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Project on Angels Funeral Services
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Executive Summary
This report talks about a new business “Angels Funeral Services.” It is a partnership business of two friends with 50% equal share in it. The firm was established in February 2005 by two friends with different educational background, with the motives to share the burden of mourning family at the death event.
The company’s main office is located in the G-9 Markaz in Islamabad and will start its operations within the next few months. The reason for choosing this site is not only the easy accessibility to all areas but also it is quite populare area, where the demand of AFS can be expected high.
AFS is playing the part of intermediary, which has different contracts with other businesses. It is providing the services of tent and catering, transportation, coffin, graveyard arrangements, religious scholars, and the capable male and female staff for the bathing of dead body. As the charges are quite economical and the people are not bound to avail all our service accept for few, so the target market of the business is middle, upper- middle and upper class.
AFS has no direct competitor but has some indirect competitors like CDA, Edhi Foundation, Shah Faisal Jamia Islamia and hospitals.
AFS will use billboards, pamphlets, newspapers and cable TV providers for its promotion to bring awareness among the people about this service. By sales forecasting, it is assumed that the company will earn profit from the very first year.
Mission Statement
“To be a leading funeral service provider for Muslims, with motives to share their burden at death event and to maximize Company’s profitability”
Objectives
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To provide comfort, reassurance and freedom from stress to Muslims at the crucial time of death event.·
To diminish the troubles of funeral arrangements.·
To provide quality funeral services at affordable prices.·
To get the entire satisfaction of the customers by providing them quality services.·
Guiding through qualified religious scholars, bring awareness among the people to utilize the time to pray for the departed soul.·
To perform all funeral activities strictly in accordance with Shariah.·
To spread the business nationwide.About the Company
“Angels Funeral Services” is a partnership business, aiming to provide the funeral services to all Muslims. The main office of the company is located in sector G-9 Markaz and will start its operations within the next few months. The business deals with the funeral services, which include tent and Catering, coffin, burial arrangements, transportation, and religious scholars and bathing of the dead body.
Company Background:
Two friends with different educational background established the firm “Angels Funeral Services” in March 2005. The idea came from a very mournful incident, which occurred with one of the partner Mr. Amir Riaz. In mid of March, Mr. Amir’s grandmother died and he wanted to avail some ambulance service. He contacted with Edhi but at that time no ambulance was available so he was asked to contact after half an hour. But after half an hour ambulance was not available. He rushed for many places but failed to hire the ambulance service.
After some days he told his friends about the incident. They discussed on the funeral service and ambulance services in developed countries. So they decided to open a business on the name of Angels Funeral and Ambulance Service.
Although this concept is quite new for the people of Islamabad, but it is being practice in several western and Muslim countries around the world.
Company Operations
AFS has signed some contracts with other businesses. AFS has contacts with different male and female ethnicity religious scholar who will perform the funeral ceremonies.
AFS has a trained staff of six people, which comprised of five males and one female. The criterion used for hiring the staff was that they should have knowledge about Islam and its teachings. They must be literate and communicate well to others. Not only this, but they should also have driving license. These staff will work in different shifts.
Upon receiving the call from the customer who wants to avail the funeral services, the two of AFS people will go to the mournful house to get the required information about the dead person and to see the area for the arrangements. The guardian will fill a form in order to get the information about the dead body and the services, which they want to avail.
On collecting the data AFS people will inform the management on the phone about the arrangement orders. The two people will go to do arrangements about the grave’s preparation.
Tents, catering and sitting service will also be provided on customer’s demand. If customer needs this service our people will go to that place and arrange tents, catering and sitting equipments.
If the customer has avail all our services then AFS will arrange religious scholar according to the ethnicity of the dead person who will do Khatam-e-Quran and guide the people for the proper utilizing the time for praying the departed soul. Also AFS has contacts with capable male and female person who knows the Islamic teachings and can assist in bathing the dead body according to Shariyah. When all the arrangements will be made AFS transportation will take the dead body to the graveyard and after the funeral ceremony will take the relatives back to home.
It’s a 24hrs service, if in any case the deceased person will not be a resident of Islamabad or if the relatives wished to bury him/her in Rawapindi area, AFS will provide the transportation service to there as well. AFS will provide buses, if the customer asked for it for taking the relatives to the graveyard.
Information Needed for Arrangements
Name of the Deceased Person: _________________________________________
Age: ________________
Son/Daughter/Wife of: ________________________________________________
Place of Death: ______________________________________________________
Your Name: ________________________________________________________
Relation with the Dead Person: ____________________________________
NIC No: ___________________________________________________________
Telephone No: ______________________________________________________
Address: _____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
Which Services Do You Want To Avail?
