ONE OF THE DIFFICULT PARTS OF TEACHING about campus fire safety is convincing students of its importance and their personal responsibility when it comes to making sure they don’t become victims of a fire. Fire safety frequently is not on their radar screen and is perceived as being someone else’s responsibility or “kid stuff.”
WHY IS THIS?
One of the reasons for this attitude is the incredible success the fire service has had with fire safety programs when these students were much younger, in kindergarten and early elementary schools. They learned to stop, drop, and roll; to crawl low in smoke; and to know where their meeting place was located. The messages provided can be termed incredibly “sticky.”
When students are younger, someone else is responsible for much of their fire safety. Someone else makes the decisions when it comes to selecting housing (fire-safe or not), installing and maintaining smoke alarms, learning how to use a fire extinguisher, and much more. As children and young adults, these generally are not their responsibilities.
Unfortunately, the fire safety training is not continued as they become older. The messages do not mature with the audience. When they are heading off to college, they don’t realize the role they now have in terms of fire safety. Now, it is more of their own personal responsibility, not someone else’s, but they just don’t know this.
When a student is living in the residence halls, someone else is still providing a level of fire safety for them. However, when they move off-campus, they are now fully responsible for their own fire safety. They are responsible for selecting fire-safe housing, learning how to use a fire extinguisher, and making sure that the smoke alarm is in place and operational at all times. But, in many cases, they have not been taught about issues such as how to cook safely and what to do if a fire should break out.
So, the message did not mature with the audience. Some examples of this are when college students are asked what they should do if a fire breaks out. Some respond with a blank stare, “I don’t know what to do,” or “Stop, drop, and roll?” which is a great example of the “stickiness” of the message they received when they were younger.
The challenge now is to make fire safety relevant to them at this point in life when they are going through dramatic changes and facing new experiences and pressures. The challenge is to make fire safety stand out from all of the other “noise” to which they are being exposed. This is a challenge indeed, but not an impossible or insurmountable one.
THE STUDENT DEMOGRAPHIC
The student demographic, which can range from 18 to 24 years old or 18 to 30 years old, depending on the research, is unquestionably the most sought-after demographic when it comes to marketing professionals. Students have a large amount of disposable income and are open to trying new experiences and products. Also, much of their future purchasing habits are formed during these years, so a great deal of effort (and money) is expended in reaching out to this demographic.
If companies such as Nike, Microsoft, Target, and many others are successful in reaching this demographic, why can’t some of the same tactics be employed by fire safety professionals to “sell” fire safety? To answer this question, let’s take a closer look at the demographic from a marketing point of view.
Some Quick Facts and Stats
According to estimates from the U.S. Department of Education, there are approximately 17 million students enrolled in campuses across the country this year. This is a huge segment of the 18- to 30-year-old demographic. According to research conducted by Harris Interactive, this group has $182 billion in consumer spending power and, of this, $46 billion is discretionary spending.
Surprisingly, only 35 percent of the students enrolled are what may be considered “traditional” students attending school full-time. Most are attending part-time or going to two-year schools. Another interesting statistic that emerged was the “80/20 rule.” According to David Morrison, in his book Marketing to the Campus Crowd, 80 percent of the students attend 20 percent of the nation’s schools. On a macro scale, this means that if we want to have a broad impact on fire safety, we can target our fire safety programs to this 20 percent of the schools.
Social Responsibility
One of the characteristics of the student demographic is students’ propensity toward socially responsible issues and products and their involvement in these issues. According to research published by Alloy Media + Marketing, in its 5th annual College Explorer Study, 33 percent of the students surveyed “prefer brands that give back to the community, are environmentally safe, or that are connected to a cause. Together, these socially responsible characteristics surpassed paying more for a brand with a great image (16%) or preference for a brand used by celebrities (2%) by wide margins in their influence on discretional spending. Substantially, one in four students (24%) has purchased a product this year specifically because it was socially conscious.” (emphasis added)
Added to their social awareness when it comes to purchasing items are their involvement and volunteerism. Approximately 45 percent of the students are active volunteers, either on their own or through the school, fraternity, or sorority, according to the same study.
