Putting the 'fun' into funeral planning with Titan Casket
Interview by Tara Henderson
Death is inevitable but it doesn’t have to be serious – at least that’s how Titan Casket views it. The DTC casket company uses humour and light-heartedness to tackle taboos and get people talking about what they want to happen when they die. CEO Scott Ginsberg and COO Josh Siegel sat down with eatbigfish recently to share their ambitions for changing the funeral industry and how applying a Challenger Mindset is going to get them there.
Who is Titan Casket?
Scott: We sell caskets direct to the consumer at a fraction the cost. We can customise any product that we sell, and get it to anywhere in the country in a timely fashion. Our goal is to help customers to not take an emotional loss and turn it into a financial loss.
I think our whole team feels that we're very fortunate to help clients every day, at the worst time of their lives. We can be their best professional friend and hold their hands during the funeral process.
What inspired you to start the brand?
Scott: I've been in the casket industry for over 25 years. I've owned a manufacturing company, distribution company, really been in caskets my whole life. And I started Titan Caskets when I noticed the huge markup of selling caskets to funeral homes. I just couldn't believe how much they were charging and thought there had to be a better way of doing this, and how can we help the customer out in the process?
I thought about how I make caskets and help other funeral directors ship caskets all throughout the country - that's kind of the key, to be able to ship something the size a refrigerator and get it where it needs to be at the right time. The most important part is getting the casket from point A to point B in a timely fashion, undamaged. So if I shipped them, packaged them, and made them, why not just sell them directly?
I also knew about what’s called the funeral rule. The funeral rule states that consumers have the right to purchase funeral goods and have it sent to the funeral home of their choice. A rule unknown to most consumers, hence the price markup. With all this knowledge, and a desire to share this knowledge with consumers, I just had to start Titan Casket in 2016. From there, I launched on Amazon slowly to see how it would work and as things progressed, I reached out to a few Columbia Business School alums and came across Josh.
Josh: I spent nearly a decade at Amazon, managing their heavy bulky ecommerce categories, selling large items online that are hard to touch but that people do want to touch and feel. I then moved into their heavy bulky shipping department, building all the technology that drivers use as they deliver heavy, bulky items. And so I'd seen all these categories move online like mattresses and eyeglasses, and when Scott described the structure of the casket industry to me, it felt like an opportunity, not just to build a good business but also help millions of families in the US.
Titan Casket CEO Scott Ginsberg and COO Josh Siegel
What gap in the market did you see?
Scott: The industry hasn't changed in 100 years, it is primed for disruption. There are only two large casket manufacturers that only sell to licensed funeral directors. So there's a ‘dualopoli’ essentially out there. And since it's a slow, lumbering industry we'd like it to change.
Who or what within the category or consumer behaviour is Titan Casket looking to challenge?
Josh: I think that the biggest problem in the funeral industry, is that most people when they have a loss, haven't thought ahead about what they want. And they don't understand what the process will be. It’s a difficult moment in peoples’ lives and they’re in an emotional stage of trying to do right by their loved one. The best way to approach planning for end of life is to plan in advance. But it's a really uncomfortable topic. And so most people don't. The hardest part is how do you start that conversation with a parent or a relative?
And not confronting end-of-life planning, results in people walking into their local funeral home and taking what's there at a marked-up cost. There isn’t a brand in the space that we are challenging and that's part of the problem.
We're trying to create a brand that people can turn to because today it's a vacuum. So, in those moments, we help them, we become the alternative voice to the funeral director providing transparency around the process and pricing.
Scott: I think opportunity lurks where responsibilities have abdicated. So people within the funeral industry have an opportunity to also change what they're doing, but they don’t. While there are some more progressive funeral homes out there that are a little more cutting edge, there's a niche there for Titan and that's why we're here.
What’s the biggest barrier Titan faces?
Josh: There's no urgency to act when it comes to end-of-life planning. We can help people put a plan in place but it’s really about changing a societal mindset. It’s an industry that moves at its own pace, and its people move at their own pace as well. And we know that when you’re trying to change a core mindset, it's going to take a very long time.
Are you seeing a change in the way that people talk about death and think about end-of-life planning?