Tent and catering servicei. How many guests are you expecting?
ii. How would you like to treat them? Please check Ö the box.
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Food |
Allo Gosht Tandoori Roti Fruits |
Chicken Qorma Palao Halwa Zarda |
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Snacks |
Samosa Biscuits |
Tea |
Transportation
Bathing the dead body according to Shariyah.
Guidance through religious scholars for praying the departed soul and Khatam-e Quran.
Coffin
Grave arrangements
At what time you want to bury the dead body?
Do you have any preference for graveyard?_____________________________________________________________________
Signature of the Guardian Signature of Service In charge
MANAGEMENT TEAM
“Indeed people are like camels; out of hundred you will hardly find a single one fit to ride.”
(Sahih Bukhari)
1. Eatsam Ahmed
MBA Iqra University Islamabad,
2. Raja Amir Riaz
MBA finance Iqra University Islamabad
FEATURES OF SERVICES:
AFS provides the following services to its customers.
·
Tent And Catering Services:AFS provides different types of foods, snakes and tents to its customers. The dishes other than the menu can also be requested on different prices. Tents are available in plain white, green and in floral designs.
·
Transportation:AFS provides the transportation service for the dead body to the graveyard and drop the relatives to their homes. AFS also provide ambulance service for taking dead body outside the city if the customer wants to bury the dead body in their hometown.
·
Graveyard Arrangements:AFS provides all the graveyard arrangements and the availability of coffins and its accessories as well.
·
Guidance Through Religious Scholars:The easy availability of religious scholars who will guide and assist at the proper utilizing the time for praying the departed soul and will do Katam-e-Quran and Dua for the departed soul. This scholar will be according to the ethnicity of the deceased person and will also perform the funeral ceremony as well.
·
Bathing Of The Dead Body:AFS provides the service of bathing or Gusaal of the dead body according to Shariyah. It has capable male and female assistants in this regard.
Market Analysis
LOCATION:
The business has chosen sector G-9 Markaz for its main office. The reason for selecting this site is its easy accessibility to all sectors, which would be a great help in providing efficient services to the customers. Moreover, a great majority of people belonging to middle and upper middle class lives here. So it can be expected that AFS will be in demand and people will avail these services.
Address:
House 261, street 36
G-9/1
Islamabad
MARKET DEMOGRAPHICS:
Gender Male, Female
Income level 15,000 and above
Social Class Middle, Upper-Middle-Upper
Ethnicity Muslims
The Muslim population of Islamabad is 686,249 that make the 97% of the total population.
Figure 2 Muslim Populations
As the service package is quite economical and changeable according to requirement, that’s why we are targeting the people belonging to upper, upper-middle and middle classes as they can afford to avail any of our services.
In 2001, the death rate in Pakistan was recorded 7.2 per thousand persons. According to a survey more than 1400 persons are buried every year in Islamabad graveyard.
There are many others small grave yard in Islamabad as well. But in those graveyards, the annual death rate in very minimal. Approximately 4-20 death cases come in these graveyards. The main official graveyard of Islamabad in located in sector H-8. The majority of the people, which comprised of AFS target market, bury their loved ones in this graveyard.
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Number of Deaths for the 6 months in Year 2004 In Islamabad Grave yard |
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January |
154 |
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February |
77 |
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March |
83 |
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April |
111 |
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May |
91 |
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June |
92 |
The life expectancy at birth is recorded 64 years in males and 66 years in females, which has been increased from the past years. The infant mortality rate is about 77.1 per thousand lives births, which is also decline from the previous year, due to the availability and utilization of medical services, but still it is very high.
MARKET GEOGRAPHIC:
City Islamabad
Area 906 Square Kilometer
Population 805,235
The population of Islamabad is growing at very fast rate. The average annual growth rate of population is 5.19. The total area of district is 906 sq/km, which gives population density of 1,026 persons per square kilometers.
According to the economic survey 2001-02, the population of Islamabad has been increased from 118 million in 1961 to 951 million in 2002.
Figure 4 Population Increment of Islamabad
PSYCHOGRAPHIC:
The life style of the people of Islamabad is quite different as compared to other cities. The people are migrated from different places for employment. The majority of the population is doing services.
Due to the isolated life-style, people hardly know who is living in their neighborhood. They seem very contented in their own homes, families and atmosphere. Due to this factor if unfortunately someone meets any accident he/she find nobody for help.
BEHAVIORAL:
The psychographic factors affects on the behavior to a great extent. People being contented in their homes and life also look for convenience and comfort in the things around them.
