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

Abstract

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.