"Chief Marketing Officer": How A Fire Service Leader Sees the Role of Marketing
Since creating "Where's the Fire?", our interactive fire education experience in collaboration with Liberty Mutual at Epcot, we have been fortunate to see many fire service organizations holding their meetings at the Walt Disney World Resort.
Last March, I had the honor of meeting Randy Bruegman during a Commission on Fire Accreditation (CFAI) board members conference at Walt Disney World Resort. Those of you who read this column in Firehouse Magazine know how much I believe in the good work and effectiveness of the CFAI. Every time I write about CFAI and measuring the success of a fire department's effectiveness, I usually receive well over 100 e-mails. I asked Randy to answer some key questions relating to marketing through his successful efforts with his own department in Fresno, CA. My purpose was to understand how one of the top chiefs in the country views marketing's application to the fire service, and especially to his department.
About Randy Bruegman
Chief Randy R. Bruegman began his fire service career as a volunteer firefighter in Nebraska. He was hired by Ft. Collins, CA, in 1979 as a firefighter and rose through the ranks as engineer, inspector, lieutenant, captain, and then battalion chief. He continued on to serve as fire chief for the City of Campbell, CA; the Village of Hoffman Estates, IL and the Clackamas County, OR, Fire District No. 1. Since September 2003, he has been the chief of the Fresno, CA, Fire Department. In additiona, he has served as president of the International Association of Fire Chiefs and currently serves as president of the Board of Trustees for the CFAI. He holds member status with the Institute of Fire Engineers and is a Chief Fire Officer Designate. He holds an associate's degree in fire science, a bachelor's degree in business, and a master's degree in management. He has authored two books and is a contributing author to various fire service publications.
Discuss fire service marketing ideas in the Firehouse.com Forums at Public Information & Media Relations .One of his books, Exceeding Customer Expectations: Quality Concepts for the Fire Service (Prentice Hall/Brady Fire), explains the philosophy and structure behind quality standards that are so necessary for the fire service. It is an excellent introduction to the CFAI process. This book sets the standard for how a department can deal with change as it enhances its services for its citizens' needs. As president of CFAI, Randy is creating a strong organization that is making significant contributions to our nation's fire protection system. In the time I have know him I have found Randy to be on the forefront of progressive leadership. He is consistently striving to lead the fire service to ever higher standards of quality. He never stands still, knowing very well that the market is always a moving target and change is constant. Look for CFAI to exert even stronger leadership for the fire service in the future.
The Fresno Fire Department
Established in 1877, the Fresno Fire Department is one of the oldest fire departments in the United States and is rich in both history and tradition. Over the last 20 years, the department has had to do more with less. In 1980, with a population of 180,000 and a service area of 80 square miles, the department had over 300 firefighters. Today the department serves a population of 450,000 people that covers over 104 square miles with approximately 284 permanent positions: 10 chief officers; 263 sworn, safety firefighters; nine sworn, non-safety inspectors; and 24 non-sworn, professional, and support personnel. Non-sworn personnel have been integrated into the management structure of the department.
The Fresno Fire Department is a full-service department responding to more than 30,000 incidents annually. The department's mission is "to protect and serve, and to put service above all else." The fire department has received national recognition for its innovative and progressive approach to alternate methods of providing municipal fire protection, such as a municipal fire sprinkler ordinance. The department successfully completed a major station relocation program and serves the city from 16 strategically located fire stations.
Interview With Rendy Bruegman
As a chief, how have you come to understand the term marketing and its uses for the fire service?
Many times in the fire service we get confused in respect to the difference between education and marketing. We believe, if we have a quality educational outreach throughout our community, it serves as the basis for marketing the department. I don't believe this is the case. Marketing takes a much different approach. Although it has an educational aspect, marketing is the means by which you get the broad goals and objectives out from a community-wide perspective. Also, it educates the community about the department's key strategic initiatives. It is the "top of the mind" awareness of what your organization is doing that you are trying to translate through effective marketing in your community.When you came to Fresno, what were the major challenges you faced in the department?
When I arrived here, we faced significant challenges in all areas of the department. The department had been underinvested in for almost 25 years and, in fact, today we still have less firefighters than we did in 1980 and the city has more than doubled in population. What I found was a department that was highly skilled, yet simply did not have the infrastructure to support the demands placed upon it, including personnel, rolling stock, and fire stations. The existing stations were in disrepair and we are literally seven to eight stations short of where we should be currently. So we focused on getting our hands around this challenge and began to formulate a strategic effort to address these issues.What were the key initiatives that you wanted to move forward? Did you have major program needs? How did you use marketing and public communications to gain your initiatives? Did you create a marketing and communications plan? If so, how did you implement it?
