Trying to be a “BTC” (Business to Consumer) casket company has been tried before and even with great effort the cause was difficult.  However, the people at Titan Casket must relate to the Curtis Mayfield tune “Keep on Keeping On” as they seem to be moving one step forward all the time and growing as a company.

Not only are they selling more caskets to the traditional funeral consumer but they are gaining disciples among funeral homes joining their funeral home partnership (which you can learn about here).  In addition, I recently learned of their new venture helping consumers weave the sometimes tangled path of available funeral and cremation options available to consumers.   The company has formed the Titan Concierge division and hired proficient funeral service experts to handle this task.  You can learn about Titan Concierge here.

The people at Titan have added Titan Concierge which will help consumers from “Start to Finish” coordinating logistics with funeral homes and service providers.  From perusing the Titan Concierge website it appears that this service is available for $199.

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Funeral Director Daily take:  As a retired funeral director and funeral home owner the growth of Titan has been very interesting to me.  I was never very bullish that a company that deals over the internet and by phone could succeed in such a personal business as Death Care.  However, the founders of Titan Casket, some of whom have experience as Amazon executives, have proved to me that internet sales can work for all types of items.  (As an aside here, I’m also continuously amazed by my many winter neighbors in Florida who buy their cars onlive via Carvana — every week it seems that the Carvana delivery vehicle is pulling into our neighborhood).

So, I don’t think the internet sale of caskets sounds odd to anybody anymore.  And, I’ve told more than one enterprising company in the Death Care business that if they are interested in online sales they should look to Titan Casket and their ability to capture consumers as a roadmap.

A little bit “Edgy” —  I guess don’t knock what is working, however,  as an “old-style, old-fashioned” funeral director some of the ways that Titan has reached the American consumer looks a little edgy to me. . . . .but it evidently is working.  Ad Age recently took  note of the company’s “Heavenly Guarantee” of their merchandise.

You can access the 48-second video ad starring Titan spokesman and actor David Dastmalchian here.

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Titan Casket, the business to consumer national casket company has introduced what they term their “Mystery Casket” for sale through Cyber Monday.  According to this release from Business Wire, Titan’s Mystery Casket will be sold to consumers through Cyber Monday for $1,199 — the release notes that is a 60% discount when compared to the national retail average casket cost.

The release also says this, “The Mystery Casket delivers a high-quality casket selected from local inventory, allowing Titan to pass on substantial savings and ensure a swift delivery process. After Black Friday, the Mystery Casket will be available at an ongoing price of $1,499 for at-need and pre-need customers alike”.

Again, according to the release, here’s how Titan’s Mystery Casket promotion works:

1. Choose the Mystery Casket: With a few clicks, customers secure a high-quality, dignified casket backed by Titan’s Quality Guarantee. This guarantee ensures that a steel or wooden casket arrives in pristine condition, features a classic unisex design, and is compatible with a standard 30” burial vault.
2. Quality-Assured, Decision-Free Selection: At the time of need, the selected Mystery Casket will be presented to the customer’s family or beneficiary. If, for any reason, it does not meet their expectations, Titan offers the flexibility to cancel for a full refund or upgrade to one of Titan’s 1,000+ models.
3. Peace of Mind, Guaranteed: Titan manages the entire process, from selection to delivery, ensuring a seamless experience. With our Quality Guarantee and focus on affordability, customers receive a beautiful, suitable product without the high costs traditionally associated with funeral arrangements.

Here’s what Josh Siegel, co-owner and co-founder of Titan Casket says of this promotion, “We created the Mystery Casket for those who appreciate a no-fuss, high-quality solution. Many people would rather not have to choose from endless options. This product is for customers who trust us to select a dignified, affordable option that fits our rigorous quality standards, allowing them to focus on what matters most.”

Related — Here is the one-minute advertisment for Titan’s Mystery Casket promotion featuring Titan spokesperson David Dastalmachian.

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PETA Offers a Custom Titan Casket — and Its President’s Mortal Remains — To Promote Veganism

Although this pun-filled news release appeared on October 29 — just in time for Halloween — it’s not a spooky prank:  PETA, or People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, has offered to place a vegan-themed casket in the National Museum of Funeral History in Houston. It’s just the latest in a series of PETA promotions that tie an early death to a non-vegan diet, which ultimately supports one of the organization’s end goals: to prevent animals from becoming or producing food. It’s also a message that PETA’s current president has pledged to send post-mortem in the most PETA way possible.

An offer they can’t refuse?

“In time for Halloween, PETA sent a letter today to the National Museum of Funeral History with a deadly serious offer,” the release, which is found on PETA’s website, reads. “The group will provide a full-size casket for animal rights–oriented loved ones bearing the message ‘Life Is Short—Don’t Wait to Go Vegan’ to display in the museum’s collection as well as a vegan food giveaway to promote the new installation if the funerary facility agrees to let those who wish to continue their activism from beyond the grave do so.”

