2. Canadian Blood Services
Non Profit Organization in Canada.
CBS operated 43 Permanent collection sites and conducted more than 20,000 donors
clinics annually at more than 1600 unique locations.
Canadian Blood Services collects approximately 850,000 units of blood annually and
processes it into the components and products that are administered to thousands of
patients each year through blood transfusions.
In addition to donating whole blood, some locations also offer platelets and blood
plasma donations.
3. Blood Supply Chain
Step 1: Blood collection.
Schools, Colleges, Factories and regional blood centers.
Step 2: Blood testing.
Series of tests in testing facilities.
Step 3: Blood distribution.
To various hospital blood banks.
5. Current Marketing Activities
Currently the Canadian Blood Services relies on traditional advertising in the forms
of television commercials, radio commercials and pamphlet distribution.
Commercials are intended to encourage the Canadian public to donate blood;
however, the messages for each are delivered uniquely.
Canadian Blood Services utilizes pamphlet distribution as a form of raising
awareness and educating the public about the need for blood, however, unlike
the other sources, pamphlet distribution is solely distributed at mobile Canadian
Blood Service clinics and centers.
6. Canadian Blood Services’ community involvement has earned them recognition
on the CBC news site. Online CBC news permits the organization to upload their
television commercials, onto the news website.
With their current marketing strategy, Canadian Blood Services does not utilize any
form of mobile marketing or ecommerce. The reasons for not utilizing mobile
services is unknown, however, due to the organization not selling any products
online, they do not include ecommerce features.
7. Current Analytics
In order to analyze Canadian Blood Service’s online presence, Social Mention was utilized.
According to Social Mention, Canadian Blood Services has an online “Strength” of 3% which
indicates the likelihood that people are mentioning the organization on online and through
social media sites.
Canadian Blood Services has a 26% “Passion” rating. The passion rate measure the likelihood
individuals talking about this organization will do so repeatedly. Lastly they had a 30% “Reach”
which is the measure of range of influence. Although the organization has a relatively positive
reputation, as indicated on Social Mention, it is evident that a majority of individuals discussing
the organization are a standard few
8. Whole Blood and its Components
Whole blood: Blood drawn directly from the donor (lifetime is 35 days).
Blood components are extracted from the whole blood using several procedures
including centrifuging or spinning.
Red cells can remain refrigerated for 42 days.
Platelets are stored separately and must be used within 5 days of the
donation.
Plasma is often frozen for later use (lifetime is 1 year).
10. Blood Collection
Scheduled visits to organizations (signed up to give blood). Key source of the
supply.
Regional blood centers: Walk-in donors (e.g. regional blood center in
Canada).
Invited donors: Emergency calls.
13. Assessment of Donor Eligibility
You can donate between your 17th and 71st birthday, if you are a regular donor.
You must weigh at least 110 pounds (50 Kg).
Your hemoglobin, or blood iron level, is measured to ensure it is high enough.
Your temperature and blood pressure are measured to ensure they are at acceptable
levels.
You are asked a series of questions about your health to ensure that it is safe for you to
donate.
14. Consumer Behavior around Blood
Donation
Consumer to be motivated to donate blood there had to be recognition of ‘not’ an
‘ideal state’ or recognition of a problem. Following this awareness, an interested
consumer would research to solve this problem. Making a decision to donate would
require overcoming a number of personal, psychological and physical barriers.
15. Donation Decision Process
First time blood donors often reported they were influenced by peers, family or
colleagues from work. Typical reason for attending a clinic included the need for
blood by someone related or known to the donator, availability through work or
organization by a social group to attend a collection center.
Younger donors — those under twenty five years of age — and first time donors were
equally motivated by family, peers and recruiters, while older demographic groups
were more influenced by recruiters.
18. Distribution System
Perishable nature of blood.
Uncertainty in availability to the regional blood centers.
Demand variability at each of the hospital blood banks.
Large variation in size of the hospital blood banks.
Incidence of the different blood groups.
Fulfil requirements of blood from individual hospitals.
Competition from other blood banks.
