In late 2002, our commitment to strategic thinking was put to the ultimate test when the Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center hired NextLevel Thinking to craft and execute a strategy to increase critically needed blood donations. The impressive results we produced in Houston quickly led to work at the San Diego Blood Bank, The Blood Center of Central Texas, United Blood Services, Life Source, and Central Blood Bank—launching a defining era for NextLevel Thinking that demonstrated the universal power of our methodology.
The success story of our “blood center era,” which provided the foundational proof for our approach, is best told by Mary Walter-Brown, former Marketing Manager for the San Diego Blood Bank. Below is an excerpt from a white paper written in 2009, reflecting on those transformative years:
“I struggled with many of the same challenges that marketing professionals around the world grapple with – how do you create a compelling enough message to motivate the public to do something that could be out of their comfort zone.”
“Before our journey began with NextLevel Thinking, SDBB was constantly struggling to maintain an adequate blood supply… Supplies dropped so low… the organization often resorted to issuing emergency pleas for blood through the media. These appeals caused momentary spikes in collections but never produced the sustained donating trends that we desperately needed to establish.”
To achieve the goal of recruiting new donors and increasing existing donations, we created a comprehensive, multi-platform recruitment and retention strategy incorporating email, direct mail, telemarketing, website development, radio/television advertising, and internal customer service outreach.
Every single communication touch point was integrated, ensuring the messages were all consistent. By utilizing these various communication mediums, we found that we were able to start “connecting” with donors using the methods most convenient to them. We created a simple story and straightforward steps explaining how people could “make a difference in life,” simply by donating “one more time each year.”
The result was extraordinary: Within three years, we had increased collections by an impressive 26% and began tackling other challenges like managing an ever-growing inventory of blood products.
During those three years, we experimented with many different tactics for improving our results, but the most enduring lesson—the one that still guides NLT 25 years later—is this: We never deviated from the core strategy. That unwavering commitment to the strategic plan, despite the inevitable tactical experiments, is why our methodology achieves sustainable growth, not just momentary spikes.