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.

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.

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.

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:

The number of people that heard about blood drives in various ways
60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Number of people that heard about blood drives in various ways

Most effective way to reach donors about future blood drives

Facebook Twitter Local Advertisements Public Service Announcement E-mail

Most convieniet time to donate blood

45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 Most convieniet time to donate blood

Red Cross Survey

Italics indicate made up results. Please circle that which applies: M/F 47/53 Age: 19 or below
20-25 15 26-35 18 36-45 20 46-60 19 Yes 60 or older 28 No

1. Have you ever given blood?

21 2. How many times have you given blood?

79

1-3

3-5

5-and higher

3. Do you live in or near any of these places? If yes please circle that which applies.
Dublin 52 Gahanna Downtown Columbus Hilliard Polaris- 30

4. Do you work near any of these places? If yes please circle that which applies.
Dublin - 41 Gahanna

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

10

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 89 No 11

If yes: How or where have you heard? (Check all that apply)
____35 flyers ____42 friends ____16 brochures ____19 family member ____39 co-workers ____51 e-mail/intranet

8. Are you aware that during the holiday season is when blood donations are needed the most?
Yes 16 No 84

9. I would be more inclined to donate blood if I knew there was a shortage during the holiday season
Strongly Agree 5 4 3 2 1 Strongly Disagree

16

19

10. What is the reason you have gone to past blood drives or donor centers?
____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 donating blood?
Yes 28 No 72

12. If you did know of such incentives would you be more inclined to give blood?
Yes 36 No 64

13. How would be the most effective way to reach you about future blood drives?
____brochures ____6 Facebook ____21 local advertisements ____3 Twitter ____6 email ____18 Public Service Announcement

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 media o The media will be able to spread the word for the cause and raise awareness of the blood shortage during the December holiday season. Shoppers o 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 holiday season, 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 and other stores around the areafrom 21% to 40% in the 2010-2011 holiday season. To make connections with three to five different apartment complexes, one having majority of elderly residents, in the surrounding area.

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

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

Shoppers To establish three different promotional incentives with the mall during the 20102011 holiday season. Through these promotions to get at least 10 different shoppers to donate blood at the Polaris Center during the 2010-2011 holiday season.

Communication Tools:
Hold an banquet event to bring together people who have given blood in the past and people who have benefited from this donated blood. Marathon in the Mall: increase awareness of the center in the mall. Make it interesting like a game or contest. o Have group get a sponsor to enter the marathon contest o 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 tickets o 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.

Put a sign by the register of agreeing stores in the mall that offers a discount with proof 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?