touching and holding.
Pedestals and modular walls with moveable shelves have proven to be good display
systems for urns. Also, if an urn display is too cluttered, it is harder to lift
out a specific urn.

If you have the room, display urns that have a specific function in a way
that communicates that unique feature. A scattering urn could be displayed
as a vase to keep in the home following the scattering with a nice flower
arrangement in it. Displaying a particularly beautiful urn in a mock niche
can communicate the possibilities of niche placement to a family. Some
funeral homes have set up sample memorial tables on which the urn, pictures
and other meaningful items are displayed. SinoSource offers many accessory
items for their urns that make this kind of display very beautiful.

Lighting is critical. If the display is in a corner, use track lighting,
or some strategically placed tensor halogen lamps to light them up. This
not only calls attention to them, but it shows off the beautiful features
of each urn. Placing urns against or in front of windows will give them
back-lighting, and the features won’t be seen easily. Try to place them
to the side of windows or, better yet, opposite the window to catch the
natural lighting.

Stand back and look at your urn display as a whole. Does it seem balanced
for color, shape and lighting? Where is your eye drawn when you first look
at it? You have probably noticed that most urns are fairly uniform in their
color. Use color to draw the eyes to the center of the urn display.
SinoSource urns are well suited to doing this, and have been shown to enhance
the sale of all other urns as well as selling well themselves.

Finally, keep the urns dusted. Dust detracts from the beauty and salability
of any urn. If an urn is dusty, it gives the message that no one is
interested in it.	

These ideas will make a difference in the choices your cremation families make
and to your success in serving them. The SinoSource line of cloisonné urns will
build your success in offering meaningful choices to the families you serve.