PETA adds that their goal for this unexpected offer is to “help educate the living about the animals who are tormented and killed every day for human use and remind everyone about the reapercussions of eating cholesterol-laden meat, eggs, and dairy, which increase the risk of suffering from heart disease, strokes, obesity, and numerous other potentially fatal ailments and conditions.”

Unending advocacy

The idea for a death-themed campaign, complete with a custom coffin, came about organically, according to PETA president Ingrid Newkirk, who was participating in discussions with the organization’s fervent supporters.

“In talking to some of our members, this recurring theme keeps coming up,” Newkirk explained to Connecting Directors. “What happens when I die? That’s the end of my advocacy for these animals. These wonderful animals will have one fewer voice to speak for them and to advocate. And somebody said, ‘Well, you know, you can get a message on a coffin that would be quite interesting.’”

Newkirk and her team have recognized the growing deathcare trend of uber-personalized products and services that truly pay homage to the deceased and their professions, hobbies, and other interests. A customized casket bearing the PETA logo and message can serve as one last reminder of the deceased’s passions and beliefs — and Newkirk hopes that it makes others ponder their own participation.

“Somebody could feel quite good about the fact that they’re going to choose a coffin, that when their loved ones come through to see them, they’ll see this message, or anybody who comes to this service will see this message,” Newkirk explains. “And so they could live on a little bit in their advocacy. People can live on through their bequests and are very proud to do that. They know that that’s one way and this is another way that they can make a statement.”

Team Titan

The organization’s selection of a Titan Casket to illustrate its mission isn’t surprising. In its short existence, Titan has become quite famous for its unexpected partnerships, as well as its seemingly-endless options for customization. 

Titan’s PETA casket collaboration was first introduced in 2022 with a press release appearing — you guessed it — just days before the Halloween, All Saints Day, and Dia de los Muertos holidays, alluding to the fact that a vegan lifestyle could delay one’s need for a casket of any kind. Today, Titan offers PETA supporters three options to customize its Orion model with “pro-animal” messages including “Life Is Short—Don’t Wait to Go Vegan” and “PETA Member for All Eternity.”

“Titan is a very reliable, good company,” Newkirk adds. “We looked at them and they seemed to be just the ticket. So we asked them if they would be game to sell one of these caskets on demand. And they said they would. We’re fond of it and we want to do something more with it as time goes on.”

Post-mortem activism

Throughout its 44-year history, PETA and its more than 9 million members have found some unusual, startling, and often controversial methods to educate others on their mission, and Newkirk’s final wishes, which she announced last year, may be one of the most drastic statements that could be made.

In June 2023, Newkirk announced that she had updated her will to “include a request for her flesh to be cooked, and for her body parts to be transformed into activist messages post-mortem.” Her will also includes having her skin “peeled off” to make leather goods, having one eye shipped to the National Institutes of Health “for funding experiments on animals” and for her foot be made into an umbrella stand “as is done for elephants.”

“It’s a real thing,” Newkirk shares. “I have an attorney. I have a pathologist. It came about because I was in a plane that almost crashed. And so the next day, you know, when I was sitting in a meeting, I thought, and this happens to people who’ve had that kind of experience, I thought ‘I shouldn’t be here.’ And then I started to think, ‘What is going to happen?’ And I thought, well, one good thing is I have excellent people in charge of departments, so that’s good.”

“And the second thing I thought was, this is the end of my activism, and my activism is so important to me,” she continues, “because I’ve been on dairy farms and in laboratories, and I’ve seen with my own eyes, I’ve been in slaughterhouses, I’ve seen with my own eyes what the animals go through. Activism to stop that is very important to me. And then I thought, ‘Well, what can I do?’ And I thought, ‘Well, I won’t need my body when I’ve gone, so why don’t I make a statement with it?” And I asked my mother, who was alive at the time. I said, ‘Do you mind if I do this?’ And she said, ‘No, dear, you do whatever you like.’ And so I got a pathologist, I got an attorney. I drew up a will and I thought, ‘What are the bad things that are happening and what are the good things that are happening? And how can I divide up the parts of my body to make those points through PETA when I’m gone?’ And that’s what happened.”

Coffin stickers

For those PETA supporters who aren’t yet ready to barbecue their deceased loved ones or purchase a themed casket, PETA’s online shop offers another option: casket stickers.

“As Halloween approaches, PETA is introducing customized coffin and urn stickers that let the dearly departed take their animal activism all the way to the grave,” reads the product description. “Sticking up for animal rights is a way of life—and now, it can also be a way of death. These witty and touching messages will inspire viewers to embrace a vegan lifestyle. They make great statement accessories for the actual dead or those feigning death with coffin paraphernalia this Halloween.”

