Honoring Lives Tour Batesville Casket Company
BATESVILLE, Ind., May 22 /PRNewswire/ Batesville Casket Company, one of North America's leading suppliers of burial caskets, Options® cremation products and related support services, announced its mobile customer service program -- the Honoring Lives Tour -- has earned a silver award at Event Marketer Magazine's 2006 Ex Awards. This award recognizes creators of exceptional marketing events and experiential programs. Batesville won the award in the Best Mobile Marketing Program (business to business) category.
"We are honored to have received this recognition for our mobile tour center, and more importantly, the countless positive comments from our customers and the success we have had with the program since its launch just over a year ago," said Kenneth A. Camp, president and chief executive officer. "We undertook this unique approach to make it easier for our customers to see the innovative solutions that we bring to the funeral profession."
Batesville Casket Company's Honoring Lives Tour consists of two mobile tour centers that travel the country, making stops in cities and towns throughout North America. The tour centers focus on solutions to several challenges facing funeral service today -- the growth in cremation as a means of final disposition, the increase in consumer demand for personalization, the need for larger products that address the obesity issue, the continued use of technology and the Internet by consumers, and the escalating rise in the costs of running a business. To date, the two tour centers have made stops in more than 100 cities and hosted more than 7000 funeral professionals.
The awards were presented in Chicago at the 4th Annual Experiential Marketing Summit hosted by Event Marketer Magazine. This year's Event Marketer's Ex Awards drew more than 500 entries from around the world, the most ever received in this prestigious competition. Each entry was screened by 20 judges based on creativity, ideas, execution and results across multiple categories.
The other two award winners in the Best Business to Business Mobile Marketing Program category were Cisco Systems, the leading supplier of networking equipment for the Internet, and Honeywell, the leading supplier of automation and control process solutions. In the Best Consumer Mobile Marketing Program category, the winners were Anheuser-Busch, Kimberly-Clark and Procter & Gamble.
"Each year, we host nearly a thousand customers to enhance their skills and learn about innovative products and programs at our Batesville headquarters," remarked Camp. "However, funeral service is a profession that requires funeral directors to be on call 24/7, making it difficult to take the necessary time away from their businesses to visit us. The Honoring Lives Tour Center has proven to be a great way to keep in touch with our customers while helping to educate them on what's new with Batesville and funeral service. But, perhaps most important, it provides a way for us to listen to funeral directors so that we can continue to develop solutions that meet the needs of funeral homes and the families they serve."
About Batesville Casket Company Batesville Casket Company, a subsidiary of Hillenbrand Industries (NYSE: HB) located in Batesville, Indiana, is recognized as North America's premier funeral service supplier of burial caskets, Options(R) cremation products and related support services. For more than one hundred years, Batesville has been committed to assisting funeral directors in helping families honor the lives of those they love.
About the Honoring Lives Tour Centers Each Honoring Lives Tour Center consists of a 53-foot double slide out trailer that transforms into a mobile showroom outfitted with striking graphics, interactive videos, and a satellite link. When in its expanded position, each trailer features a 1000 square foot interior showroom. Mobility Resource Associates of St. Clair Shores, MI was responsible for creating and operating the mobile marketing exhibit.