Asked about motivation, students who volunteer said they do so simply to help other people (55%) and to do their part as a community member (39%). Importantly, among those students who volunteer, 49 percent said that it makes them feel good about themselves. The report shows that helping others and contributing to good causes were far more important to students than philanthropy to help them get a job or because it looks good on their resume (18%).
As part of the survey, students were asked what brands they most admire. Samantha Skey, senior vice president for Alloy Media + Marketing, shared the following response: “We found that students were most likely to believe that companies who weave their social messaging into their brand DNA-from advertising to product packaging and events-are the most committed to their causes.”
“Watch for the ‘greening’ of the college market and [its] $182 billion in aggregate spending power to have a big effect on brand positioning and campaigns in the coming year,” reported Dana Markow, vice president for Harris Interactive, which conducted the survey for Alloy Media + Marketing.
Technology and Mobility
Several studies have revealed that “technology” and “mobility” are two words that can be used to describe this demographic.
According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 83 percent of those between the ages of 18 and 29 are online. The College Explorer Study reports that 59 percent of the students are now using laptop computers, an increase of 8 percent over the previous year, and 13 percent fewer students are using desktops. Over the previous year, an additional 1.3 million students have cell phones and 41 percent have MP3 music players. They are spending 3.5 hours a day doing e-mail, instant messaging, and Web surfing. It is estimated that the average student spends 20 minutes a day sending and receiving text messages.
Social networks such as myspace.com have become major players. Alloy Media + Marketing estimates that 70 percent of the students participate in these sites to communicate with friends and are on these sites 6.5 hours a week. What is very telling is that 61 percent of the students are interacting online with people they have never met in person, and it is estimated that the average student has 111 “friends” that he interacts with in this manner, which is a new definition of friends from previous generations.
Social interaction among students has changed over the years. Because of the explosion of technology on campuses, students no longer depend on the practices that many of us may remember from our days in college.
A great example of this is outlined in My Freshman Year, in which an anthropology professor went back to school (anonymously under the pseudonym of Rebekah Nathan) as a freshman to learn more about what made today’s students “tick.” She lived in a residence hall as a freshman student, albeit an older one, and made numerous observations during her time.
One of the more interesting ones was on Super Bowl Sunday. The residence hall had advertised widely that there were going to be two wide-screen televisions in the lounge along with free food. However, when Nathan stopped by, there were only five students in there, and one of the televisions was tuned to another television show. A similar turnout had occurred for the World Series several months earlier.
She then proceeded to walk through the residence hall and observed that many of the students were in their rooms watching the game on their own televisions with their own small circle of friends. This, coupled with earlier observations, led Nathan to the conclusion that because of technology students aren’t as reliant on social gatherings such as movie nights to meet with their friends or to even make new ones. Because of the “always-in-touch” nature of today’s society, students are able to spontaneously gather together their friends from disparate locations using cell phones or instant messaging.
Morrison adds: “The campus crowd’s inherently concentrated nature makes it highly conducive to word of mouth, arguably the most influential behavioral driver among all young adults. This dynamic increases exponentially when coupled with the power of the Internet, whereby a student can send a single message instantaneously to a mail list of literally a hundred or more recipients.”
TECHNIQUES USED BY MARKETING FIRMS
In reaching this group, creativity is needed, whether you are marketing fire safety or cellular phone service.
Newspapers
At a time when readership of mainstream printed newspapers is on the decline, students read their campus newspapers on a regular basis, according to the Wall Street Journal. In a survey by Student Monitor, it was reported that 71 percent of the students read the school newspaper, whereas only 46 percent read the print version of a national paper in a typical week.
This isn’t lost on companies trying to reach out to this demographic. An example cited by Wall Street is Wal-Mart. “Advertising in college newspapers is highly targeted and a comparatively efficient way to reach these students,” said Linda Blakely, senior corporate communications manager for Wal-Mart.