Messages for these stickers include “I Told You I Wouldn’t Be Caught Dead in Wool,” “I Told You I Wouldn’t Be Caught Dead in Leather,” “Forever Fur-Free,” “Dead Meat Should Be Buried, Not Eaten,” and one that’s similar to the messages available in PETA’s Titan casket: “Give Life Your Best Shot: Go Vegan.”

“I do think that we always say vegans live a longer life because I think on average, it’s seven years more than anyone who eats meat and dairy,” Newkirk adds. “It’s just one of those sad or good facts, whichever way you take it. But maybe when you write about this, it will stick in some people’s minds that they need to do it.”

Newkirk hopes that the Connecting Directors audience will share these PETA personalization options with pre-planners or with families of anyone who was involved with PETA or animal activism while they were alive.

“It is true that when somebody goes, you are looking back and you’re thinking, did I do enough? Did I do it? Will I cherish their memory? Will I be able to get people to understand?” she says. “And what have you got? You’ve got a tribute wall at the funeral home and you try to say something. This, if you’re making funeral arrangements or something, would be a wonderful gift to the person because it’s what mattered to them.”

The people behind Titan Casket are not afraid of doing things outside the ordinary as compared to how the funeral industry has done things for the past 125 years.  I’m guessing that in 1906 when John Hillenbrand purchased the Batesville Coffin Company and changed the name to Batesville Casket Company his customers were the fledging funeral homes starting across the nation who then re-sold or “retailed” those caskets to clientele arranging funerals for their loved ones.. . . . . and, I’m guessing for over a hundred years since then nobody really figured out how to make those casket sales, and profit, with any other modus operandi.

Enter the 21st Century and the people behind Titan Casket.  The people behind Titan figured they could leverage America’s new online information era and bring those caskets direct to the consumer (DTC) at a much lower cost than if the caskets were sold at retail prices upon death at America’s funeral homes.

It’s been no easy task, but the people at Titan Casket can now get any of about 1,000 caskets to almost any funeral home in the lower 48 states with a timely delivery. . . all at a much lower cost to the consumer.  And while they are continuously improving that process they are not stopping there. . . .they are bringing urns and keepsake jewelry direct to the consumer also.

Last week I learned of their latest innovation.  That innovation is the process of consumers paying for their casket in a preneed fashion.  Titan has a program that allows a consumer to pay for a casket over a 60-month time-table with no finance charges.

It’s a smart idea for their customers.  No longer will families have to pick their Titan brand casket under adverse situations at the time of death which sometimes is done with the servicing funeral home also trying to make a casket sale.  Buying direct, in a preneed fashion will take some of the conflict out of the process for the consumer.

To learn more about Titan’s Direct-to-the-Consumer preneed program click here.

Related — If you weren’t aware of it yet, Titan Casket also has a partnership program with existing funeral homes.  You can learn how that program works by clicking here.

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Funeral Director Daily take:  It’s probably good every once in a while to look back at the history of our profession and see how things change.  When Hillenbrand was first selling his “caskets” most of the revenue that the consumer death care purveyors took in probably came from the sale of the merchandise.  Laying the person into the casket and carrying it to the cemetery probably did not involve much professinal services revenue for the funeral establishment.

And then services came into being. . . embalming, of which I can find the first schools for such in 1882 probably brought the first level of services and embalming into the revenue sphere.  It’s my guess that for the next almost 100 years services and merchandise, such as caskets, vaults, and memorial folders, offered  different and multiple lines of revenue for America’s funeral homes that were popping up from coast to coast.

However, we have morphed into a society that now chooses cremation 70% of the time and we have moved from major revenues from merchandise to a combination of merchandise and services, to now a profession that can count on service revenues but no longer the major revenues from merchandise. . . with a 70% cremation rate, merchandise is almost an ancillary item nowadays.

That’s why it is so important to look at your merchandise revenue and really know the costs and other facility dynamics of maintaining a “showroom” of models that might only be purchased by 30% of your clientele.  Do you know what your cost/benefit is for this as compared to making that square footage an extra hospitality room?

When we built our new funeral home in 2005 we did not include a selection room in the planning.  We used that space for hospitality and had the merchandise selected be done via a large flat screen monitor in the arrangement room.  Clientele could, and still can look at hundreds of caskets arranged by material such as wood or metal or by color or by price list and select right off the screen knowing that the following morning that unit will be in our facility.

Yep. . . . it is not your grandpa’s funeral home anymore.

