CREMATION – A PRESENT FAREWELL THAT LINGERS

Vietnamese funeral traditions have long prioritized burial as the primary way to honor the deceased. However, urbanization, rising land costs, environmental concerns, and shifting family mindsets are challenging the sustainability of traditional burial practices. To address this, the Vietnamese government has been actively promoting cremation as a more practical and environmentally responsible alternative.

Cremation is increasingly recognized as a practical choice, yet families remain hesitant to commit.

There’s a slow adoption rate of cremation services despite high awareness, compared to other options.

Making cremation a go-to choice.

The cremation process makes death feel like a service transaction.
People don’t reject cremation. They reject the way it’s done — the loss of the mourning journey.

“The cremation process is so brutally efficient that it leaves me feeling empty.”

Cultural shifts have created more options for honoring the dead — but fail to restore the deep, ritualized farewell experience that makes cremation feel sacred.

Competitors focus on preserving memory after cremation, but not on making the cremation process itself more meaningful, guided, and emotionally fulfilling.

Brands focus on efficiency, convenience, and affordability.

There is no guidance for how families can shape cremation into a meaningful farewell.

Opportunity:

• Other cremation services promise a process. We promise a farewell.
• They focus on what happens to the body. We focus on what happens to the heart.
• They emphasize speed. We emphasize meaning.

Profile & Lifestyle
Adults (28–50) who grew up in traditional Vietnamese households but have adopted modern values due to urbanization, education, or global culture.

Tribe: The Legacy Redefiners
They are stuck in the middle, between practicality and meaning, modernity and tradition, efficiency and emotional depth.
They want to do things the “right way” but don’t feel burial is possible.
They don’t struggle with cremation as a concept — but with how it’s done.

The real pain of cremation isn’t letting go, it’s having nothing left to hold onto.

A cremation ritual experience that transforms emptiness into sacred presence  through a deeply personalized, emotionally immersive, and ritualized farewell.

• Personal Farewell Rituals: Flexible, customizable rituals (letters, candles, digital memorials) that allow families to shape their own meaningful goodbye.
• Living Memories Services: Gentle, ongoing remembrance experiences like periodic memory messages, interactive journals, or evolving memorial spaces.
• Interactive Keepsakes: AI-powered storytelling, voice-activated digital archives, or eco-memorials (e.g., trees, biodegradable sculptures) that transform ashes into lasting presence.
• Connection Spaces: Physical or digital spaces where families can return to remember and feel close to their loved ones.

Communication Proposition:
Reimagining presence in cremation.

Service Design Proposition:
Turning cremation into a present farewell that lingers.

• From Service to Sacred: Transform cremation into a guided, ritualized farewell that makes presence felt.
• From Standard to Personalized: Craft deeply personal farewell experiences that carry memory forward.
• From Transactional to Emotionally Deep: Create ongoing spaces, rituals, and keepsakes that ensure loved ones remain close.