Target Market for Blood Donation Campaigns

‘There will be blood’- encouraging new and repeat blood donation’ discuss about this topic.

Overview of topic

The topic of this paper is “There will be blood” which is used to attract both new and repeat blood donation. With the help of blood donation, the life of a person or several people can be saved. This topic needs to be investigated as it will help the marketers to attract more consumers towards these programs.

Target market

The target market for these campaign consists of a group of people whose age lies between 18 and 25 years.  The targeted audience consists of both young men and women, living in rural and urban areas of the country. Targeting the younger generation will enable the marketers to generate more new blood donors. 

Problem Statement

The problem statement of the topic changes in the perception of the consumers or in this case the donors. Change in the perception of the donors can alienate them from participating in the blood donation process.

Literature review and framework

Blood donation is defined as a process in which a person agrees to give blood which can be used for transfusions.  In the words of McQuilten, Polonsky, and Renzaho, (2015), with the help of blood donation, a person can save a life of a person or several people. Blood donation can be done in several ways, by donating whole blood or by donating components of the blood. Nearly one-third of the blood collected from blood donation camps is used to treat people with cancer, blood diseases. Blood collected from these camps can also help doctors to treat patients who are going through a major surgery or a difficult pregnancy.  According to Russell-Bennett, Previte, Hartel, Smith, and Zainuddin, (2016), a person needs to be an adult to be a blood donor and their weight cannot be less than 50 kilograms. Men can donate their blood every 12 twelve weeks, and women can donate their blood every 16 weeks. The donors should not be suffering from any diseases like cold, flu before donating blood. Prior to the donation of blood, the potential donors are evaluated to avoid any health problems.

In the words of Waller, Thijsen, Garradd, Hayman, and Smith, (2017), the screening tests also help the doctor to understand if the blood is safe to use for any transfusion. Unsafe transfusion of blood can lead to the occurrence of HIV AIDS and viral hepatitis in the recipients. According to, however, a one in three-person within Australia will need in their entire lifetime. For this reason, blood donation should be encouraged across the country. Both new and repeat donors should be encouraged to donate their blood on a regular basis. Blood donation will enable the medical professionals to save the life of several patients on a regular basis. It can reduce the risk of cancer and improves the health of heart among the donors. It also enhances the growth of new blood cells in their body.  As health screening is an important part of blood donation, the donors can learn about their health problems. Their blood will help the medical professionals to save many lives, which will bring mental satisfaction to them. As the number of donors will increase, a number of lives can be saved. 

Benefits of Blood Donation

As per Healy, (2016), consumer behavior theories and models are used to predict the behavior of the consumers in the market. The Motivation-Need theory of consumer behavior will be used to investigate the problems of this topic. According to Griffin, Grace, and O’Cass, (2014), the behavior of the consumers depends on a number of factors, like their needs and motivation. These factors play a significant role in the decision-making process of the consumers. According to the East, Singh, Wright, and Vanhuele, (2016), consumers are motivated to act in order to fulfill their needs. In the words of, the needs of the consumer can be defined as physiological, safety, love, esteem and self-actualization. Self-actualization needs of a person are defined as the need of self-fulfillment needs of a person. With the help of this theory, the motivation behind the behavior of the donors can be understood.

According to, blood donors can fulfill their esteem and self-actualization needs. In the words of Chatzidakis, Hibbert, and Winklhofer, (2016), both new and repeat donors can be attracted with the help of this theory. They will be able to achieve satisfaction that they are living to their full potential. They will be able to feel a sense of prestige and accomplishment by donating their blood and saving lives. Thus this activity will allow them to fulfill the esteem needs of a person. The donors will be able to fulfill their need to achieve full potential, thus fulfilling their self-actualization needs. In the words of Maslow, (2015), these needs will act as a motivation for the donors, so they will be attracted to donate on a regular basis. Another theory which can be used is the theory of reasoned action.  According to, the donors will participate in this activity to create a particular outcome. The consumers will choose to act in a particular way based on their best interests. The particular outcome in the case of blood donation is saving lives of another person.

Marketing strategies

Awareness campaigns must be created to encourage more number of new and repeat donors participate in blood donation. The first marketing strategy is based on the theory of reasoned action. With the help of this strategy, the positive outcome associated with these activities must be advertised on a large scale. The donors should be encouraged to actively participate in these activities. With the help of these marketing strategy, more donors can be attracted and retained towards these activities. According to Brown, (2016), a consumer can change their opinion about a particular product and services and change their course of action. So the marketers must be careful about the difference in time between the initial interaction and the final participation of the donors. The advantages of this marketing strategy is that it promotes the positive result of a particular action. It can create a positive image on the minds of the consumers or in this case, the new and repeat blood donors. They can motivate others to participate in the activity as well, thus increasing the number of donors. However, there is one major disadvantage with this marketing strategy. If there is a huge time gap between the initiation and completion of the project, it can decrease the number of blood donors. They can talk to others and change their decisions afterwards.   

