An exploration of consumer decision making processes in the Funeral Industry

Presently, little effort has been made to examine issues associated with consumer behaviour in the funeral industry. People can spend an inordinate amount of time planning other major events like weddings and christenings but not so with funerals. This paper set out to examine the decision making processes involved with such a sensitive subject. The number of deaths in Ireland since 2003 averaged approximately 28500. Therefore funeral companies are competing for the same number of funerals in a given year. The research itself showed up some intriguing answers to questions about funerals and decision making. Location and previous experience were the two major factors in selecting a funeral home with price being listed as the third factor. However price was still an issue when the funeral home was selected. This was due to the fact that people were price conscious and working within a budget. The issue of marketing was examined and showed that people didn’t find advertising of funerals insensitive. On the contrary, they viewed word of mouth as a far more influential factor when making funeral preparations. Finally, the pre-planning for funerals was investigated. This raised the question whether people wanted more information on this subject. Re-search in the UK compiled from an older demographic signalled that less than 10% of people had actually pre planned their own funeral. People who pre plan their own funeral do so because they want their wishes carried out