Blood Donation Services Consumer Behavior and Marketing - Term Paper Example

? Blood donation behaviour Problem ment Over the years the need for blood supplies has increased steadily. However organizations like Red Cross blood society which is a part of Red Cross society has constantly faced problems when it comes to attracting and retaining sufficient enough donors to meet the demand for blood. Therefore RCBS has hired Ad-Mark Marketing Solutions to increase the level of participation in the blood donation camps. Hence as a senior marketing consultant is important to analyze the whole consumer decision making process when it comes to blood donation; it is also equally important to analyze the various demographic, social and psychological factors that affect the attitude and behaviour of individuals when it comes to the donation of blood. Literature Review The main objective of marketing is to understand and satisfy the needs satisfy the needs and demands of the target market customers. The field of consumer behaviour studies the way groups, individuals and even organizations select, buy use, and dispose products or services. The study of consumer behaviour was a relatively new field of study till the mid 1960s (Bagozzi, Gopinath and Nyer, 1999). During that time the study of consumer behaviour did not have any history or body of research (Hines, Hungerford and Tomera, 1987). But then new disciplines were borrowed from various fields and disciplines of management science such as sociology, social psychology and anthropology. Consumer behaviour can be stated as the choice making process as well as physical activity that an individual engages in while acquiring, evaluating or disposing of goods as well as services (Balderjahn, 1988). The study of consumer behaviour and marketing go along parallel. A sound understanding of consumer behaviour is very important to the success of any marketing program. As a matter of fact the study of consumer behaviour is perceived as a corner stone of the overall marketing concept. The study of consumer behaviour has had major impact on the marketing strategies of a company. Study of consumer behaviour helps a company to understand the needs and wants of the customers (Stone and Gronhaug, 1993). Study of consumer behaviour helps marketers to select the target market segment having distinct set of needs and demands. It also helps the marketer to decide upon the marketing mix such as the product, price, place and promotion (Cesi and Olson, 1988). The study and knowledge of consumer behaviour is also quite important for the marketing of non-profit organizations such as hospitals, voluntary agencies. Various non- profit social agencies could be viewed as the sender of ideas looking to target groups of customers. Such organizations also include red-cross blood society (Edell and Burke, 1987). With respect to the present study one of the most important aspects would be the various factors influencing the consumer behaviour. It includes cultural, social, personal, psychological factors (Richins, 1997). The cultural factors include culture which is the most fundamental determinant of the behaviour of a person. Each culture has a set of subculture that consists of relatively smaller subcultures. Social classes are the relatively homogenous divisions of society that are hierarchical in nature. The social factors include reference groups and family (Andreasen, 2002). The reference group of a person include all the groups and individuals that have a direct or in direct influence on the individual. It could include celebrities endorsing product or even the peers and the friends of an individual (Burke and Edell, 1989). The family is also one of the most important parts of the overall consumer behaviour as a person mostly adopts the set of values and attitudes from family only. The personal factors include age, occupation, Economic circumstances, life style and personality of an individual. Psychological factors include motivation, perception, Beliefs, Attitudes, and Learning. Just like the factors influencing the consumer decision making process it is equally important for the social marketers to understand the overall consumer decision making process. The consumer decision making process includes problem recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision, post purchase behaviour (Bloch and Richins, 1983). Theory Model Framework As mentioned above the main challenges that an organization like RCBS has to deal with has been the various factors that has affected the blood donation behaviour of an individual. Hence it would be important to analyze how various social, psychological, demographic factors affecting the consumer decision making process (Solomon, Michael, Russell and Previte, 2010). FIGURE -1 Factors Influencing Consumer Behaviour Social issues tend to have significant impact on the consume behaviour. Involvement is primarily viewed in this context as positive or negative is a social issue. This means that for people who tend to practice positive social issues behaviour would likely to have a positive involvement on the social issues as compared to those who are not donating blood. Along with the involvement the attitudes of the people towards the social issues is also very important. Mainly the social marketers look to change the behaviours; but the social marketers also look to make some changes in the attitudes also. From the perspective of the social marketers this suggests that influencing the people to take on a positive attitude through in direct means could be quite difficult as it has already been demonstrate by very low percentages of blood donors in Australia. The feelings of the individuals are also likely to be an outcome of the behaviour. Feelings are primarily viewed in this context as affective reactions that people tend to experience due to an encounter or consumption. Another major perspective would be the involvement of the reference groups. Primarily it would be a social issue. Although according the rule the official age of blood donors in Australia is 16-70, it is most likely that the young generation would take the lead role, in case of blood donation. Therefore some of them, especially the people belonging to the age group of below twenty five would be heavily influenced by the reference group, which would be again dominated by the family of an individual. A part form that that psychological factor such as motivation would also play a major role in the perspective that what are the factors that are motivating an individual to go for blood donation. This is of extreme importance considering the fact that despite of interest of blood donation most of the people are not making the final decision in the form of blood nation. A part from this perception is also going to be a key. Since majority of the people are staying away from making donation, it would be quite important fort the marketers to analyze the way the public are gathering the stimuli. Recommendation Even before going ahead with the marketing plan it is to be recommended that it is very much important for the RCBS to follow the segmentation targeting positioning strategy. Al though as per the rule of the land people belonging to the age group of sixteen to seventy; it would be highly unlikely that people belonging to the older age beyond 50 would be going for the blood donation. Hence it is recommended that RCBS should look to create a niche market. Hence, primarily the market segment to be targeted should belong to the age group of sixteen to forty. Education level of the individuals could be school or college goers, high school graduates and also post graduates. Mainly people who are status seekers and outdoor enthusiast are to be targeted. As it has been suggested before that RCBS should look to create a niche; it would in the best interest of the organization to follow a concentrated marketing strategy. When it comes to product positioning one of the major factor that needs to be considered would promotional techniques. While adopting promotional techniques the main objective of the promotional programs has to be fixed. Based on the above situations discussed the main objectives of promotion would be to make people aware about the importance of blood donation; position blood donation as a healthy and safety activity and finally motivate people to make the final decision. When it comes to creating awareness there is no better way to raise awareness about a product than advertising. Red Cross could go for Television and radio ads to create awareness. It can also use famous sports or media personalities in the ads as they are a part of the reference groups. But the main choice of medium should be the social medium. The rise of social medium has changed the face of promotions for ever. The use of social medium for promotion would increase as majority of the people belonging to the age group of 16-35 spend more time on social media than television. Hence PPC ads on Google and social media platforms like Face book can be of great help. Also social media platforms like Face book, Twitter, and Blogs would provide an opportunity for the company to engage with people. This would also help the organization to position the product as a healthy, low risk product through which the person donating blood would be making a great contribution to the society. Another major factor would be to motivate the people to come to the donation centre. Many might suggest offering monetary rewards to the donors; which could be considered. But keeping the product and the target market in mind it is suggested that other motivational techniques such posting pictures of the donors of the Face book wall or the website or posting a short interview of the donor on various platforms could be used as motivational schemes. This would be in alignment with the Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. The motivational schemes mentioned would help RCBS to fulfil the love or social needs of an individual providing the person a sense of self worth. References 1. Bagozzi, R. P., Gopinath, M., Nyer, P. U., (1999). The role of emotions in marketing. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 27 (2), 184-206. 2. Balderjahn, I., (1988). Personality variables and environmental attitudes as predictors of ecologically responsible consumption patterns. Journal of Business Research, 17(August), 51-56. 3. Celsi, R. L., Olson, J. C., (1988). 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