Consumer Behavior Theories and Blood Donation

The marketers must promote the idea of blood donation through social media like Facebook, Twitter etc. With the help of these media, more new donors and repeat donors can be attracted towards of the activities of blood donation. These media channels can play a significant role in advertising the positive result of these activities. In this case, the positive results of blood donation is saving lives of other person. The benefit of this marketing strategy is that it is a cost-effective process. It will allow them to attract more donors, both new and who are giving their blood for a long time.  With the help of this strategy, the awareness for this activity can be increased in a cost-effective manner. Social media can encourage the donors to communicate with their social network. They can encourage others to participate in the blood donation activity as well.  However, there are some disadvantages associated with this marketing strategy. The members of the social network in these donors can demotivate them to participate in these activities. These members can explain the disadvantages of participating in these activities. According to (Shehu, Langmaack, Felchle and Clement, 2015), of reasoned action, a consumer will be more driven towards a particular activity, if its end result is positive. However, if there is a gap in time between the initiation and the final action, it can lead them to change their perception, thus alienating them from the process.   This is the only disadvantage associated with this particular marketing strategy based on the theory of reasoned action.

The third marketing strategy which can applied to attract more new and repeat blood donors is based on Motivation-Need theory. Unfulfilled needs of the consumers can play a significant role in developing a successful marketing plan. The marketers can use this theory to develop a suitable marketing plan in order to attract more new and regular blood donors. Blood donation will help these donors to save the life of another person. Thus, they will be able to achieve something, which will help them to achieve their self-actualization needs (Menezes, Sousa and Cunha, 2015). These needs can be used to the advantage of the marketers while employing this strategy. These donors being able to achieve their self-actualization needs will encourage others to do the same. They will promote the benefits of blood donation among their family, friends and social network. Therefore, it will help the marketers to attract more new and regular donors (Beerli-Palacio and Martín-Santana, 2015). These factors can be defined as the advantages of this marketing strategy. However, like the previous two marketing strategies, there are some disadvantages associated with these marketing strategy as well. Needs of the consumer can vary from people to people, thus affecting their actions. Not all people may have the necessity to fulfill their self-actualization needs. Thus they may not be motivated to participate in donating blood as some other people (Martín-Santana, Reinares-Lara and Reinares-Lara, 2018). Second, they can easily get demotivated from the influence of their friends and family etc.

Marketing Strategies Based on Reasoned Action Theory

It is recommended to use the third marketing strategy, despite all the disadvantages associated with it. This marketing strategy will appeal to the self-actualization needs of the consumers, or in this case the donors. The donors will able to save the lives of another person, which will help them to achieve their self-actualization goals. The marketers can use this unfulfilled need to market the benefits of blood donation to new and repeat donors as well. It can be concluded from this paper that the target group of for the marketers will be the group of donors whose age lies between 18 to 30 years. It can be also concluded that the third marketing strategy based on Need-Motivation theory is best suited for the purpose.  

References

Beerli-Palacio, A. and Martín-Santana, J.D., (2015). How to increase blood donation by social marketing. International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing, 12(3), pp.253-266.

Brown, S.A., (2016). A Market Segmentation Approach to Blood Bank Management. In Proceedings of the 1979 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference(pp. 254-258). Springer, Cham.

Chatzidakis, A., Hibbert, S., and Winklhofer, H., (2016). Are consumers’ reasons for and against behavior distinct?. European Journal of Marketing, 50(1/2), pp.124-144.

East, R., Singh, J., Wright, M. and Vanhuele, M., (2016). Consumer behavior: Applications in marketing. Sage.

Gordon, R., Dibb, S., Magee, C., Cooper, P. and Waitt, G., 2018. Empirically testing the concept of value-in-behavior and its relevance for social marketing. Journal of Business Research, 82, pp.56-67.

Griffin, D., Grace, D. and O’Cass, A., (2014). Blood donation: comparing individual characteristics, attitudes, and feelings of donors and nondonors. Health marketing quarterly, 31(3), pp.197-212.

Healy, K., (2016). A Theory of Human Motivation by Abraham H. Maslow (1942)–reflection. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 208(4), pp.313-313.

Martín-Santana, J.D., Reinares-Lara, E. and Reinares-Lara, P., (2018). Using Radio Advertising to Promote Blood Donation. Journal of Nonprofit & Public Sector Marketing, 30(1), pp.52-73.

Maslow, A.H., (2015). Psychological Review 50 (4)-A theory of human motivation. psychclassics. you. ca, pp.370-96.

McQuilten, Z.K., Polonsky, M.J. and Renzaho, A.M.N., (2015). Blood donation by African migrants and refugees in Australia. ISBT Science Series, 10(S1), pp.257-262.

Menezes, A.G., Sousa, C.V. and Cunha, G.R., (2015). Motivational aspects of blood donation: an analysis from the perspective of marketing theories. Bus Manag Review, 4(5), pp.330-41.

Russell-Bennett, R., Previte, J., Hartel, C., Smith, G. and Zainuddin, N., (2016, June). The actual and imagined customer experiences of blood donation: A customer value perspective. In Conference Proceedings SERVSIG Conference 2016.

Shehu, E., Langmaack, A.C., Felchle, E. and Clement, M., (2015). Profiling donors of blood, money, and time. Nonprofit Management and Leadership, 25(3), pp.269-295.

Waller, D., Thijsen, A., Garradd, A., Hayman, J. and Smith, G., (2017). Donating blood for research: a potential method for enhancing customer satisfaction of permanently deferred blood donors. Blood Transfusion, 15(1), p.13.