“Traditional media platforms are less and less relevant to a consumer who’s tuned in nearly every free moment of their day,” said Skey. “Gaining their attention and ultimately their loyalty requires marketers to think about all the spaces that are relevant to the daily campus experience and connect with them in meaningful ways both online and off for the most impact.”
Ambassadors
Students are far more receptive to information given to them by their peers. Building on this, one of the tactics used by marketing firms that specialize in reaching students involves “ambassadors,” students who are part of a network.
Microsoft is using this approach. “We have 100 ambassadors,” said Brandon Evans, managing director for Rep Nation in an interview with Campus Firewatch. “They were flown out to Redmond (Microsoft’s headquarters) for training. When they return to their campuses, they create their own (marketing) plan, which we approve and execute.”
These plans can include a number of different strategies such as posters, flyers, and a large amount of social networking on Web sites such as myspace.com. “They send out information to relevant listservs and work with professors and even make presentations in classes. Some professors even give them extra credit,” reported Evans.
“College students look to their friends above any other influence for guidance and approval. The increase in ‘friend’ access and the evolving definition of ‘friend’ affords peer networks greater import than ever,” said Skey.
In building this network of ambassadors, Rep Nation recruits students online. They are then interviewed; if selected, they receive training online or in person. “We have a management portal called ‘Rep Ware,’ where the students can share ideas about what works, can upload photos, fill out reports, share files, and more,” said Evans.
Rep Nation works with the ambassadors and guides them in developing programs, but the ambassadors are given flexibility to develop a program that will work on their own campus. Currently, 30,000 students are participating as representatives.
THE FIRE SAFETY CONNECTION
How does all this relate to marketing fire safety? Today’s students represent an unparalleled opportunity to impact their fire-safety behavior. According to Morrison, “… college students represent tomorrow’s big-ticket spenders whose brand preferences are developing today.” This could also translate into their fire safety behaviors for the future.
Creativity is the word of the day when it comes to trying to deliver fire safety information to today’s students. It is still possible to use some of the “old” techniques, but they have to be packaged differently or creatively. Many students perceive fire safety as “kiddy stuff,” because, as was said earlier, the message never matured with the audience and the last exposure they had was in elementary school when they were learning how to crawl low under smoke.
Some of the feedback from college students about what works is that it has to be graphic, in your face, relevant, and interesting. Using peers instead of authority figures is far more effective. Free stuff is always well received.
Using Peers
Building on the “ambassadors” practice used by Rep Nation, some schools use other students to help spread the message of fire safety. At the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, for example, there are students who are also members of the Amherst Fire Department and function as a full engine company. Using these students during fire safety events is a great way to draw in other students. Everyone loves a firefighter.
If you don’t have a similar program on your campus, actively involving the local fire department in the activities is a great draw. A fire truck is a huge “billboard” that serves as an attention getter, especially if it is parked in the middle of campus in a high-traffic area.
One school conducts aggressive fire safety training for its resident assistants (RAs) every summer. As a result of this highly interactive training, the RAs are more motivated to enforce the fire safety regulations, and, probably more importantly, they now appreciate the reasons behind the rules and their importance. They communicate this to the students on their floors, and it has resulted in almost no fires and a significant reduction in false alarms and violations. Students are more receptive about hearing this from a peer than from an authority figure.
Social Awareness
All of this ties back to the earlier observations about students being socially aware and involved. Students are looking for a cause to be involved with and to volunteer their time to make a difference in the world. Fire safety education can be a great way to fulfill this need and, at the same time, educate a core group of students who can reach out to their peers.
Audience
Knowing your audience is always critical, no matter what you are trying to accomplish. In this day and age, people are reluctant to develop stereotypes based on the sexes, but fire safety is one of them where it is obvious. At a number of programs that I have observed at campuses, women are far more responsive to the fire safety messages than the men. Although this is certainly not universally true, it is something that seems to be more prevalent.
