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Donor management: social marketing, maintenance and trust

2009; Wiley; Volume: 4; Issue: n2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/j.1751-2824.2009.01272.x

1751-2824

Chao Tan,

Blood donation and transfusion practices

Social marketing was first coined by Kotler and Zaltman [1] when they realized that the same marketing principles that were used to sell products to consumers could be used to sell ideas, attitudes and behaviour. It applies marketing concepts to create, communicate and deliver value in order to influence the behaviours of target audience behaviours to benefit society; i.e. encourage people to adopt behaviours that will enhance not only their own life, but also their community. Since then, social marketing programmes has been used by the health services to help tackle social and health problems caused by individual’s behaviour such as AIDS, smoking, traffic accidents, unwanted pregnancies; to encourage people to be responsible and to adopt healthier lifestyles. Health problems have a social as well as individual dimension. This phenomenon is clearly reported in the WHO – Social determinants of health [2] – that poverty is one of the most consistent and basic predictors of ill-health in the world. The lack of opportunity, choice and empowerment generated prevents people from adopting healthy lifestyles. Social marketing also has a great deal to offer here by influencing the behaviour, not just of the individual, but also of policy-makers and influential interest groups such as the media, non-governmental organizations, policy- and law-makers. In the last two decades, many blood services have also adopted social marketing strategies in the development of blood donor management programmes. Although, like commercial marketing, social marketing follows a logical planning process that involves consumer-oriented research, marketing analysis, marketing segmentation, objective setting and the identification of strategies and tactics, based on the voluntary exchange of costs and benefits between two or more parties [1], it is more complex than commercial marketing as it involves changing intractable behaviours in complex economic, social and political climates, often with limited resources [3]. Furthermore, the ultimate goal of commercial marketing is to meet shareholders’ objectives, but for the social marketer, the challenge is to meet society’s desire to improve its citizen’s quality of life. In the context of donor management, sufficient pool of voluntary blood donors; sufficient supply of safe blood at all times. As cited by MacFadyen, Bloom and Novelli [4] identified a need for research to examine audience segmentation, choosing media channels and designing appeals, implementing long-term positioning strategies, and organizational and management issues. Blood programme managers must be aware that the marketplace is also constantly changing and so programmes must be regularly monitored and management must be flexible and prepared to rapidly alter strategy and tactics. In developing a social marketing campaign or programme, three key elements must be considered to ensure success: A consumer orientation [3,5,6] An exchange [3, 7–9] A long-term planning outlook [6] The consumer-centred approach of social marketing asked: ‘what does the customer want?’ In social marketing, the consumer is assumed as an active participant in the change process. The social marketer seeks to build a relationship with the target consumers over time and sought their input at all stages in the development of a programme through formative, process and evaluation research. The Blood Programme Manager should be on the consumer who is the blood donor. It is essential to learn what the donors want and need rather than to try to persuade them to buy – in this instance: give a unit of blood. According to Houston and Gassenheimer [10], the motivation to become involved in an exchange is to satisfy needs. Exchange in social marketing puts a key emphasis on voluntary behaviour. To facilitate voluntary exchanges, the social marketer has to offer something to the people which they really want. For example, asking people to donate blood. A survey on the public’s understanding and behaviour of blood donation conducted by ACNielsen [11] for the Singapore Red Cross in 2004 reflected overwhelmingly intrinsic reasons for donating blood. Eighty-six per cent of the regular blood donors surveyed mentioned reasons related to social responsibility and 19% mentioned self-motivation. Some of the most common reasons are: to help others (47%), wanting to save lives (22%), it is a good deed (17%) and contributes to society (16%). Almost all non-donors (94%) mentioned social responsibility as a key driver for blood donation. With this information, the Blood Programme Manager can highlight aspects of social responsibility and its benefits to the greater good of the community, to facilitate the voluntary exchange process. As cited by Kotler [12] and Andreasen [6], social marketing should have a long-term outlook based on continuing programmes that are strategic rather than one-off campaigns that are tactical. Same as commercial marketing, the social marketing planning process should start and finish with research. Research should be conducted throughout to provide information to the development of the strategy. It should begin with a situational analysis of the internal and external environment of the donor management programme and to help with the segmentation of blood donors. Further research should be conducted to define the problems and to set objectives for the programme before the development of the social marketing strategy. The elements of the social marketing mix which includes the commonly known ‘4Ps’ of marketing – Product, Price, Place and Promotion and the additional four ‘Ps’ of social marketing – Publics, Partnerships, Policy and Purse Strings are then developed and pre-tested, before implementation. Finally, the relative success of the plan is monitored and the outcome is evaluated. The 3-year social marketing campaign of the Singapore Red Cross is used as a case example to review the impact of social marketing on the donor management programme. A ‘demand idea’ was created