Brand Salience and Brand Differentiation of the Florida Forest Service

Settle, Quisto; Goodwin, Joy; Telg, Ricky; Irani, Tracy; Carter, Hannah; Wysocki, Al

doi:10.4148/1051-0834.1139

Cited by 6 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 23 publications

(56 reference statements)

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“…For instance, the lack of brand awareness in the Abrams et al (2010) study could stem from a lack of consistent sense of what Extension's identity is to employees in the organization. To be successful as a public organization with limited opportunities for mass communication, which is due to negative perceptions of public organizations spending money to advertise (Settle et al, 2012;Whelan et al, 2010), Extension's external communications will be driven by its employees and their interactions with the public. The organization needs to build a shared identity among its employees (de Chernatony, 2001).…”

Section: Extension and Brandingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, this is detrimental to the organization's ability to succeed. Public organizations rely on employees to represent the brand due to limitations on the amount of external communications public organizations can use compared to private-sector organizations (Settle et al, 2012;Whelan et al, 2010). The organization needs to work to build a stronger shared identity (i.e., members across the organization have the same vision for what the organization is and what it should be doing) across its different components.…”

Section: Conclusion and Recommendationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Managing Extension’s Internal Brand: Employees’ Perceptions of the Functions and Descriptors of Extension

Settle¹,

Baker²,

Stebner³

2016

Journal of Applied Communications

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Employees of UF/IFAS Extension were surveyed to determine their perceptions of the brand's core identity. More specifically, they evaluated the importance of various functions the organization provides and the effectiveness of various terms for describing Extension work. Respondents included county faculty, county non-faculty, state faculty, and state non-faculty to gain perspectives of groups representing Extension's brand in Florida. Results indicated employees perceived the core functions were providing research-based information, helping solve problems, providing training for clientele, and providing expertise. Education, training, and providing solutions were perceived to be the most effective terms for describing Extension work to the public. Given that these terms are viewed as most effective internally, these terms should also be used in external communications to provide consistency. "Extension" as a term was not viewed as particularly effective for representing to the public what Extension does. When comparing groups of Extension personnel, there were statistically significant differences, indicating Extension lacks a shared identity across the organization, which could be harmful. State-level faculty, in particular, had less positive viewpoints compared to other respondent groups. It was recommended that interactions be increased between state-level and county-level employees to help mitigate potential issues that would arise because of the organization being geographically distributed in the state and to help build shared identity. Future research was recommended to address the public's views of functions and descriptors of Extension, AbstractEmployees of UF/IFAS Extension were surveyed to determine their perceptions of the brand's core identity. More specifically, they evaluated the importance of various functions the organization provides and the effectiveness of various terms for describing Extension work. Respondents included county faculty, county non-faculty, state faculty, and state non-faculty to gain perspectives of groups representing Extension's brand in Florida. Results indicated employees perceived the core functions were providing research-based information, helping solve problems, providing training for clientele, and providing expertise. Education, training, and providing solutions were perceived to be the most effective terms for describing Extension work to the public. Given that these terms are viewed as most effective internally, these terms should also be used in external communications to provide consistency. "Extension" as a term was not viewed as particularly effective for representing to the public what Extension does. When comparing groups of Extension personnel, there were statistically significant differences, indicating Extension lacks a shared identity across the organization, which could be harmful. State-level faculty, in particular, had less positive viewpoints compared to other respondent groups. It was recommended that interactions be increased between state-level an...

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Section: Extension and Brandingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Conclusion and Recommendationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Managing Extension’s Internal Brand: Employees’ Perceptions of the Functions and Descriptors of Extension

Settle¹,

Baker²,

Stebner³

2016

Journal of Applied Communications

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Employees' perceptions that the mission statement aided differentiation from other organizations are important given the value the public places on differentiation between public organizations (Settle et al, 2015). The name change perceptions were consistent with members of the public who held mixed perceptions of the Florida Forest Service name change (Settle et al, 2012). As for communicating FFS's purpose to the public, the employees' perceptions favored certain communication channels.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 68%