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The Many Ways Titan Casket Is Boldly Going Where Deathcare Hasn’t Gone Before

Some deathcare professionals may find it easy to think of Titan Casket as an adversary. After all, this Washington-based startup burst onto the scene in 2016 with a mission to disrupt deathcare as we know it, with direct-to-consumer products priced 50% to 85% cheaper than families will find at funeral homes. While a lot of maverick companies have tossed about the “disrupt deathcare” goal, Titan Casket has managed to do just that — but perhaps not only in the way you might think.

Same goals, new approach

Last July, Titan Casket’s Chief Operating Officer Joshua Siegel spoke with Connecting Directors’ Ryan Thogmartin about the company’s vision.

“We wake up every day thinking about how we can help more families plan a funeral that’s affordable and with dignity,” Siegel said. “We do that by offering the widest selection, affordable pricing and incredible service that de-stresses the process for them.”

More than likely, you share sentiments that are similar to Siegel’s. What deathcare professional wouldn’t want to serve families in the best way they know how? But wait … there’s more.

“The other part of what we do is really trying to normalize conversations about death planning,” Siegel continued. “You hear this a lot but it’s what we’ve done over the last six months with being in a Taylor Swift video and a Black Friday promotion and more with an educational message.”

Black Friday? Taylor Swift? You don’t often find these words in deathcare conversations. So here’s some context from Business Insider and Titan Casket’s Instagram account:

When “viral” isn’t part of a cause of death

If you’re looking at these images and thinking, “That’s not at all the way we’ve always advertised,” well, you’re exactly right. No other funeral home or deathcare product has been handpicked to appear in a video with the world’s most famous pop star, and it’s doubtful that you’ve ever posted a sale on caskets to the ‘Gram — especially with such a clever discount code. But Titan Caskets has — and both efforts went viral on social media as well as in traditional news outlets.

“We haven’t seen a huge spike in sales because people don’t need caskets on a whim, but we have seen a huge spike in traffic,” Siegel wrote in Business Insider. “Taylor Swift has a huge following, and several of her followers post the products featured in her videos. One posted about us. What we’re most excited about is there’s now who-knows-how many people who are aware of their rights to get caskets outside funeral homes.”

Celebrity status

Unconventional? Maybe. But effective? Heck, yes. One source estimates that 53% of US adults consider themselves fans of Taylor Swift — and that’s from a survey taken before Swift partnered up with a certain exceptionally popular Super Bowl-winning football player. When it comes time for those estimated 137 million folks to plan a funeral, what casket manufacturer do you think will be top-of-mind?

Believe it or not, the “Anti-Hero” video cameo was just the first of Titan Casket’s partnerships with A-list celebrities. In 2023, Titan announced that actor David Dastmalchian, star of Oppenheimer, Suicide Squad, The Dark Knight, and Dune, among other films, had been named their brand ambassador.

“Dastmalchian is the new brand ambassador for Titan Casket, a company that sells caskets online and helps with end-of-life planning,” reads the October 16, 2023 press release. “As part of his duties, Dastmalchian will appear in marketing materials and be the face of the company.”

Shortly after this announcement, Titan Casket got a call from Maximum Effort, a production company and digital marketing agency founded by none other than actor, entrepreneur, and Wrexham AFC owner Ryan Reynolds. The agency asked Titan if they and their brand ambassador Dastmalchian would like to team up to “kill the tradition” of daylight saving time “in order to save lives.”

Here’s the result of that collaboration:

Did you remember to “Spring Forward” this past weekend?  If you forgot, you are probably running a little late or showing up late for work today.  Daylight Savings Time has been a small controversy for years with groups, from time to time, wanting to do away with it.

In the spirit of “having a little fun with the idea” but also with building up their own business and getting those people who are serious about changing the rule for public health sake, casket company Titan Casket put out an ad and also started a website for people who may want to write their congressional representative about a change.

It’s also a little “edgy” way for a “Direct-to-Consumer” casket company to reach those consumers who may not yet know that caskets can be bought direct and do not have to be bought through funeral homes.

Here’s what Titan Casket said about the ad, “Titan Casket, in collaboration with Ryan Reynolds’ Maximum Effort, is debuting a new, potentially lifesaving, campaign starring award-winning actor David Dastmalchian. Historically, hospitals see a 24% increase in heart attacks (British Medical Journal) and a 6% increase in fatal accidents (University of Colorado Boulder – Current Biology) each year timed to Daylight Savings. Titan Casket has an interest in people dying, but even they think this is ridiculous and have created a new spot to encourage people to “Bury Daylight Savings“.

Here’s the ad that was put out as re-tweeted by actor Ryan Reynolds and here is the website people who are serious about changing Daylight Savings Time can access to learn more about how to change the law.

Titan Casket is a Direct-to-Consumer casket company that also works with funeral homes to be their supplier of casket merchandise.  If you are interested in working with Titan Casket at your funeral home click here to learn about their funeral home their wholesale program.

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