122 Business View - March 2015
self, and afterwards in the way we help those left be-
hind to more easily navigate the grief journey. We call
this ShareLife®.”
“Our target customers are female baby boomers who
do the majority of arrangements. We engaged a mar-
keting agency, Coming of Age, with extensive experi-
ence marketing to this demographic. They created win-
ning ads that are presented in both traditional forms
like newspapers and billboards, but also in digital
media like search ads and display. We have received
thousands of leads with their coordinated marketing
plans.”
Foundation Partners also created state-of-the-art web-
sites for each location with funeralOne and added live
chat and Google Tours. “Your website is your new front
door,” says Rex, “and we wanted to make sure we cre-
ated a great first impression. funeralOne has tremen-
dous resources to help Families on their websites.”
Regarding live chat, “We have had Families notify us
of a death on live chat.”
The company has taken out much of the stigma and
anxiety associated with funeral planning, and, in part-
nership with Aurora Casket Company, created a very
customer friendly and personalized arrangement ex-
perience. “In our firms, no one has to go into a casket
selection room. Everything is done on a large screen
television monitor,” says Baxley. “Our customers are
relieved that they don’t have to go into a casket room,
they have all the options presented, especially for per-
sonalized products, and they see the total cost of the
service on the screen while they make selections, so
there are no surprises at the end. We place the order
on the screen and the next day the casket or urn ar-
rives.”
The funeral service is also high tech at Foundation
firms. The proprietary ShareLife® multi-sensory expe-
rience room designed with the assistance of Crunchy
Tech uses high definition projectors and audio and
even a scent generator to display images, videos and
scents that celebrate a loved one’s life. “We can create
the beach, a golf course, the forest or even a motor-
cycle ride—just about anything you can imagine--that
evokes wonderful memories of a life well lived,” says
Rex. “If you remember your mom baking in the kitch-
en, we can waft in the scent of chocolate chip cookies.
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