Red Cross Final

8/2/2019 Red Cross Final

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AMERICAN RED CROSS FINAL

11/16/10

Introduction:

The American Red Cross is the largest blood supplier in the United States. By giving

blood you could potentially save three lives. Every two seconds someone in the U.S. needs

blood. There is a 97 percent chance that someone you know will eventually need blood. So

it is very important to keep blood donations up so we have that supply to lean on. Here in

the Columbus area there are five donor centers. Out of these six donor centers the Polaris

center is particularly suffering to bring in donors. We have set out to find a solution to this

problem and hopefully bring in more donors to this site. Throughout our research process

our main goal was to collect significant information about the Polaris Donor Center that

could be improved on or that differed largely from other donor centers.

The Polaris Donor Center is located at 1327 Cameron Ave.-Oak Creek Center at

Polaris. This center opened on November 19, 2007 so it has only been open for a short

period of time. It is included in the Central Ohio Blood Services Region which serves 27

central Ohio counties. In these 27 counties there are 30-35 blood drives a day, including 7

donor centers. The Polaris Center averages about 45 donors a week. Over the holiday

season is when the blood donations are the lowest. For the 2009 December Holiday Donor

Center Polaris held the second lowest number of donors and 52, the highest number was

held by the center located in Dublin with 185 donors. There was a total of 3,934 December

Holiday donations in the Central Ohio Region, 525 of those donations were collected at

donor centers.


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Our goal for this project was to increase the number of donors that give blood at the

Polaris Donor Center during the December holiday season and to build a regular donor

pool. We have put together of system of objectives and tactics to achieve this goal that you

will later read about.

Opportunities:

During the holiday season people get a sense of giving. This could increase the

probability of some people to donate blood. Since we would be running a holiday campaign

and offering incentives for potential gifts, this might bring in even more donors. We would

potentially be reaching a wide array of audiences from high school students and shoppers

to older people living in the community. There is a great opportunity to get the word out

about the center while reaching out to these audiences. Dependable and reliable donors

would help set a good example for new donors to keep coming back.

Threats:

There are many things that distract people from donating blood or attending some

of our promotional events. People become very busy and stressed during the holiday

season. There is the pressure of getting the right gifts for everyone and finding the time to

do it. The people of Westerville may not believe that they have the time in their busy

schedule to fit in the time it takes to donate blood. Also, most people do not realize the

importance and urgency the American Red Cross feels for blood donations during the

holiday season.


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Weaknesses:

Majority of our target audience is older or middle aged people who already have

their daily routine down pat. For a lot of people it is hard for them to change this routine

and add in an extra task. Commonly people do not realize the importance of having a

dependable blood supply to lean on in times of need. The blood supply becomes

dangerously low during the holiday season and our audiences do not realize that fact.

People believe that they are just too busy to donate blood and that one donation wont

make that much of a difference. In our fake research we found that providing people with

the knowledge of the blood shortage during the holiday season would not incline them to

donate.

Strengths:

The Polaris Donor Center is located in a very populated area. Many local residents

come to this area often to shop making this donor center very convenient for them. Also,

these shopping opportunities bring in people from all around Columbus. This vastly

populated area gives us the chance to get the word out to these people that do come into

the area to utilize the shopping centers. Westerville is also a very well developed

community with dependable residence. These dependable residents would be perfect

candidates to become regular donors. Having a close nit community around also helps the

word to spread.


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Research and Findings:

We produced a survey that would provide us with relevant information for

improving the number of donors at the Polaris center. Although we did not collect actual

data we were still able to look at made up numbers and produce graphs and make

conclusions on what may have worked best. We provided a few graphs of the information

we collected with our survey:

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

The number of people that heard about

blood drives in various ways

Number of people that heard

about blood drives in various

ways


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Most effective way to reach donors about

future blood drives

Facebook

Twitter

Local Advertisements

Public Service Announcement

E-mail

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

Most convieniet time to donate blood

Most convieniet time to donate

blood


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Red Cross Survey

Italics indicate made up results.