It was evident that the problems were so significant that we needed to take a different approach in addressing them. It was often hard to articulate, in terms of the fire service, about our needs to the general community. So with the development of a community-based public safety commission report sanctioned by the mayor and the city council, which outlined the needed resources over the course of the next 20 years.We framed the needs around a very basic concept, "Four Minutes to Excellence." We explained to the community and continue to do so today that the arrival of a fire unit within four minutes after being dispatched is critical to survivability of our residents in an event of a major medical emergency and is paramount if we are to control fires before they reach flashover. The "Four Minutes to Excellence" theme is displayed on our marketing and educational materials as well as displayed on our rehabilitation/command bus. These marketing efforts have helped to articulate this message throughout the community. What has been interesting is that we are 18 months into this process and we can see that it is working. Many times when I'm interviewed, a reporter will ask me how this will impact the department's "Four Minutes to Excellence" plan and the city council will do the same during presentations that I make on needed resources. So we have been able to frame the issue in a way that the general public can understand.
The bottom line is when someone calls 9-1-1, they want trained fire personnel as quickly as possible. So it is a terminology they can quickly understand and equate it to their own reality in respect to emergency response.
How did you measure the results and convey it to the citizens?
We have not undertaken any formal measurement in respect to how our message has been received from the general public but just from the feedback I have received from my interactions throughout the community and with other elected officials I think the communications plan for "Four Minutes to Excellence" has worked well considering our small investment in its marketing. In fact, probably the best example is that while going through the most recent Veterans Day Parade we had several people yell out along the route that Fire Department needs more money to achieve the "Four Minutes to Excellence," so we can see that it has performed throughout the community in a real world sense. I think it has positioned the organization to achieve the objectives outlined in the public safety commission plan.What role did prevention play in your initiatives?
This past year we were able to change our master fee schedule and hire an additional ten inspectors, which was the first time inspectors were hired in over 20 years. Prevention is a critical part of our overall plan as is the educational piece of prevention and also in counsel. We have a very comprehensive juvenile firesetter program that we work in concert with Fresno State University utilizing the psychology doctoral candidates to assist us. This has proven to be very, very successful.What role did the customer service play?
Customer service is critical in everything we do. It only takes one bad experience to turn off many people within the community. We are fortunate that our firefighters realize this and take the time to go above and beyond from a customer service perspective and their off-duty commitment to community outreach is unsurpassed. We are involved in a variety of activities including Firefighters Creating Memories, which takes local children with physical and mental challenges to the fair each evening and involvement with the firefighters; Fill-the-Helmet, which collects money for the local regional burn unit; Fresno Fire Chief's Foundation; hosting the box cart races; Fill-the-Boot for MD; and a variety of other events. Some of the events are through their union local and some in conjunction with the fire department. It is the primary focus of the department to provide customer service both on and off duty.How do you view accreditation?
Accreditation for us is the key to moving the organization to where we want to be in the future. We have been engaged in the process for about 12 months and have about 18 months to go before we are ready to submit to be reviewed. This provides us the framework by which we can address some of the significant infrastructure issues that we have had not only from our emergency response standpoint but also how we operate as an organization. It has helped us to internalize and begin to measure all aspects of our organization, is rapidly changing the way we do business, and will lay a solid foundation for us to continue to progress in the future.What is your internal approach, within the department, personnel, leadership, and management issues, to get your initiatives through?
The internal approach I have used with everyone in the organization is inclusion and communication. We have jointly developed a game plan for what the future of the department will be and try to communicate this to everyone throughout the organization so that no one is confused about the direction and the key objectives of what the department is shooting for. I personally like to take a collaborative approach. For example, when we began to develop our five-year plan, I brought a group of people together, not only senior leadership, but representatives of the local as well as other line officers to prioritize what our key priorities would be over the next five years. This helps to not only create a group of stakeholders who understand the process and will go out and explain it to everybody else, but the key benefit is that it brings different perspectives to the table. It allows for a synergy of thought to be created that is much more powerful than if three or four chiefs sat in a room to develop the plan from an executive level thought process.What kind of alliances have you formed such as with business or other departments and organizations?
While we have created many alliances on many levels, we formed a Fire Chief's Foundation approximately a year ago. It is made up primary of local business people. This has allowed us to tap into not only their experience and expertise but to create a level of ownership in the department that was nonexistent. Once a year I personally go to each Rotary Club as well as other organizations, such as the Lions and Kiwanis, to give them an update of what is occurring within the fire department. Although a significant time commitment, it is well worth the effort. We have reached out to become engaged with the Chamber of Commerce, and we are also supporters of Fresno State University and conversely they of us. We have also tried to reach out to develop not only business relationships but levels of understanding of what has impacted those organizations and to see how we may assist them and tackle some of their critical issues as well. It is an alliance that has proven to be very beneficial not only for us but for them as well.Ben May, a Firehouse.Com and Firehouse Magazine contributing editor, has been developing the discipline of fire and emergency services marketing management for the past 15 years. He has been a firefighter for Montgomery County, MD, Fire and Rescue and fire commissioner for the Woodinville, WA, Fire and Life Safety District. May holds a bachelor's degree in public affairs from the University of Oklahoma and a master's degree in international communication from the American University in Washington, D.C. He has been a vice president of two international marketing firms over the last 25 years, and now is responsible for business development for Epcot at Walt Disney World Resort. You can e-mail Ben at [email protected]
