Funeraltainment

In today’s economic environment almost every enterprise has evolved from selling products and/ or services to the consumer, to using goods and services as props, staging economic experiences with the “guest”. The urban dictionary has exploded with new jargon to attach to the deliverables. “Eatertainment”, “Funtertainment” and “Edutainment” are some of the buzzwords born out of the “Exponomy”. 

Joseph Pine, II and James H. Gilmore launched new economic value and opportunity in 1998 with their book “The Experience Economy, Work is theater and every business is a stage.” The writers challenged and propagated enterprises to orchestrate memorable events for their customer base. Pine & Gilmore emphasized that the memory, sustained by the engaged customer, becomes the product itself. 

Since 1998, all sorts of industries have made landslide shifts into the experience economy. We've seen restaurants like the Hard Rock Cafe, the Rainforest Cafe and many others successfully leverage their enterprises by combining entertainment value such as music memorabilia and audio-animatronic characters, as an example, with their food service to immerse their guests in their respective stories. These enterprises delivered stories by engaging their customers with a sense of nostalgia, excitement and adventure among others. As an example, Rainforest Cafe doesn’t announce to their guests that their table is ready, instead they announce that “the guests’ adventure is about to begin.”

At the core of the experience economy there is the delivery of a story. No one excels at storytelling in an engaging way better than the Walt Disney Company. Disney has been “imagineering” ways or blending creative imagination with technical know-how  to engage their guests as far back as the early 1970’s. 

As a recent example, Walt Disney World in Florida opened the “Toy Story midway Mania” attraction in May of 2008. the attraction combines the storyline of the above mentioned movie with classic carnival midway games for the guest to engage in. 

When guests enter the attraction a compelling story unfolds as they move through the que. The Imagineers effectively use the time and space between the entrance and the beginning of the actual ride attraction to execute an engaging experience. One that is probably better than the physical ride experience itself. 

Guests are immersed in the sights, sounds and cues supporting the essence of the Toy Story movie along with larger than life displays of easily recognizable childhood toys tapping in to the guests’ sense of nostalgia and care free play. Everything from the Candyland board game; checkers and Lincoln Logs to Scrabble, a Barrel of Monkeys and an audio animatronic Mr. Potato Head, also a character in the Toy Story Movie, to interact with guests are included. 

This que, in particular, uses familiar toys and games to spark childhood memories in an entertaining way that ties the guest and a lifetime of emotional experiences directly to the Toy Story movie.  The economic deliverable or “Funtertainment”  leaves the guests with a sustained memory of careless childhood play becoming the economic offering (the price of admission); the service or the experience itself.

What we can learn from “Eatertainment”, “Funtertainment” and the Exponomy are generating engaging ideas in which to develop best practices for innovative display and presentation methods that are rooted in a core story, in the funeral or memorial experience, to engage our guests in a compelling story unique to the life we’re called on to celebrate. Low & behold “Funeraltainment”!

“Life Celebration” is a philosophy which focuses on and celebrates a lifetime of interests, passions, hobbies, accomplishments, achievements and relationships that rely on good and effective storytelling that should and can be delivered in an entertaining way. “Funeraltainment” is an exceptional experience using time and space to tell the core story of a life well lived using direct cues that call on nostalgia, engage the guests senses and capture the essence of a lifetime well lived.

Just as the Rainforest Cafe looks beyond the functionality of the restaurant service delivery so too is the funeral home poised to look beyond the functionality of its service delivery. Inside “category X” the transformative “funeraltainment” delivers memorial experiences with creative design and a business model infrastructure to sustain it. Tim Brown, CEO of global design firm IDEO said of experience design; “Design thinking is a human-centered approach… to integrate the needs of people, the possibilities of technology and the requirements for business success.” Understanding how guests behave in your funeral home will assist you in visualising and conceptualizing the time, space and technology to orchestrate an engaging experience. How do guests interpret and experience your service delivery currently? What can you change, design or facilitate for a positive and entertaining difference that, along with your guests, co-creates a unique, relevant experience? 

In this transformative mode of thinking and approach to the human goodbye experience, Incorporating the needs of people is holistic in nature combining the guests; services, technology and the core story for a blended, multi-sensory experience. Steve Jobs, The late Apple CEO said of creativity; “Creativity is just connecting things. …” 

Similar to “Toy Story Midway Mania” the Hard Rock & Rain Forest Cafes, funeral homes and their Celebrants can create compelling stories using funeral services, merchandise, personal possessions, memorabilia, props technology and processes to reflect the core story and celebrate a life well lived. Funeral service is a theater and every funeral home is a stage for “Funeraltainment”. 

#crerancelebration #heartfelt