What does it take to build a brand when sensitivity is everything?

Beyond an anniversary

In fact, C.P.J. Field’s original brief to us centred around celebrating their 125^th anniversary. But, as we interrogated the brand, it became something more. As we spoke to stakeholders, including C.P.J. Field family members, we learned how successfully the business converts leads through the doors of the funeral homes – an 80% success rate.

We learned about how the brand had been diluted by acquisitions of other funeral businesses that had continued to trade under their own names. Most of all, we learned just how different the C.P.J. Field offering is from other funeral directors, and how the firm goes far beyond the remit of most funeral directors to deliver a truly personal funeral experience.

We saw the opportunity to do something important for the brand, not just to celebrate its anniversary.  So we developed and presented a new brand promise.

More than a funeral director

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‘More than a funeral director’ became our strategic brand platform.  Our challenge then was to find a way to tell the market about C.P.J. Field in the most sensitive and positive way possible, and to escape category norms. This, we knew, was not a service that could be ‘sold’. But it could, with care, be communicated. And so, as we explored the idea of making every funeral personal, we were able to make an insightful creative leap.

Every life is unique

This campaign idea captured the truth behind the way C.P.J. Field worked, while managing to draw a positive idea from a world concerned with mourning and loss. Visually, our approach was equally pure. We sought to capture the lives we were celebrating in single objects – a fireman’s helmet, a cyclist’s bicycle, a teacher’s chalks. Click image to enlarge:

Then we told simple, unsentimental stories about these lives, to show how C.P.J Field went above and beyond to remember and celebrate them in wholly personal and individual ways. We created the bank of images and took the campaign to market regionally through posters, bus panels, and advertising, supported by gently moving radio commercials.

Charlie Field, CPJ Field MD, said: “Our new campaign is grounded in family history and captures the sensitive and deeply personal nature of the service we offer. I’m excited about how our colleagues and customers will react to this emotive departure from the traditional look and feel of our industry.”