The fire department
Posted on 23. Jul, 2009 by Chris in Communication, Public Relations
Who is the fire department? If you were to do street interviews and ask people “Who is your fire department?” would they be able to answer it correctly? I think the volunteer fire service and the industry as a whole does a very poor job at communicating who we are and I think we could take a lesson from the business world.
Take a moment and think about what would enter your mind if you seen a guy/gal in a brown uniform stepping out of a big brown box truck with the only marking being that of some gold shield looking thing. What do you envision after I described that? Obviously we’re talking about UPS here, but how do we know that when we just mentioned a brown box truck? Because they know how to communicate their message and who we are and I think we could do a much better job at this.
Granted almost any fire truck has a maltese cross and their truck number on it, but what else is there to identify who they are? For most volunteer departments, their small towns are surrounded by townships and/or counties and often times that’s what we put on our trucks. It might say “Smith Twp. Fire Department” or “Adams Twp. F.D.” and although these are real fire departments, both are centered in a town or city.
I can hear the questions already – “Chris, they don’t care what it says on the side of the truck, just as long as we show up.” I can’t deny that a person who is experiencing their first emergency could give a rat’s behind what it says on the side of the truck, just as long as we show up and do our job, that’s what matters most. But what I’m talking about is making an identity for your department while not in emergency mode.
Get out there and let people know that your local department is this or that. It doesn’t matter, but if people know you just as “the fire department”, you’re missing a prime opportunity to present yourselves as much more than that!
