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September 2004 YB News
By Michael T. Baklarz
I have been in the memorialization industry for nearly 20 years. At the beginning, I saw the growth of upright monuments, then the surge in flush markers followed by the spread of memorial gardens. There was renewed interest in upright monuments and greater sophistication in the development of bronze memorials. These trends coincided with the growth in personalization, which involved everything from sculpted three-dimensional engravings on bronze markers, to detailed diamond-carved or laser-etched graphics and decorative motifs on monuments. I also saw and continue to marvel at the spread of preneed. Since only about a third of Americans have actually made preneed arrangements now, demand for preneed will widen dramatically as memorialization service providers and families alike will appreciate the importance of making preneed arrangements.
Nothing, however, compares with the impact cremation will have on our industry. The cremation rate now is nearly 28 percent. But within a generation from now, a majority of Americans are likely to choose cremation over traditional burials as their preferred form of memorialization. That is a tectonic shift in our industry, significantly altering the memorialization market landscape.
Glancing at new cremation choices, you would think that firms are on top of the situation. I mean who could have imagined 20 years ago that such cremation choices would be available? Who needs vases or scattering gardens when loved ones' cremains can be: worked with paint to create a memorial painting; attached to a concrete structure that, when dropped to the bottom of the ocean, becomes a "living" reef; or processed into carbon pendants that are worn by the bereaved?
As innovative as such providers are, the reality is a little more sobering for the majority of firms in our industry. People opting for cremation have been reluctant to be memorialized at all, and this fundamental factor, witnessed by the spread of scattering gardens, has not changed. This creates a major challenge to memorial manufacturers and cemeteries responding to this situation. The onus is also on manufacturers to be on top of this trend to provide cremation products and options that will be appreciated by families. But that is hard to do when a large percentage of people choosing cremation prefer doing away with any form of memorialization, except to be scattered in gardens or places of personal choice or be contained in a vase.
When I read in a recent study that as many as 50% of people opting for cremation are never memorialized, I was staggered. That is half the cremation market. And with cremation expected to overtake traditional burials by around 2025 or thereafter, according to the Cremation Association of North America, that means that more than one quarter of the whole memorialization market will not want to be memorialized with a memorial in the not so far future.
Some memorialization service providers have been more interested in meeting the actual demand for cremation products - and have thus developed a beautiful selection of vases for this market - than to respond to the larger challenge by encouraging people opting for cremation to still be memorialized with a monument, marker, columbarium or mausoleum. Memorialization is a spiritual, personal and private choice. Nevertheless it behooves service providers to offer the widest possible selection of cremation products and options to families who tend to automatically associate cremation with scattering gardens and vases.
Families will appreciate learning more about available cremation options because most are not well informed about them in the first place. According to research conducted by the Cold Spring Granite Co., there is low awareness for cremation options and products such as columbariums, community mausoleums and private estates. Recently we have started to tell cemeteries and families about how our private estates can also be featured with niches for cremation. Columbariums, to attract the esthetic preferences of families, are also being developed into beautiful structures with architectural features for cemeteries.
As for scattering gardens, cemeteries face an opportunity to develop such gardens with works of arts, including three-dimensional bronze and granite sculptures, granite and bronze panels depicting breathtaking natural, spiritual and historical scenes in cemetery sections reflecting the lives, hobbies and personal experiences of the deceased. For cemeteries there is a great opportunity to develop "experience parks" catering to the whole memorialization market, including people choosing cremation, who may want to be memorialized not necessarily through a memorial but with architecturally designed structures and pieces of commemorative art in granite or bronze complementing a beautiful, reflective setting.
I applaud the innovators developing new memorialization services, options and products for cremation. But many firms will also need to meet the cremation challenge by doing more than developing products for people who do not want to be memorialized with a memorial. The definition of a memorial will have to be redefined in the context of scattering gardens, which can be transformed into places of remembrances - landscaped and designed with sculpture and art. This is already happening. Cemeteries and memorial makers will also have to offer more cremation memorials as an option to families who hold dear the concept of memorialization and the memorial as a sacred symbol of love and shared memories.
As Will Rogers used to say, "Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there." The key point is that firms will have to respond with innovative cremation memorials, structures and features that will continue to incorporate memorialization rather than mainly developing products for disposal without memorialization.
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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 fabricator, 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, cremation memorials, community and family mausoleums, benches, and specialty cemetery features. For more information, visit www.coldspringgranite.com.
Michael T. Baklarz has more than 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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