“…This research addresses the American Association for Agricultural Education National Research Agenda's Research Priority 1: Public and Policy Maker Understanding of Agriculture and Natural Resources (Enns, Martin, & Spielmaker, 2016) by addressing how organizations, specifically the Florida Forest Service, can improve their brands. Previous research has shown that the public holds positive perceptions of FFS but mixed perceptions for many external branding materials (Settle et al, 2012), but research is needed to assess employees' perceptions of the brand. The purpose of this research was to assess employees' perceptions of branding materials and external communications of FFS.…”

Section: Purpose and Objectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Employee Perceptions of Branding Materials and External Communications for a State Forestry Organization

Settle¹,

Baker²,

Irani³

2018

JAE

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The purpose of this study was to assess the Florida Forest Service (FFS) employees' perceptions of the organization's external branding materials through an online survey. Employees had positive perceptions of the mission statement, including it being accurate and differentiating FFS from other organizations. Perceptions of the new change were relatively neutral. Employees believed the public received most its information about FFS from television, workshops, websites, and print articles. Employees believed television, websites, and print articles were the most important communication channels for FFS to communicate to the public in general. Employees believed television, radio, and websites were the most important for emergency information. While employees believed FFS's external communications were important, they did not consider the communications effective or consistent. There are three recommendations for practitioners: use multiple channels of communication to reach the public, understand target demographic groups when selecting communication channels, and consistently represent the brand in external communications. There are three recommendations for research: assess the relationship between employee and public perceptions of which communications channels should be used, compare employees' perceptions of the importance of different communications channels to actual effectiveness of the different communications channels, and continue research into internal perspectives of public organizations' brands.

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“…Previous research indicates the Extension organization within the state may not be distinguished from the larger university system in the minds of the public and the media (Baker et al, 2011;Kornberger, 2010). Moreover, the public has expressed concern over money spent to advertise public organizations (Settle, Goodwin, Telg, Irani, Carter, & Wysocki, 2012;Whelan, Davies, Walsh, & Bourkea, 2010), which leaves organizations with little options for communicating brand messages directly to the public. Thus, the role of employees becomes one of brand ambassadors (de Chernatony, 2006) who can strengthen the entire brand in the mind of the public even if the employee is associated with only one segment of the brand.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Printing and Mailing for the Brand: An Exploratory Qualitative Study Seeking to Understand Internal Branding and Marketing Within University and Extension Communication Services Units

Zagonel¹,

Baker²,

King³

2019

Journal of Applied Communications

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Investment of employees in a brand can lead to greater public understanding and positive impressions of a brand by external stakeholders. However, this can be challenging in public organizations with multiple brand segments and a large number of employees spread across great distance with limited funds for marketing. While previous work has looked at Extension agents, faculty, and volunteers' brand perceptions, no studies have looked at communication services employees' investment in the brand. The purpose of this qualitative study was to discover how well employees in a university and Extension printing and mail entity understood the Extension brand and their investment in the brand. Research questions that guided this study were: 1) What perceptions and investment do communication services employees have in the Extension brand? And 2) what are employees' perceptions of the organization's branding and marketing efforts? Each of the 18 interviews included a series of questions focusing on employees' story related to Extension and employees' thoughts on branding and marketing efforts. Results in this study with communication services employees indicate these employees are not invested in the brand with the majority having little to no understanding of the mission of Extension. This contradicts previous research with employees in other brand segments of Extension. Implications of this work include a need for training on the Extension mission for communication services employees, a shift in culture to encourage investment in the brand, and inclusion of all Extension employees in the mission of Extension.

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Brand Salience and Brand Differentiation of the Florida Forest Service

Cited by 6 publications

References 23 publications

Managing Extension’s Internal Brand: Employees’ Perceptions of the Functions and Descriptors of Extension

Managing Extension’s Internal Brand: Employees’ Perceptions of the Functions and Descriptors of Extension

Employee Perceptions of Branding Materials and External Communications for a State Forestry Organization

Printing and Mailing for the Brand: An Exploratory Qualitative Study Seeking to Understand Internal Branding and Marketing Within University and Extension Communication Services Units

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