19. Strategy and Planning
Canadian Blood Services has an objective to increase blood donors; it is
necessary that they therefore, extend their operations and raise awareness
amongst young persons, between the ages of 18-35years old, as they are
deemed healthier to donate blood.
Canadian Blood Services will therefore need to expand operations from
traditional marketing to a stronger online presence through social media and
mobile marketing, as these are tools utilized by younger generations daily.
20. Action Plan
The action plan for gaining a stronger presence to attract more donors will consist
of traditional and digital media marketing. Canadian Blood Services will need to
focus its efforts through TV Commercials, radio advertisements,
volunteer/recruitment kiosks.
These traditional mediums will provide informative marketing to attract a larger
audience base to donate blood. Through social media, the potential for attracting
a larger audience base increases as most people have a social platform that they
use. Generally, individuals use social media at least once a day.
21. How they Will Facilitate The New
Donors?
The organization will provide safe, clean and consistent facilities for donors to
comfortably give blood. Through social media, the organization will raise awareness
and provide information regarding the donation process and the steps conducted
in donating blood. Moreover, through social media, individuals will be able to find:
facility locations and approximate wait times.
22. Promotion
CBS had developed a number of traditional television, cinema and radio ads. One
advertisement employed well-known Toronto athletes encouraging donations.
Another used hospital scenarios and patients to indicate the myriad of situations
requiring blood. An audio only cinema ad mimicked a hospital emergency ward
situation requiring blood. Various radio ads were placed on an ad hoc basis during
appeal periods.
23. Industry Comparison
Canadian Blood Services are in direct competition with Hema Quebec in
Canada. With the United States, The American Red Cross and United Blood
Services are the major competitors in the industry. When comparing the
organizations, three major platforms were used. These platforms are
Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
24. Facebook
Hema has an effective Facebook presence with 10,164 likes. When compared to
Canadian Blood Services, the provincial presence is stronger for Hema compared
to the national level for CBS. The Facebook homepage for CBS currently has
16,188. This is a strong indicator that Hema Quebec is focusing its efforts effectively
through Facebook harnessing a strong following.
25. Twitter
The Twitter account for Hema has a strong following with 1,253 followers. Since
Quebec’s population size is 7,903,001, this means that Hema Quebec has a
0.016% grasp (through Twitter) of the entire provincial population (Census Profile,
2011). Canadian Blood Services currently has 3,608 followers on its Twitter page.
26. Youtube
Hema’s online presence through YouTube is currently minimal. They only have 33
subscribers with only 34,782 views. This is a strong indicator that not many videos
and marketing strategies are used for YouTube.
Canadian Blood Services has 220 subscribers with 190,230 views. This is larger than
Hema’s YouTube presence mainly because of the viral marketing campaigns.
CBS uses Jackie Chan to help promote the awareness of donating blood.
27. Competition
Smaller local blood banks are not capable of competing with the CBS.
Local blood banks have lower fixed costs and provide no service level
guarantees to customer. They compete with CBS on price.
CBS Guarantees 97% fill rate to customers.
28. CBS “ Key Problem “
High degree of uncertainty in blood availability.
Blood shortage results in high cost of emergency procurement.
Outdated blood causes the increase in procuring, processing, and storing
costs.
Adverse effects of blood shortage on patients is difficult to measure.
29. CBS “Solution to Problem”
Centralized management of blood.
A distribution system to facilitate blood rotation among hospitals.
30. Recommendations
Canadian Blood Services’ presence online, we determined the need for a quick-
and-easy platform for public questions and answers. Even though there is a toll-free
number available, we would also prefer to see an online version for this.
Expand their online efforts in the attempt to keep up-to-date with the ever
changing marketing industry of today. These unique recommendations will assist
with increasing online awareness and help recruit new blood donors.
31. Conclusion
The Canadian Blood Services is a national organization which is crucial to the
Canadian Medical System. Both currently and in the past they have relied heavily
on traditional marketing to spread awareness and the importance of donating
blood. These efforts have indeed made a large difference in increasing blood
supplies.
