The Social Network & Community JUST for Firefighters
“Marketing” Isn’t a Dirty Word: How to market your service, personnel & apparatus to your community
By Chief Jeffrey D. Johnson, EFO, CFO, MIFireE
From the July issue of FireRescue magazine
At the bedside of an 80-year-old woman with a fractured hip, I learned my first lesson in marketing. As my crew—clad in bunker pants and T-shirts emblazoned with the word “fire”—began treating the woman, the local private ambulance crew entered the opposite side of the room. They were dressed in crisp uniforms complete with a badge, nametag and certification patches prominantly displayed. After just one glimpse, the woman rolled toward the ambulance crew and largely ignored what we were doing. Why? I believe it was the uniform.
What to Market
Marketing is defined as the selling of products or services—the activity of presenting products or services in such a way as to make them desirable. You may think that marketing is best left to corporate giants, like those that sell tennis shoes and cell phones. However, today’s fire departments face the same threats as the private sector: competition for dollars and consolidation. Add the risk of privatization and, I believe, marketing our value has never been more important. So what does that look like?
Services: No one has a greater product than the fire service, especially when it involves saving someone’s loved one or their home. However, if you’re only counting on the job you do in people’s homes or businesses to market your value, you’re missing the bulk of your customers. The reality is, the people who pay the least (taxes) use our services the most, and the people who pay the most use our services the least.
In addition to cost-effective and efficient emergency response, we must create purposeful interactions with our customers so as to demonstrate the value and quality of our service. This was validated years ago for my home department, Tualatin Valley (Ore.) Fire & Rescue, when we conducted a public opinion survey. The survey found that citizens who had interaction with TVF&R personnel were 11–20 percent more likely to support a tax renewal. You can bet we prioritize public education events, fire station open houses, serving lunch at the senior center, attending monthly neighborhood meetings, blood pressure checks and free training for our landlords. In addition, we market “safety” through mass-media opportunities, including news stories, radio and television PSAs, print ads, and online and social media.
Personnel: One of the most important elements of our marketing is our people. People perceive uniformed personnel to be professional, trained, tested and part of a hierarchy that requires personnel to prove their competence. There’s a reason why airline pilots wear a full dress uniform as they greet passengers boarding their plane. Their uniform is meant to project professionalism and build confidence in the passengers.
We’re in the public eye every minute. Our chance for a first—and possibly only—impression is not only at the scene of an emergency, but also while staffing a display booth, installing a smoke alarm or shopping at the grocery store. What are the attitudes, grooming standards and uniforms of your personnel telling your customers about your department?
Apparatus: Our most visible means for marketing our department is our apparatus. There’s nothing more attention-getting than a fire engine traveling code three. And even when sitting in a parking lot, it can’t help but get noticed. So why don’t more fire departments display their logos more prominently on these “rolling billboards”? Tip: The letters should be large enough so that there’s no mistaking who serves their community. At TVF&R, we even put our logo on our hosebed covers so news helicopters know who to credit in their news story. Apparatus can also be used to market your Web site, a community program or a safety tip.
Final Thoughts
So, how well is your department marketing itself? Do your customers know the value of your department? Or are you the area’s best kept secret?
Chief Jeff Johnson began his career as a firefighter in 1978, and he has served as fire chief of Tualatin Valley (Ore.) Fire & Rescue since 1995. He is past president of the IAFC Western Division and Oregon Fire Chiefs Association. He is a member of the Metropolitan Fire Chiefs Association and has been active in many IAFC sections, including Fire & Life Safety, Volunteer & Combination Officers, EMS, and Safety, Health and Survival. Chief Johnson is a National Fire Academy Executive Fire Officer graduate and has received his Chief Fire Officer (CFO) Designation.
Coyright © Elsevier Inc., a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
SUBSCRIBE to <a href="https://www.pubservice.com/Subnew.aspx?PC=FR&PK=" target="_blank">FIRERESCUE</a>
Add a Comment
-
Comment by Faron Lee Livingston on August 2, 2010 at 9:07pm
-
This is one of the major issues that departments fail. We solicit funds from the community. Have open house and ask for donations. One week in October there is Fire Prevention. Then we sit and gripe when the citizens say we ask for a lot of money.
Ladies and gentlemen, we ARE a business. We are in business to save lives, property, and protect the environment. How many citizens really know what all a department does? As Officer's, do you have your personnel in the public's eye? Do you promote fire prevention not only to schools, but churches, senior citizens, etc. year round? Sure, we ask for donations but MARKETING shows the citizens where the money is going and what benefits they are receiving.
Kudo's to you Chief Johnson and your article. Just ask yourself where would Wal-Mart be right now without their MASSIVE marketing techniques and campaigns? Just another department store on the corner in Arkansas...probably next to a little firehouse.
-
Comment by lutan1 on July 1, 2010 at 10:11pm
-
In my business we teach Business Continuity. One of the hardest things for any organization to recover from is harm to their reputation.
It might come about from bad publicity, our failures (let's face it- media love reporting our failures, not our successes!) or people's perceptions, based on things like image.
That image, for the emergency services, could be uniform presentation, vehicle presentation, the goings on around the station, vehicle driving operations, etc.
There's so many little things we can do which can improve our marketing.
© 2024 Created by Firefighter Nation WebChief.
Powered by
You need to be a member of My Firefighter Nation to add comments!
Join My Firefighter Nation