Scott: We are at the very beginning. We are pushing the conversation, but this industry hasn't changed in 100 years, and they’ve been doing the same thing for a very long time. But the new funeral directors that are coming on board are progressive and have reacted well to Titan Casket. There is a lot of work going forward, but I think it's going to be a positive change.
How do you approach communications?
Josh: We react to culture. For example, the day before we were in front of the Federal Trade Commission, arguing for stronger funeral rights, Taylor Swift was spotted hopping out of one our caskets. And it became that she’s once again turning heads towards rights that people have. We used this as an opportunity to gain traction and join the conversation from our point of view.
Taylor Swift in her music video ‘Anti-Hero’ emerging from a Titan casket
Where did the idea for your new long-form creative campaign ‘Grave Conversations’ come from? What inspired you?
David Dastmalchian is the host of ‘Grave Conversations’, a new show where celebrities are interviewed about their feelings on death and funerals, all while lying in Titan’s caskets.
Josh: We're surrounded by some really creative and amazing people like our creative director Elan Gale who come up with these ideas for things that we just find really, really funny. Scott is forever trying to get people into caskets.
Scott: The trick is to just have some fun with it. There are good ideas and bad ideas, but at the end of the day, we’re having fun.
What’s been the response from your audience to ‘Grave Conversations’ so far?
Scott: 99% of the comments have been positive but there will always be a subset that won’t like it. There have only been a couple people calling out our campaign as taboo.
Josh: But we're just so confident in the service and product we provide that we shake off anything negative. We’re so principled about people not overspending during this time and getting taken advantage of, that if somebody is offended, they're certainly not our customers.
Maybe there is a line in this space but we're continuing to talk about it with every project we do and every creative we put out. We believe that if we keep coming from a good place, we'll be okay.
Do you have plans to push the idea further, beyond communications?
Josh: I think it will push in two ways. Firstly, we hope we can make dozens more of these. And then secondly, ‘Grave Conversations’ is not just a show, it's also what we want to do as a business. We want people to have these conversations ahead of time and walk out of that conversation with a plan. We are building a community.
Also, we think a lot about partnerships. And, now that we're selling merchandise and coffee mugs, it sort of feels like the beginning of a movement where people who want to treat families the right way and the professionals come together.
Courtesy of Titan Casket
How do you think using humour has helped communicate Titan Casket’s goals?
Scott: Let's be honest with all of us here – death isn’t something that we want to think about. It’s the last thing you want to think about. So, we decided to bring death to the forefront with humour and lightheartedness. We want to normalise the conversation and break the ice, because that's the last step and no one really wants to think about it. A little bit of fun and lightheartedness goes a long way.
Why do you think it’s important to normalise conversations about death?
Scott: I just think it's important just to get people talking. The more you talk about it, the more it becomes normalised. You talk to your loved ones, “What do you think about this everyone?” Family members don't want to think about it. You know – Dad will always live forever. Mom will always live forever, but it's inevitable. So, we want to break the barrier to thinking about it, talking about it and planning for it. I think that's important because a lot of people do not plan. They're blindsided by it, they're not prepared for it and it's a devastating event. It's devastating regardless, even if you do plan for it, but I think that's why we're doing this thing – we want to help.
Titan Casket’s mascot Mort @yourpalmort on instagram: “#bebold, you whisper. But I hear you loud and clear. I won't rest until unaided awareness of the FTC's Funeral Rule is on par with the irresistible taste of my favorite tortilla chip”
Why do you think using humour resonates with your audience?
Josh: I think it puts you in the right mindset. You know you have to do something. Death is a part of life, but there's also something mysterious and absurd about it. So, I think you have to laugh.
Humour is a way to communicate by putting things out into the world that you find funny. It’s a way of communicating your own values and intelligence. I think doing funny things shows how we think and creates trust with our audience. It's funny but also respectful of the space and it creates room to have a conversation once you open the door.
What’s next for Titan Casket?
Josh: We are pushing quickly towards offering a broader funeral planning service and letting people capture their final wishes. Whether that's just the casket or more than that. You'll see a lot of new products from us and we are pushing our communications by doing things that really punch above our weight.
