Ralston Valley Volunteer Fire Department Essay

Question 1: One of Rick Wyatt’s promotion objectives should be to build awareness. The text brought out that many citizens of Ralston Valley were unaware of the presence of volunteer fire fighters, assuming a paid staff was always on hand. By making people conscious of this social service, he can develop interest in his target audience of young, healthy men and women possessing the quality of commitment. Another objective of Wyatt’s is to arouse demand. In this objective, Rick should aim to establish customer value, giving his audience a solid reason to participate in the volunteer firefighter program. Fulfilling this objective will enable the Volunteer Fire Department to gain new recruits. Rick Wyatt’s third objective should be to emphasize and reinforce the RVVFD brand. This objective takes the customer value established in objective two to recruit new members, retain current members, and build relationships. Question 2: To achieve his promotional Objectives, Rick Wyatt can start by having a societal marketing Orientation. This orientation will communicate to his audience that the RVVFD is supplying the town with needed firefighters, and is concerned about the welfare of the community. To accomplish the objective to build awareness, Wyatt needs to advertise. Due to limited funding, the cheapest and most effective advertising is word-of-mouth. Rick was recruited by his friend, a RVVFD volunteer, telling him about his role in the organization. Rick can ask his fellow members to take opportunities throughout the day to tell family, friends, and associates of what they do. Along with word of mouth advertising, he can also incorporate the internet to blog about his experiences. After building awareness of the service, and providing information, he can begin to stimulate demand. Rick can take advantage of the annual activities, and incorporate small, charismatic speeches, stating what the company has achieved, and its need for community participation. Lastly, to emphasize the RVVFD brand, the promotions need to leave a lasting effect in the heart of his audience. This will build a relationship of trust to his audience. Rick needs to clearly state the Fire Department’s Mission statement. It would also be wise to point out the requirements needed to needed to fulfill the job, and instill confidence that average everyday citizens can meet those requirements by pointing out that the force is comprised of lawyers as well as stay-at-home moms. This final stage will be ideal to retain current members, and also reaching out to new members, while establishing a good reputation that build loyalty.