According to our survey, 81% of the people said that they would like to avail the funeral services as the arrangements become difficult to handle for one person. It verifies the behavior of the target market that they don’t like troublesome arrangements but want comfort and convenience.
Marketing Mix
PLAN:
Company Name
: Angels Funeral Services (AFS)The company came up with the name “Angels” because it is not only short and easy to remember but also relates to the funeral ceremony. Angels are divine creature of God, and a symbol of virtue and kindness. When someone passed away, we “Angels” come to people to share their burden and tensions by taking some of their responsibilities and problems in our hands.
“Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.”
(Mark Twain)
Company Logo:
Slogan: “Your dear departed in our hands”
PRICE:
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Catering & Food Charges |
Rs: 40 per head
|
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Transportation |
Rs: 200 per hr |
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Grave Charges |
Rs: 5000 |
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Coffin and Accessories Charges |
18 yard per coffin Price of per yard good quality cotton material= Rs: 30 x 18= Rs: 540 Coffin Accessories= Rs: 210 Total: Rs: 750 |
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Bathing of the dead body: |
Rs: 200 |
The prices of transportation and catering services are changeable according to your requirements. All the services accept catering, transportation, and graveyard arrangements are optional.
PLACEMENT:
Consumer
Business
Figure 6
As the above figure shows that the business directly deals with the consumers, there are no intermediaries between them. In fact the business is playing the part of intermediary, which has different contracts with other businesses like, with religious scholars and graveyards. The main objective of the business is to facilitate its customers and provide the best service to them.
The business has its main office in G-9. People can contact the management by personally visiting the office or they can make a telephone call. The company has its own web site as well, where people can take full information about the services. The telephone numbers and full office address is also mentioned there for further details.
PROMOTION:
As it is a new business and people are not aware of it, so the firm will promote its services by advertisements in the newspaper, banner/ posters, pamphlets and cable TV.
Newspapers:
AFS will do advertisement through various English and Urdu newspapers i.e. The Jang, The News, The Dawn and the Nawaiwaqt.
Banners/ posters:
AFS will fix banners in different places in Islamabad to promote its business. It will fix banners in the main centers “Markaz” of the sectors.
Pamphlets:
AFS will do its advertisement through Pamphlets, which will be thrown from house to house in order to inform and bring awareness among people about our new service. The pamphlets will not only be delivered in each and every house of E, F, G and I-8 sector but also in the main hospitals of Islamabad.
Cable TV:
Cable TV is another way of promoting AFS in the market. As Cable TV is becoming a very common resource of information and entertainment so AFS will give ads on Cable TV to know the people about the funeral service.
Economic Analysis:
Pakistan is economically classified into developing countries. It is the 7th most populous country in the world, having total population of 150 million with annual growth rate of about 2.8%.
If current trend persists, Pakistan's population will reach 217 million by the year 2020. Based on present growth patterns and trends, the economy would not be able to sustain the growing pressure of population and resultant deterioration in quality of life will foil government's recent efforts for social uplift. The high population growth is, therefore, a matter of national concern. Hence, improving the effectiveness of population welfare program can augment the thrust for improvement in quality of life, social uplift and economic development.
The inflation rate has grown from 4.6% to 7.0% in the year 2004-05. This rising trend in inflation rate is witnessed because of increase in prices of some basic food items like wheat, flour, beef, mutton, vegetable ghee and onion etc.
This is first time that the major contribution to the economic growth is coming from the industrial sector. The large-scale-manufacturing sector grew by a hefty 15.1 per cent during July-January 2003-04. This is the highest ever growth in the manufacturing sector for the last three decades. The agriculture sector has grown to 4.1% to 4.3% in 2003-04, which is also a good improvement.16
The overall growth performance of Pakistan’s economy showed a great improvement in 2003-04 with the GDP growth rate increasing to 5.3 % from 3.4% in the year 2001-02.17
This increment in the GDP means that economy is getting strong, reduction in unemployment, more job opportunities, good salaries and more purchasing power.
The real GDP growth rate of 5.3% is now expected to be in the range of 7.0-8.0 percent18, which indicates more, jobs and business opportunities in the future.
The current economic situation shows that people have good purchasing power, which is a positive aspect from business point of view. This improvement in economy is bringing opportunities for new business. The people can spend money on the things, which can bring comfort and convenience to them.
So in the light of these factors it can be anticipated that Angles Funeral Service will
survive for a long period in the market with great success.
Competitor Analysis:
The business has no direct competitor but has some indirect competitors.
INDIRECT COMPETITORS:
CDA:
CDA is providing a bus service to the graveyard for the transportation of the dead body and then dropping back the relatives at home after the funeral ceremony. CDA is charging Rs: 4 Km per hr.
