FEBRUARY 21, 2010 · BY RICK ORNBERG

Fire Service and Marketing Past Experiences: About time to bring them together?

ENLARGE [+]

FD Maltese

    Simply put, we're a one-man operation built on our own experiences and whatever talents or skills we've managed to learn, improve on or develop over the years. As the current economy offers all of us extra challenges and a few more obstacles to deal with, the survivors among us are mostly those willing to change, to explore or seek out a specific “niche”. In our case, we're looking to combine two major experience resources into one: 26 years experience as a full time firefighter (Des Plaines Fire Department, 1971-96); and our marketing, layout & design, publicity and PR background represented chronologically as Ornberg & Associates (since 1985) up through and including Eagle Mountain Promotions, started in 2005.

    There continues to be a great need and market for what used to be specifically identified as “Fire and Burn Prevention Education”, these days often lumped under simpler terms as “Fire Safety”.  For many, the Fire Safety needs of many departments are covered simply by handing out fire prevention materials such as coloring books, “Stop, Drop and Roll” rulers, and Junior Firefighter badge stickers. Other minimal fire prevention education budgets are anually eaten up by the obligatory plastic fire helmets for visiting children, or “Home Fire Escape Plan” litter bags doled out by the thousands to parents and other visitors.  Fire Prevention Week each year was a time to hold school fire drills, and maybe even have a guy dressed as “Sparky” wave to kids or be the center of hundreds of Polaroid snapshots.  True Fire and Burn Prevention Education, however, involves much, much more. And most fire prevention education officers, frustrated by limited budgets and resources, know it all too well.

    That's where I believe Eagle Mountain Promotions can be a unique resource for budget restrained municipal and resource strapped volunteer fire departments.  Our combined experience on the Fire Department “front lines”, so to speak, along with decades of marketing, layout, publicity and PR experience allows us to bring  a lot more to the table for Departments looking to get their message out both effectively and economically. 

     Over the next few weeks, we'll be adding a “Fire and Burn Prevention Education” search button on our home page, populated with most, if not all, the standard fire safety related promotional products available. In addition, we'll offer more standard products that can be customized for Fire Safety Ed  uses, along with more customized capabilities of existing products as well.  Instead of the stock message offered on some products such as magnets, bookmarks, etc., we can help a department highlight a specific or unique message such as a new fire station opening, local fundraising effort, target specific fire hazard demographics in their community (such as multi-family dwellings, concentrated retail, high rise occupancies, etc.) in ways the standard off-the-shelf products may not address. We're also spending time catching up with current fire prevention and education professionals to further identify needs.

    We'll be able to work with smaller departments by offering more focused real-life marketing support, and save time for larger departments because they won't have to educate us up front, allowing us to “hit the ground running” with appropriate products, and suggested educational methods and applications of products offered.

    Watch our site for this new section, as we reach out initially to departments in our current marketing areas in Illinois and Wisconsin.  If you know of someone in a local department that is charged with reaching out to the community or educating taxpayers on fire safety, have them give us a call. We can talk about what we have to offer, and learn more about what today's departments are looking for as well.