Funeral Homes Are Forced to Innovate as Consumer Preferences Shift

“Making It Work” is a series about small-business owners striving to endure hard times.

When a young hunter died, Lanae Strovers didn’t plan a funeral service with organ music and the Lord’s Prayer. After Ms. Strovers, a director at Hamilton’s Funeral Home in Des Moines, Iowa, heard the man’s family wish for one last hunt with him, she asked a gunsmith to put his cremated remains into some shotgun shells. Then she helped the family plan a hunt in his honor.

For a beloved Little League coach, Ms. Strovers turned her funeral home into a mock baseball field, with bases, a popcorn machine and hot dogs. She created a circus — bouncy house, snow cones and all — to commemorate a child taken too soon. She hosted a cocktail hour for a woman who had been a model and fashion designer, building a runway and dressing mannequins in her clothing.

In recent decades, the national cremation rate has skyrocketed. That’s led profits from funeral services to drop. At the same time, the costs of gasoline, embalming chemicals and staffing have risen. With the steadfast industry on uncertain footing, funeral directors have been forced to innovate.

“ I don’t want to say that we’re going to become party planners,” said Ms. Strovers, who is a spokeswoman and trainer for the National Funeral Directors Association. “But I think that those two lines are crossing over and we just need to open up our thought process and be there to help the families.”