Funeral Merchandising (Ch. 11-16)

Barber-surgeon

1540-1745 Sole agency permitted to embalm and perform anatomical dissection in the city of London.

Burial Club

1800's London cost of funerals were shared by others via weekly collections.

Chadwick Report

1840's reporting unsanitary conditions in London due to intramural burial, high cost of funerals and the 1st use of death certificates.

Bench Marker

A bench memorial that typically supplements another memorial.

Mausoleum

A building containing crypts or vaults for entombment: an above ground structure for burial.

Slant

A cemetery marker that has a face with an angle greater than 45 degrees but less than 90 in relationship to the terrain around it.

Cenotaph

A monument erected to the memory of the dead, with the dead human bodies not present.

Cash Discount

A reduction of the price given for payment of an account within the limits established by the sales contract.

Casket-Meaning Jewel Box

A ridged container designed to encase human remains.

Natron

A salt used by ancient Egyptians in the mummification process.

Flush Marker

A small headstone which is set with its top even with surrounding terrain.

Columbarium/Cinerarium

A structure (room or space in a mausoleum) containing niches or recesses used to hold cremated remains.

Block

A subdivision of a cemetery containing several lots.

Lot

A subdivision of a cemetery which consists of several graves.

Combination Cases (Combo Unit)

A transfer container consisting of a particle board box with a cardboard tray and cover to satisfy air shipping regulations.

Air Trays

A transfer container consisting of a wooden tray with a cardboard covering on the casket.

Pracco

AKA crier; summoned participants to Roman funerals.

Markup

Also known as "gross casket markup" or margin. It is the difference between merchandise cost and its selling price.

Grave

An excavation of earth as a place of interment.

Libitina

Ancient Roman goddess of corpse and funerals.

Mound Burial

Ancient Viking custom of placing deceased in their boat and cremating, then burying with dirt.

Consumerized Pricing

Another way to describe a method of pricing where the actual price figures are familiar to the consumer.

Gravity

Apparatus used to inject arterial fluid that relies on gravity to create pressure (0.45 lbs per foot of elevation).

Eye Appeal

Are the aesthetics of this product too great for its price position, or is the appeal sufficient to justify the price.

Dr. Auguste Renourd

Author of the undertaker's manual: first embalming book published in the US.

Bloodletting

Belief/practice that draining blood would cure illness and disease.

Price

Both the wholesale cost and the retail price must be considered to ensure that the funeral homes receive a fair profit and the consumer receives good value.

Extramural Burial

Burial outside the walls of the city introduced during Roman times.

Inviter to funerals

Called personally upon those expected to attend funeral, was a municipal appointment.

Funeral Merchandise

Caskets and other burial/transfer containers, outer burial containers, cremation containers, vaults, grave liners, urns, temporary containers, burial clothing, monuments, personalization options, register books, flag cases, and other sundries.

Purgatorial Doctrine

Catholic belief that those whose souls are not perfectly cleansed undergo a process of cleaning before entering Heaven.

Memorial Park

Cemetery, or section of a cemetery, with only flush to the ground markers.

Sexton

Church caretaker who is responsible for digging graves.

Life Signals

Coffins made with devices to signal if someone was buried alive.

Vertical Merchandising

Concerned with providing consumers with a selection of prices, with steady and obvious value progression at each rung on the price ladder.

The Declining Method

Consumers that spend more receive the more vale for their dollar. It applies a markup that is inversely proportional to the wholesale cost of the casket.

Babylonians

Culture associated with the practice of immersing the dead body in earthen jars filled with honey and wax.

Sarcophagus

Cut coffin out of massive stone (Egyptian).

Value Progression

Describes a concept all consumers appreciate: the more a consumer spends, the more value that will be received.

Permanent Markers

Designed to be long-lasting items of commemoration of remembrance. Types include: flush, bevel top, slant, bench, upright, and specialty.

Libitiarius

Director, conductd business at the temples of Libitina where dead was also registered.

August Hoffman

Discovered formaldehyde.

Dr. William Harvey

Discovered the circulation of blood.

Cremation

Disposition of remains by fire; attributed to the Greeks.

Professional mourners

Hired women to mourn shriek and show adequate emotion for the dead.

Obsequies

Historic term for funeral ceremonies.

Ogee Design

Innovation introduced to square side caskets to reduce excess weight and space.

Edwin Chadwick

Investigated mass corruption in regards to English burial practices who recommended that cemeteries be municipalized and religious rites be simplified.

Supplier Recommendations

It stands to reason that if a funeral home is successful I its merchandising plan, its suppliers benefit a sell. Manufactures and suppliers expend considerable resources to help funeral homes develop merchandising plans.

Quality

Items chosen for any product line offering must be of the highest quality possible for their cost/price category.

Cash Advances

Items of a funeral home that the funeral home cannot charge for because they do not own it such as a hairdresser, organist, and flowers.

Funeralis

Latin for torchlight procession.

Effigy

Life size waxen recreation of the deceased used in place of the deceased when body could not be preserved for long periods of time.