from a survey conducted to develop the social marketing strategy which aimed at bringing about a behavioural change in blood donation from an inertia phase to one that is character building. Here, we examine the use of the social marketing mix. Social product refers to voluntary blood donation. The emphasis here is not to talk about the product, but to find out what the blood donors think and feel about it. Literature reviews were conducted to have a better understanding of the target audiences; to learn from past cases for a better understanding of lifestyle nuances and their attitudes toward social work. A field experiment was conducted with the help of McCann Healthcare Worldwide in the June holidays of 2006 where we took the video out to favourite hangouts of youths to conduct face-to-face survey on the perception of blood donation. In addition, a backyard survey was conducted to find out if they have donated blood; what they think of people who donate blood and will they donate blood if given a chance. The approach taken was to unite and study relevant impressions to derive at a key demand idea from which the social marketing strategy was developed. A study on the attitudes of Singaporeans towards social work by the National Youth Council in 2000 reflected that 71% of Singaporeans have never done volunteer work; 57% of them indicated no interest in volunteer work and only 18% volunteered once or twice. The face-to-face survey reviewed that youths admire blood donors as they view the act of blood donation as heroic, having to overcome fear and pain; as charitable and something to think about. The backyard survey conducted with 30 young people showed that all of them knew about blood donation but only 2 had donated blood and 16 had thought about it. Twenty-five said yes when asked if they will do so if given a chance. Price refers to what the donor is willing to pay in order to obtain the social product. The emphasis here was to focus on the aspect of social responsibility. The strategy was to create a ‘demand vision’ to bring about a change from the current perception of blood donation as something that young people know is good to do, to an idea that is desirable: – something that young people can do and want to do. The demand vision facilitated the creation of the message which was aim at creating the ‘defining moment’ where the target audience made the decision to donate blood. Place refers to the way the social product reaches the consumer. For a tangible product, place can be referred to as the distribution system, i.e. retail outlets, but for intangible products, it is less clear cut. However, in this instance, we can refer to decisions on the channels through which the donors can reach the social product such as the blood collection sites. By determining the activities and habits of the target audience, as well as their experience and satisfaction with the existing delivery system, blood services can achieve high donor retention rate. Promotion refers to the integrated use of advertizing, public relations, promotions, media, advocacy, personal selling and entertainment vehicles which was focused on creating and sustaining the idea of blood donation as an act of benevolence and is character building. In the construction of the ‘demand idea’, the other ‘Ps’ of social marketing namely, Publics, Partnerships, Policy and Purse Strings were examined in relation to the ‘4Cs’ namely, ‘Constituencies’, ‘Culture’, ‘Company’ and ‘Communications’ to create a demand insight (behaviour), i.e. ‘strong desire to define oneself and express one’s individuality’, on which the social marketing strategy was developed to move the target groups to reach their defining moments (tangible object); i.e. an immediately identifiable expression of oneself and one’s individuality: ‘Blood donation helps define you’. The two target groups were decoded as ‘Identity Builders’– 16- to 25-year old people who are facing that point in life when childhood is past and adulthood is unavoidable. Whether it is the moment of freedom from school, to the challenges of early career life, to relationships, these people are forming their ‘inner core’ and are searching for ways that can best express it. The ‘Career Shapers’– 26- to 35-year old current donors who have settled with a clearer direction in life, they were raised with greater sense of values being children of post 65ers. Their careers are clear and they can plot what their future holds for them. Assured with a sense of financial and emotional security, they realize that they must sustain society around them, if not for themselves but for their children. Whether its blood donation, acts of charity or volunteer work, they hold firm beliefs in matters of societal significance. The aim was to create a culture where blood donation is an altruistic expression of genuine kindness and personal concern for others and where the act of blood donation is seen to strengthen personal character; where SRC act as the catalyst that cultivates a culture of purpose without force, expression without judgement. Singapore has a unique model of partnership for the national blood programme where a government agency and a non-government agency appointed to work together to ensure a sufficient supply of safe blood for all the hospitals in the country. The Singapore Red Cross as a humanitarian organization with its global affiliation is publicly supported for its cause in serving humanity and saving lives. The Blood Services Group of the Health Sciences Authority has government support and back-up to look after the medical interest of the greater community. It is technologically up-to-date and has a stamp of safety and thoroughness as an AABB accredited centre. The role of communications was to overcome the sense of apathy, fear and low self-relevance in the target groups by creating recognition of new found value for blood donation; creating a sense of urgency; connecting with and involving target audiences at a relevant and emotional level; educating to overcome myths and misconceptions and ultimately making Blood Donation a character building act. The approach taken was to bring the message on blood donation from that of government owned to one that is society shared; from the usual rigid positioning of campaign messages to a compelling philosophy to promote and bring out the pro-social behaviour of people. The campaign concept was focused on embracing the new found value for blood donation; maintaining urgency and keeping blood donation relevant for existing blood donors. At the same time, connecting with and involving non-donors at a relevant and emotional level to create recognition of new found value for blood donation. The theme for the first year (2008) of the campaign was ‘Are You My Type?’ It aimed at creating relevance to motivate and recruit new donors and at the same time, establishing retention for existing donors. This campaign focal point was all about differences; communicating the message that we are all different and yet we are all trying to find people like us who believe in doing the same thing –‘It takes all types.’ 2009, year two focused on fuelling the growth from the success of year one and increase momentum to reach out to a wider audience. ‘Everyday Heroes’ was the chosen theme as it depicts the reality that most of us are just ordinary people, doing ordinary jobs and living ordinary lives. But for those of us who are blood donors, our blood is out there, doing extraordinary things; saving lives. Using a two prong approach, the objective was to optimize brand message and exposure among the general travelling public by using an outdoor medium and to penetrate new digital media vehicles and optimize youth exposure. In year one, crashing visual differences were used to capture attention and communicate the message that regardless of differences, all (blood)types are needed to save lives. Two hundred and fifty posters were displayed at bus-sheds island-wide and in magazines targeting youths; web banners were placed on search engines like Google, Yahoo, Microsoft Direct Response and selected websites to increase awareness of blood donation among the young and the general reading public. Nuffnang, a Bloggers Network, participated in this campaign by organizing the first bloggers’ blood donation drive, using facebook to drive the promotion campaign. In year two, posters were again used at bus-sheds but radio and print ads were also used to bring to life ‘Everyday Heroes’ in order to reach out to a wider audience. Interviews and talk shows on radio that were made with blood donors were broadcasted in all the four languages – English, Mandarin, Malay and Tamil; during the morning and evening drive times which has the highest listener ship. Human stories of blood donors on their blood donation motivation and experiences were also published as advertorials in youth magazines. The campaign was launched in June 2008, along with the World Blood Donor Day celebration with the theme ‘Are You My Type’ and carried through to this year’s theme ‘Everyday Heroes’. The reaction to the campaign was measure using Google – insight for search. The result showed that there is marked increased in interest in blood donation in the months of June, September, December and February; periods where the campaign was actively launched. More than 9 000 000 impressions were delivered via the Google and Yahoo Search engines which resulted in more than 10 000 clicks delivered. The blood donation promotion driven by the bloggers network yielded another 5 000 000 impressions and 16 000 clicks delivered. A total of more than 200 bloggers turn up at the blood donation drive and more than 80 successfully donated blood. The results in 2008 showed a 5% increase in the number of new donors recruited; a 10% increased in the number of regular blood donors and a 20% increase in the number of youth donors aged 16–25. The whole campaign planning process took the target audiences focus into account by addressing the ‘marketing mix’, commonly known as the four ‘Ps’. This was demonstrated by the direction and decisions taken on the conception of the: Product –i.e. blood donation; Price – i.e. the messaging on what must donors do in order to obtain the social marketing product: give blood; Place – i.e. the way the product reaches the consumer and this refers to blood collection sites. By determining the activities and habits of the target audience, as well as their experience and satisfaction with the existing delivery system, blood services can achieve high donor retention rate; Promotion – i.e. the integrated use of advertizing, public relations, promotions, media advocacy personal selling and entertainment vehicles which was focused on creating and sustaining the idea of blood donation as an act of benevolence and is character building; Publics – i.e. the target audience, identified as the identity builders and career shapers; with the aim of converting them to believers who will make blood donation an integral part of their everyday lives; Partnership i.e. the organizations directly responsible for the national blood programme and also other corporate, civic and religious organizations in the community that support blood donation; Policy i.e. changes needed to sustain a social marketing programme in the long run; Pulse strings i.e. the money to create the programme; The experience of investing in social marketing for blood donor recruitment campaign was a positive one for the Singapore Red Cross. The results confirmed what social marketing is all about – talking to the consumer and not about the product. Rather than persuading people to give a unit of their blood, donor management programme can effectively apply social marketing concepts to influence behaviour and bring about change; from inertia behaviour towards blood donation to active participation and on to embracing blood donation as an integral part of life. This was evident as despite challenges faced with the emergence of diseases and the economic downturn, SRC was able to ensure a sufficient blood stock level of 6 days for 326 days in 2008 – a 30% improvement from 2007. There was also a significant growth of 34% new donors in the 16- to 25-year-old target group and 46% in the 26- to 35-year olds. To ensure sustainability, the three key elements of the social marketing and the ‘8Ps’ of the social marketing mix has to be monitored and reviewed as the programme develops. This should be done with the help of research to elucidate and shape the donor management programme to ensure success.