Shah Faisal Jamia Islamia:
It is located in the sector G-7-3/2. It is providing free of cost service of bathing the dead body. It will be your responsibility to pick and drop the male/ female person in order to avail this service. You will also provide the coffin.
Edhi Foundation:
Edhi Foundation has the largest network for the burial of unclaimed and burials of dead bodies in Pakistan. Coffin cloth and coffin boxes are provided free of cost to those families who cannot afford or manage burial rites themselves. Non-Muslims are provided services according to their own religious rites with the assistance of a church or local temple.
Edhi foundation is providing ambulance services for dead bodies. Within the city they are charging Rs: 30 up to the 15Km, over 15Km are charging Rs: 5 per km. They also provide its services outside the city as well. For this they are charging Rs: 8 per Km. Edhi ambulance allow maximum three persons along with the dead body. If you keep engage the ambulance they will fine you Rs: 100 per hr.
Hospitals:
The Hospitals do provide their ambulance services to take the dead bodies to the hospitals or to their home. These ambulances charges are quite minimal.
How Angel Funeral Services are Different:
Angels Funeral Services is different from its above-mentioned competitors due to several reasons. Although the prices are quite high as compare to its competitors, but it is providing a complete package of services, from catering to graveyard arrangements. It is specifically targeting the people belonging to middle, upper-middle and upper classes with the motives to share their burden at death event and to bring awareness among the people about the Islamic teaching by guiding them through religious scholars. Nowadays, people have to rush for different places in order to make the arrangements at the critical time of death event. Angels Funeral Services provides all the services under one roof and share the burden and tension of the family by taking all the responsibility of funeral arrangements.
POTENTIAL THREATS
Some of the potential threats that the Angels Funeral Services might face are as follows:
1. Economic instability of the country leads the people towards lower living standard, unemployment, and less purchasing power. It can be a potential threat to the business because the buying patterns of the people might get change and they might hesitate to avail funeral Services.
2. AFS may also get affected by political and ethnicity strikes. These strikes may become a hurdle in providing them efficient services.
3. AFS might get affected when new competitors will come in the market.
4. Due to the unawareness among the people about this service, they might hesitate to use it.
5. Some people might get against to this service and won’t appreciate it from the business point of view.
RECOMMENDATIONS
·
The business should try its best to provide quality and efficient services to customers in order to survive in the market.·
The business should adopt different ways for the promotion of its services in order to bring more awareness among the people.·
AFS should have a license from the government, in order to avoid the hurdles in providing its services.
CONCLUSION
Angels Funeral Services is coming up with a relatively new concept. Though this concept will provide convenience to the customers but still people will be hesitant to use this service initially. This will require a lot of effort from the management team to come up to the expectations of the customers, which include quality service in timely manner.
According to the surveys conducted before starting this project, it was found that people are not aware of this kind of service, but still they want convenience at their end. So there is an opportunity in the market, which Angels Funeral Services is going to cash?
The financial analysis shows that company will earn profit from the very first year. That means the company will have good business.
Research and Finding
A general survey was conducted in the first week of April, mainly in the areas of F-11, F-10, G-10, I-8 and Chaklala Scheme III Rawalpindi. The reason was not only to measure the demand of the business but also to know the response of the people towards ‘Angels Funeral Services’. The sample size was 30, which comprised of 26 males and 4 females.
1. The people of different age groups and ethnicity were being asked questions regarding funeral services. In which 45% were between 20-30 ages, 14% of the people were in the range of 30-40, 10% were of the age 40-50, 24% were of 50-60 and 7% were above 60.
2. According to the survey 31% of people have already made their coffins, and 69% of the people have made no pre-death arrangements.
3. 76% people think that it becomes difficult for a person to arrange everything when someone dies and 26% think opposite of it.
4. On a question that people don’t know the proper utilization of time in praying for departed soul, 87% of the people agreed it, 10% disagreed and 3% were not sure about it.
5. On a question that people are usually unaware of the true Islamic way of bathing the dead body, 75% did agree to this, 19% disagree and 6% was not sure about it.
6.
79% of the people said that they would like to be guided for the proper utilization of time in praying for the departed soul, and 21% said they won’t like to be guided.
7. 86% of the people would like to be guided at true Islamic way of bathing the dead body and 14% don’t want to be guided.
8. 87% of the people encouraged funeral service and 13% discouraged.
9. 81% of the people said that they would like to avail the funeral services if provided, 16% don’t want to avail such services and 3% were not sure about it.
The results of the above survey show that there is a great demand of this service in the market. Therefore it can be expected that there are very high chances that the business ‘Angels Funeral Services’ will be successful.
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