American Red Cross

Custom segmentation pumps new life into blood donation efforts

The Organization

The American Red Cross (ARC) is a volunteer-led humanitarian organization that provides relief to more than 63,000 disasters nationwide ever year and helps people prevent, prepare for and respond to emergencies. Since establishing the first civilian blood service after World War II, the American Red Cross has been a leader in blood collection, safety and development and a primary supplier of blood and blood products for over 50 years. The American Red Cross Biomedical Services collects more than 6 million units a year from volunteer donors, and provides almost half of the nation's blood supply to over 2500 hospitals through its national network of 35 Blood Services regions.

The Challenge

Though ARC has had varied success with its current marketing approaches, i.e., direct mail, special events, public service announcements, sponsored blood drives and donor telemarketing, it struggles to both retain existing donors and connect with new donor populations. So, its challenge was simple - reverse the trend by pumping new life back into its blood donation efforts by identifying the best fixed site locations and then conducting direct mail campaigns in and around those sites. To support this initiative, the American Red Cross turned to Claritas and its expertise in target marketing.

The Case

Working from a donor database, ARC created custom segments by utilizing Claritas' PRIZM segmentation system. PRIZM's 66 segments were organized based upon their similarities in terms of their propensity and commitment level to donation. Armed with this information, ARC sought to:

Identify optimal locations for fixed and mobile site growth
Identify and quantify growth opportunities by segment
Identify and quantify needs of donors to determine priorities for development
Optimally target messages and services to attract donors
Achieve positive ROI

ARC Case Study: A prime example of the data's effectiveness involved a project in the Columbus, Ohio area in which a fixed site there was underperforming. ARC needed to relocate the site primarily for two reasons - 1. almost none of the donors for this site actually lived in the site's ZIP Code (just 1.32 percent of existing donors), and 2. the demographics of the area's population had changed. Also, the PRIZM composition of ARC's ideal fixed site donors did not match the PRIZM composition of the site's ZIP Code.

To find a new site, ARC first combined Claritas data with its own internal data to identify four donor activity metrics as proxies to Claritas' donor propensity measure for a given area (MPI). They were:

Penetration into population
Donor frequency
Donor retention
Donor reactivation

ARC then assessed candidate ZIP Codes according to these internal measures, the Market Potential Index (MPI) and PRIZM composition of ZIP Code populations, and selected 25 ZIPs based on a combination of these factors. The ZIPs were then ranked based on a weighted-score and the highest rank fell to a ZIP Code located in the northeast suburbs.

With a new site selected, ARC used ConsumerPoint, Claritas' target marketing software application, to craft a direct mail campaign aimed at attracting targeted donors. ARC analyzed fixed and whole blood donor bases, compared to the base population for ZIP Codes within five miles of the donor center. The analysis showed that three of the ARC custom segments skewed high for the prospecting campaign. ARC created one mail piece aimed at these segments and divided the five-month project into seven waves, with each wave going out every three weeks.

The Results

A. Relocated site vs. the old site: Comparing the first 12 months of activity at the relocated site to the last 12 months of activity at the old site, the numbers were up. The new location collected 11 percent, more than its predecessor. Also, 23 percent of the new site's donor base resides in that ZIP Code versus one percent of the old site's donor base. Moreover, 60.6 percent of donor households belong to the ARC fixed target segments.

B. Direct mail campaign: Looking at the first two waves, which consisted of 2,500 prospects, the results were promising, despite resource limitations at the call centers doing the follow-up. Specifically, scheduling rates (based on prospects contacted) for Green Acres and Suburban Socialites prospects were quite encouraging at 11.8 percent and 8.9 percent respectively. Plus, the response rates for these two segments were also strong. Green Acres responded at a rate of 55 percent (index = 155) better than the control group, and Suburban Socialites responded with a rate of 51 percent (index = 151). "As for Executive Families, both rates were comparatively lower. Many current donors in this segment have indicated they prefer email and prospective donors may have similar preferences," said Elizabeth MacMahon, Manager, Donor Strategy.