Canadian Blood Services – Case Study

As the years have gone on, the demand for blood hasn’t decreased. In turn, the number of donors needed has also increased. Because approximately 50% of Canadians are eligible to donate blood, the Canadian Blood Services has a huge population to recruit donors from. In addition, as the years have gone on, more and more Canadians have begun to trust the process of donating blood and how the CBS handles the process of blood donation.

The trust of the public is another strength to help in their recruitment and retention process.

While the public has largely overcome the negative connotation that was once attached to the CBS, there is still a number of people hesitant to donate. As mentioned before mom of the public has mentioned a general fear of needles as a reason why they will not donate blood. And while over half the Canadian population was eligible to donate, only about 3% of that number are registered active donors. This leaves a huge loss in the number of potential donors that the CBS has at their disposal. Advertisement has proven to be a reliable way to recruit new donors.

When blood shortages occur and they are advertised to the public a large wave of new donors occurs. Therefore, advertising could be considered the Cab’s greatest strength in their recruitment and retention strategies. As the process of blood donation has always been a voluntary act, it leaves lots of opportunity for people to not donate. If the public isn’t aware of how much blood is needed there is a chance they won’t donate if they think the problem is being taken care of by already existing donors. Rehire will always be a demand for blood, and in turn for blood donors.

Have composed two alternative courses of action to aid the CBS in recruiting and retaining new donors. The first alternative is to create more ads that show how the CBS is always in need of steady, reliable donors. As the demand for blood will fluctuate, it will never completely go away, Canadians should be more aware of how badly the CBS needs new donors. As retention is another issue, these campaigns rolled target the younger demographic that the CBS has identified as being the primary age for new donors; for example ads via social media.

As they have identified younger age group it allows for more years of being able to donate. The main catch to this campaign is how hard it is for the CBS to determine when there will be a large demand for blood.

However, these campaigns could run during the seasonal allocations where the demand for blood was generally higher such as the summer and winter holidays. A second alternative course of action would be to create an ad campaign that describes how donors feel after they donate blood.

This campaign could give the public another viewpoint on why to donate blood other than the one that is usually given to them. These ads could allow for a more personal connection to the donation process and give the public more personal motivation to donate. This ad would most likely not speak to the sections of the public that had identified a ear of the donation process itself. However, it would be a useful tactic to people who didn’t have any real motivation to donate, or were unsure of the donation process.

The best way to motivate consumers is to convince them that there is a problem. Therefore, my recommendation would be to create ad campaigns that show that there is always a need for donors. Once consumers see that there is an issue regarding blood donation, as proven before, donations have increased. This would also aid in retention rates because it would be targeted at the younger demographic of new donors. This alternative would be most effective because it would aid in both retention and recruitment of new donors.

I don’t feel that the second recommendation regarding the feelings that donors feel after donating would be as effective.

Once consumers are aware of a problem or a not ideal state it motivates their want to fix it. Therefore, I feel the first recommendation would be more suited to solving the issue regarding a need for more donors. While a campaign showing how it pays to be a donor would potentially create an influx of new donors, I feel it Mould be as strong of a result.