Designator

MC and director of ancient roman funerals.

Specialty

Memorial made of any design statuary, crosses, hearts, animals, angels, ect.

Hand pump

Method of applying continuous flow of embalming solution via hand held machines.

Crier

Middle ages custom of people walking in the streets calling out the name of the deceased and asking people to pray for their soul.

Sundry Merchandise

Miscellaneous items provided or used to complement the services of a funeral director such as religious icons, register books, or Shiva candles.

Horizontal Merchandising

More concerned with the actual number of choices available at each price rung on the at any given price level encourages the consumers to buy at that price level.

Pollinctores

Name of the ancient roman embalmers (either slaves or the employees of Libitinarius).

Temporary Marker

Not intended to be permanent but to mark and identify the grave of a recently deceased individual until the permanent memorial is ordered and installed.

Layers out of the dead

Occupation specifically in many large US cities in the late 18th century predecessor to the undertaker.

Funeral Undertaker

Organized and facilitated funeral.

Aaron

Orthodox Jewish casket, according to Judaic law so called orthodox caskets must meet several requirements such as made entirely of wood with no metal pieces, ornaments, or animal glues.

J. Anthony Gaussardia

Patented a process of embalming involving injecting an arsenic-alcohol mixture.

Pagan

Person who has no religion ad enjoys the delights of sensual pleasures.

Cemetery Merchandise

Physical objects that are designed for the purpose of remembering such as headstones, markers, and monuments.

Cooling Board

Portable table where bodies were placed while corpse cooler was in use and it later become an embalming table.

The Glass Sealer

Presence of a glass plate that covers the deceased within the casket.

Furnishing Undertaker

Provided supplies and merchandise to funeral undertakers (middleman).

Clergy/Priest Casket

Refers more to a cap style which resembles the perfection full couch casket. The cap is not hinged to the casket body so it is removed entirely when opened.

Mystery Cults

Religion emphasizing spiritual aspect of the afterlife and the hope to join the cult god in a wonderful existence in eternity.

Burial in Woolen Act of 1666

Required woolen clothes instead of linen, an attempt to shift imported linen to paper industry and supply consumers for wool.

Animalistic View

Early Roman view of the afterlife where soul would hover around place of burial and required constant attention to be happy. Neglect would bring evil upon the family.

Osiris

Egyptian god of the underworld ad judge of the dead.

Necropolis

Egyptian walled suburban city where embalming was performed also called city of the dead.

The Merchandise Value Ratio (MVR)

Examines the relationship between the wholesale cost of the merchandise and the total cost (both service and merchandise) to the consumer. It is expressed as Wholesale cost divided (Total of merchandise + Services)= MVR.

Dr. Thomas Holmes

Father of MODRN embalming in the USA.

Anton von Leeuwenhock

Father of Microbiology and inventor of the microscope.

Fredrick Ruysch

Father of embalming, first to refine the arterial injection into the vascular system.

Marcello Malphighi

Father of histology study of tissue.

League of Prayers

Formed in the Middle ages by the lay person to bury the dead and pray for the souls of the faithfully departed.

Jean Gannal

French chemist who developed injection embalming through the carotid artery.

Cortege

Funeral Procession

Elysian Fields

Greek version of heaven.

Ziegler Case

Has no interior lining, and is sealed by compressing the gasket between the cap and the body by means of threaded fasteners, most commonly used in the US to contain remains in advanced states of decomposition from highly infectious disease. Many countries require Ziegler cases for all incoming remains.

Bevel Top

Similar to the flush marker but offers slightly ore visibility because it is set above the group with a slightly slanting top.

Quantity Discount

The amount by which the bill or invoice will be reduced when a minimum quantity of merchandise has been ordered.

Section

The blocks make up a section.

Modified Graduated Recovery Method

The first entry level (possibly the second and third as well) receives a slightly less aggressive markup.

Fixed Dollar Amount Method

The funeral home using the fixed dollar amount markup would carefully examine its financial needs (overhead) ad profit objectives to determine the amount of profit it wishes to generate on each casket sale: this amount is then added to the wholesale cost of each casket offered by the funeral home.

Graduated Recovery Method

The graduated recovery method is a price method where the markup varies. (Three varieties: Increasing graduated recovery, decreasing graduated recovery, and modified graduated recovery).

The Consumer Value Index (CVI)

The percentage derived from dividing the wholesale (what you pay) cost of the merchandise by the retail price of the merchandise (what the family pays).

Rebate

The return of the portion of a payment.

Consignment

To give to an agent to be cared for or sold.

Drummer

Traveling salesman who went from tow to town selling their products to early embalmers.

Corpse Cooler

Type of ice chest placed over the torso in order to slow the process of decomposition, undertaker was responsible for the ice.

Upright Marker

Upright monuments that stand perpendicular to the group and are either horizontal or vertical.

Coffin

Utilitarian container used to hold human remains; anthropodial in shape (shape of the human body).

Product Availability

What items are available that might meet the firm's sales objectives and fit into the existing product offering.