US-based funeral director Service Corporation International (SCI),
the company which buried Elvis Presley and JF Kennedy, has asked
agencies to pitch for its UK consumer and business-to-business PR
contract.
SCI, which has captured 14 per cent of the UK’s funeral market, is
expected to make a decision on the appointment later this week.
SCI has retained Brunswick to handle its corporate affairs since
1994.
The company is seeking a separate PR agency to handle its funeral
pre-arrangement division, which offers prepaid funerals.
SCI runs UK subsidiaries SCI Funerals, SCI Pre-arrangement, SCI
Crematoria and SCI Manufacturing.
SCI’s head of corporate affairs Jane Farrin said: ’We recognise that
this is an increasingly competitive business and we are therefore
reviewed our marketing activities. The specific brief for the new
contract will be to raise awareness of pre-arranged funeral plans in the
UK and particularly to strengthen the dignity funeral plan brand.’
Earlier this year the Office of Fair Trading announced its plans to
monitor the unregulated funeral industry.
