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June 2004 YB News
By Michael T. Baklarz
When a tidal wave hits, there are basically three responses. First, there are the people who say, "I've seen it all before." They do nothing and are drowned. Second, there are those who say, "I'm getting out of here." They seldom have homes to come home to. Third, there are those who say, "This is a tidal wave. I better learn to surf tidal waves." I would like to address how you can surf the tidal wave of personalization, which will impact the way we conduct business like no other trend.
You've all read scores or hundreds of articles about personalization. Personalization can't be described only in the context of baby boomers seeking new forms of memorialization. Key personalization shifts apply to all generations today. They include:
Memorialization services in the future will resemble highly personalized shows with entertaining interludes that emphasize the cherished interests and achievements of the deceased. They don't have to be flamboyant to be highly personalized. They can be as simple and beautiful as a family member reading an essay that the deceased wrote, accompanied by a performer playing a tune on an acoustic guitar. The role of the memorialization company will be to double as a provider to fulfill all families' needs for such services. Memorialization companies will need to expand their capabilities to manage special events.
Memorials will also be highly personalized. I recently came across a remarkable memorial, a large stone orb. An artist, responding to a request by the deceased, had carved articles and themes that the deceased, a musician and author, cherished. These included a guitar, a New York Yankees logo, names of his wife and children, maps of countries he had lived in, etc., so that the life story of the author was carved on an orb that represented life and the Earth. All images, objects and names were carved in one uninterrupted line, enabling family members to run their fingers through a line that represented the life of this musician, a remarkable way to memorialize a person.
Memorialization companies are just beginning to scratch the surface of personalization by developing capabilities to introduce such memorials. The objective is not to simply offer a larger inventory of memorial products and options for families. The goal is to develop or have a body of work of personalized memorials and other poignant examples of personalization that can be shown to families. The example of the orb is especially fitting. Through art and the action of symbolically running a finger through a loved one's life, a highly personalized ritual was created to provide solace and comfort to family members.
Personalization can't be described to families merely in product terms such as different colors, contours, types of granites, bronze finishes, sculptures and variations of flush or upright memorials. It must be put in the context of celebrating the life of the deceased and replicating, through commemorative art, that person's life on a memorial.
Many memorialization companies are on the right track emphasizing personalization by offering wider capabilities and choices in memorial products and services. But they will go farther if they explain personalization as a means to memorialize cherished achievements and values of loved ones through special events and highly personalized memorials. The ways to achieve personalization are limited only by your initiative and imagination. As the Chinese military strategist Sun Tsu observed more than 2,500 years ago, "There are more than five musical notes, yet the combinations of these five rise to more melodies than can ever be heard."
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Michael T. Baklarz is vice president of business development for the Memorial Group of the Cold Spring Granite Co., a leading manufacturer, designer and distributor of granite and bronze products. The Cold Spring Granite Memorial Group offers the broadest line of memorial products, including upright monuments, flat markers, cast bronze memorials with granite bases, urns, columbariums, community and family mausoleums, benches, and specialty cemetery features. For more information, visit www.coldspringgranite.com.
Michael T. Baklarz has 25 years of diverse experience in sales, marketing, finance, and strategic planning and is an active member of the Monument Builders of North America and International Cemetery and Funeral Association. He attended the U.S. Naval Academy for two years and completed his undergraduate degree at Duquesne University. He also holds a master's degree in business administration from Ashland College.
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