Please circle that which applies:

M/F 47/53

Age: 19 or below 20-25 26-35 36-45 46-60 60 or older

15 18 20 19 28

1. Have you ever given blood? Yes No21 79

2. How many times have you given blood?

0 1-3 3-5 5-and higher

7 8 6

3. Do you live in or near any of these places? If yes please circle that whichapplies.

Dublin 52

Gahanna

Downtown Columbus

Hilliard

Polaris- 30

4. Do you work near any of these places? If yes please circle that whichapplies.

Dublin - 41

Gahanna


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Downtown Columbus -21

Hilliard

Polaris - 38

5. When would you be most available to give blood?5a.m.-8a.m. 8a.m.-noon noon-3p.m. 3p.m.-6p.m. 6p.m.-9p.m.

36 6 10 6 42

6. Does a blood drive come to your work place/ school?Yes No

66 34

7. Do you frequently hear about blood drives?Yes No

89 11

If yes:

How or where have you heard? (Check all that apply)

____35flyers ____42 friends ____16 brochures ____39 co-workers

____19 family member ____51 e-mail/intranet

8. Are you aware that during the holiday season is when blood donationsare needed the most?

Yes No

16 84

9. I would be more inclined to donate blood if I knew there was a shortageduring the holiday season

Strongly Agree Strongly Disagree

5 4 3 2 1

16 6 5 19 5


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10. What is the reason you have gone to past blood drives or donorcenters?

____11 shortage of blood

____1 money

____1 incentives

____advertisements

____free will

____4 family member

____N/A

____4 other: Right thing to do

11. Did you know about any of the incentives offered for donatingblood?

Yes No

28 72

12. If you did know of such incentives would you be more inclined togive blood?

Yes No

36 64

13. How would be the most effective way to reach you about futureblood drives?

____brochures ____21 local advertisements ____6 email

____6 Facebook ____3 Twitter ____18 Public Service Announcement


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Action Planning:

Audiences:

Employees of businesses around the area and residents (elderly)o Megan Hartley gave us information that the majority of regular donors are

elderly people

The mediao The media will be able to spread the word for the cause and raise awareness

of the blood shortage during the December holiday season.

Shopperso Megan also told us that the American Red Cross has nothing set up with

Polaris Mall or any of the stores around the area so we want to target these

places to make people more aware of the center.

Goal:

To increase the number of donors that give blood at the Polaris Donor Center during the

December holiday season and to build a regular donor pool.

Objectives:

To increase the number of donors from 52 to 80 by the end of the December holidayseason, January 3, 2011.

Employees/Residents

To bring in 18 new donors to the Polaris Center by January 3, 2011 To establish a larger more dependant donor pool by 10 people for the Polaris Center

by February 1, 2011

To increase publicity and awareness at local business, including Polaris Mall andother stores around the areafrom 21% to 40% in the 2010-2011 holiday season.

To make connections with three to five different apartment complexes, one havingmajority of elderly residents, in the surrounding area.

Media

To inform five reporters from different newspapers of our efforts and three of thempick up the story and publish the story in their paper by November 23, 2010.


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To inform three news stations of our efforts and one of them to air the story on thenews by November 23, 2010 or again later in the holiday season.

Shoppers

To establish three different promotional incentives with the mall during the 2010-2011 holiday season.

Through these promotions to get at least 10 different shoppers to donate blood atthe Polaris Center during the 2010-2011 holiday season.

Communication Tools:

Hold an banquet event to bring together people who have given blood in the pastand people who have benefited from this donated blood.

Marathon in the Mall: increase awareness of the center in the mall. Make itinteresting like a game or contest.

o Have group get a sponsor to enter the marathon contesto Give each competing group a supply of blood that will slowly run out.o They must go around to the stores to collect a trivia fact and once this is

accomplished they will receive a blood replenishment.

o Group that collects all the facts win the grand prize. Thanksgiving Dinner, supply dinner to people who give blood. Incentives:

o Gift cards Groceries Gas cards Stores in the mall Visa gift cards (used everywhere)

o Free movie ticketso Turkey raffle- names drawn for a thanksgiving turkey

Put an advertising insert into a popular restaurants menu near Polaris Set up a kiosk at Polaris Mall to advertise the center. Make events that will appear in the district calendar, which is distributed to every

member in the city.

Go to local high schools and give presentations on the need for blood. Issue a public service announcement of a tragic story of someone needing blood and

ending up dying because of the shortage in blood supply.

Send post cards to all local residents, informing them of the center.


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Put a sign by the register of agreeing stores in the mall that offers a discount withproof of blood donation.

Put an ad on the coffee sleeves at Starbucks and Caribou Coffee. Put on a carnival to benefit the American Red Cross and raise awareness of the

Polaris Center.

Purchase a Google ad to display on the sidebar on WebPages such as facebook,myspace etc.

Evaluation:

Objective 1: Employees/Residents

How many people from this category of people did we get to donate blood?

Did we increase publicity and awareness at local businesses from 21 percent

to 40 percent?

Objective 2: Media

Did we successfully reach and distribute information to at least three

newspapers and one news station?

Objective 3: Shoppers

Did we establish three different promotional incentives with the mall? Did we

bring in any new donors from this pool of people?

Red Cross Final

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