Sparky the Dog is an example of an old, established technique. Students in kindergarten will flock to Sparky, hang on him, and follow his examples. How will Sparky do on a college campus? Women love having their picture taken with Sparky and are far more receptive to his coming up and talking with them than the male college student, who is “too cool” for this type of stuff.
Another example is that of the remote-controlled robots, such as fire trucks and fire hydrants, which many fire departments use for teaching children about fire safety. Women don’t mind having a conversation with Freddy the Fire Truck and will even give him a kiss and have their picture taken sitting on him.
It is more challenging to reach the men. One of the lessons learned from some of these programs is that where the women are, the men will follow. At one school, the sorority system asked the fire prevention officer to hold fire safety training for all of the sorority system’s presidents and risk managers. The training was held in one of the sororities; part of it involved having about 30 women out on the front lawn learning how to use fire extinguishers. Up and down the street, all of the fraternities’ front porches were crowded with men, watching the training.
In the days following, the fraternities were calling the fire prevention officer, asking why they had not been invited to participate. The next time the training was held, it occurred in a fraternity, and representatives from the fraternities and sororities were involved.
Graphic Demonstrations
One of the problems with today’s students is that they are being bombarded with messages from all directions, primarily in an effort to get them to buy something. Fire safety needs to be different to stand out from this “noise.”
One of the distinct advantages of fire safety is just that-it involves fire! This is a great opportunity to draw and hold students’ attention by simply setting things on fire, displaying things that have been burnt, or giving them a chance to put out a fire.
Fire extinguisher training is a great, interactive training opportunity that draws in students. Everyone has seen a fire extinguisher, but few have had the opportunity to learn how to use one or even see what happens when it is discharged. By holding fire extinguisher training in a high-traffic area, it is possible to expose a large number of students to your fire safety message in addition to providing them with practical, hands-on training.
One twist we developed for a training program was building a fire extinguisher prop that also incorporated a manual pull station with a plastic cover over the fire alarm pull station many schools are using and a fire alarm horn/strobe. Instead of simply picking up a fire extinguisher and putting out the fire in the wastebasket, students were taught that the first step is to activate the alarm. Since this school used the plastic tamper devices over the pull stations, it was also a great opportunity to teach them that it was a two-step process to actually activate the alarm.
Since this training was taking place in the middle of campus, not only was the fire a draw (along with a fire truck, ladder truck, and student firefighters), but the noise of the alarm also certainly served to draw a significant amount of attention.
Another great training tool is building and burning a mock-up of a student room. It can be built to any size, such as a full 10-foot by 10-foot room equipped with a desk, chair, bed, couch, and all of the other furnishings found in a student room. It can also be built as a “slice” of a student room, measuring four feet by eight feet and outfitted with just a desk and an overstuffed chair. In either case, the vivid demonstration is one that “sticks” with the students and impresses on them the speed with which fire can spread.
These mock-ups are very inexpensive and easy to build. The 8-foot by 4-foot “slice” can be built for approximately $200 in material and in about two hours. It is designed to be modular so that it can be easily disassembled, stored, and reused. (The plans for this mock-up are available on the Resource page of Campus Firewatch at www.campus-firewatch.com.) The contents are often made up of furniture that Housing is throwing out; books and computers from recycling; T-shirts; newspaper; posters; and much more.
These burns can be made even more interesting by having two mockups, side-by-side. Equip one with an automatic fire sprinkler system; leave the other unsprinklered. Usually, within less than a minute, the sprinkler head activates and extinguishes the fire, whereas within five minutes the contents of the unsprinklered mock-up are destroyed.
A further “twist” on this demonstration involves the use of the new wireless smoke alarms now available. One smoke alarm is installed in the mock-up and several students in the crowd are holding other smoke alarms that are connected wirelessly. When the smoke alarm in the mock-up is activated, these other smoke alarms are as well, providing a great opportunity to explain the value and importance of interconnected smoke alarms.
