To supply hospitals with safe blood products, we have to manage and mobilize an adequate donor base. Demographic shifts, diverse media usage, and changing donor expectations influence the marketing mix and call for new communication approaches. Our collaboration with WU significantly helps us to test and improve the effectiveness of marketing tools used to recruit, retain, and activate blood donors.

The blood services of the Austrian Red Cross (ARC) fulfill an important mission in the Austrian health system by organizing the collection of more than 340,000 blood donations per year.

The collaboration between the ARC and members of the Department of Marketing is ongoing since 2017 and builds on the shared belief in the value of combining complementary resources to explore new managerial practices. The topics of this collaborative work include novel communication approaches to attract and retain younger donor generations, machine-learning methods for demand prediction, and competitive influences of paid plasma donation centers. We integrate these topics in BSc and MSc theses and discuss our findings in collaborative workshops and seminars with industry professionals, academic experts, and students.

The research project receives financial support from a WU Projects grant (Project-IA 11000571).

Project Management:

Dr. Pascal Güntürkün (Department of Marketing)
Dr. Nils Wlömert (Institute for Retailing & Data Science)