All cats famously look the same in the dark. All hearses look the same whatever the light conditions.
What a thing to say!
Undertakers, we know we sometimes get up your noses and you probably think we do it for sport. Mostly we don’t. In the matter of the above outrageous statement, we assure you it’s true. Trust us. We are industry outsiders. We speak for the people. We are the people.
We know what auto-lust consumes you as you finger your Binz catalogues. We know how you bask in the envy of your fellow undertakers. We know you believe your vehicles to be an inextricable constituent of your identity. We see the photos on your websites of your glossy flocks fanned out behind you. You believe they warble siren songs to funeral shoppers. We worry about the repayment charges you have to pass on to said shoppers.
When bereaved people climb aboard, where do you think their thoughts lie? Hmnn? There should your focus be also. So long as it’s big, black and shiny, that’ll do, thanks.
To be fair, the only way to test this would be to conduct a survey. We haven’t done that. Nor in the interest of market research, have you. Is your case for shelling out all that money as strong as you think it is?
Actually, in the case of AW Lymn, in Nottingham, it may be. Lymn’s has a fleet of Rolls Royces. Rolls Royces are the epitome of stateliness, very distinctive.
Someone who has done a survey is the blogger at The Other Side of Funerals in Sydney, Australia. Over there, funeral directors go to great lengths to customise their hearses so that they embody their identity:
For example, WNBulls bought their chrome bars (used on the roof and inside the back) from overseas so nobody else in Sydney could possibly have similar bars. Then when they sold an older hearse they deliberately sold it out of state. Despite the fact that it was an older design for the company. Another example is of how Elite Funerals have a patent on the design of the roof for their hearse. So again, nobody else will have a hearse like it.
The results of the survey make for fascinating and illuminating reading:
Those who never work(ed) in the industry were unable to recognise any hearse correctly. Yet for those who work(ed) in the industry this category had the highest correct recognition.
We urge you to pop over to The Other Side of Funerals and have a look. It’s as thorough a piece of research as you will ever see, a really excellent piece of work.
There are three posts. Read the first here, the second here and the third here.