Having burnt “stuff” on display is also a good attention getter. By having items that students can identify with, such as computer monitors, laptops, DVD players, and books, the display can resonate with the students. If your campus is lucky enough not to have these items available (because you haven’t had any fires), you can create them by using a blowtorch. You are not striving for authenticity; you want to draw attention.
TEACHABLE MOMENTS
There are only a few moments when you have the chance to really drive home the importance of fire safety. Hopefully, you will never have the ultimate teachable moment on your campus, the death of a student in a fire. Unfortunately, this happens about a dozen times a year across the country. This is a chance to use this tragedy to stress the importance of fire safety in your community through the media.
However, you don’t need a tragedy to put out a message about fire safety. In State College, Pennsylvania, a fatal fire in April 2005 caused some significant code changes involving inspection frequency and the installation of interconnected smoke alarms. Just recently, there was a success story involving a smoke alarm in an off-campus student apartment; the local officials used this as an opportunity to alert the media with the following press release:
A fire on Wednesday evening that damaged an off-campus townhouse at 221 W. Hamilton Avenue in State College shows the importance of functioning smoke alarms.
At the time of this fire no one was home. An alert neighbor heard the smoke alarm sounding and investigated. A call to 9-1-1 summoned the fire department, and the fire was contained to one dwelling before it spread to the neighboring units.
The townhouse complex, owned by McWhirter Property Management, was inspected in November 2006 by the Centre Region Code Administration. The complex was in compliance with all code requirements, including the new smoke alarm and carbon monoxide ordinance.
Everyone is encouraged to test their smoke alarms tonight before going to sleep.
- If you own your home, it is recommended to have a smoke alarm in every bedroom and on every floor. Replace any smoke alarms that are older than 10 years, and replace the batteries at least once a year.
- If you rent your house or apartment, notify your landlord immediately if a smoke alarm doesn’t work. In the Centre Region, smoke alarms are required in every bedroom and on every floor of all rental properties. Carbon monoxide alarms are also required in rental properties that have an attached garage or those that use a fuel for heat such as natural gas, propane, oil, kerosene, wood, or coal.
Smoke alarms and sprinklers are the best protection from a fire, especially in homes and apartments. Across the country, 80 percent of all fire deaths occur in the home, and nearly 80 percent of all campus-related fire deaths occur in off-campus housing.
WHAT WORKS
The ideas outlined in this article are just some that have been used successfully at campuses across the country; there are certainly many more. A lot of the success depends on correctly reading the audience to see what will and what will not work and implementing it at the right time and the right place. After a fatal fire at one school, the students were very vocal about the level of fire safety in off-campus housing and concerned about what local officials were doing to protect them from fire. As a result, the school put together an interactive, hands-on training program that was open to all students. Unfortunately, only one student showed up. Why?
The program was located at an off-campus facility that, although not terribly inconvenient, was far enough away so that students could not get there easily, participate, and then go back to campus. Also, it didn’t help that it was scheduled right before spring finals when the students’ attention was focused elsewhere.
In another fire safety program, the film Ladder 49 was being shown in the student center the night before a daylong fire safety training program on campus. About four people showed up; the low turnout was attributed to the fact that the school had not widely advertised the event. However, in light of Nathan’s observations mentioned earlier in this article about how students no longer need to congregate to socialize, this might be the real reason behind the “failure” of this part of the program. (Incidentally, the daylong event the next day was a resounding success with an incredible turnout. It included the school president’s learning how to use a fire extinguisher in front of the student body.)
What is important in any program is to look not only at the successes but also the failures and to determine what worked, what didn’t, and why. Then, share these successes and failures with your peers, so they can learn as well.
ED COMEAU is the publisher of Campus Firewatch, a monthly electronic newsletter focusing on the issues of campus fire safety. He is a founder and past director of the Center for Campus Fire Safety and is a former chief fire investigator for the National Fire Protection Association.
