Introduction
Direct Relief is a charitable organization that delivers medical equipment and supports the provision of medical care to people. This organization is focused on the United States but operates in many countries worldwide (Zhu et al., 2021). They help expand the possibilities of getting help and care for everyone. Their activity helps to disturb the equipment in the most remote places in the world.
Purpose
Funding is an essential element in the functioning of any organization. The state does not fund the company and receives all income from donations from people. The company covers the costs of organizing a fundraiser from a cash fund bequeathed to it by an anonymous sponsor (Direct Relief, 2023a). It allows the organization to accept donations without cost by paying for them from these funds. Many donations come not in cash but as medical materials or tools that can later be immediately transferred to those in need.
Direct Relief has been involved in scandalous situations involving scammers impersonating this organization. Posing as company employees, they asked people to send them money and personal information to steal. The company apologized and requested that law enforcement agencies solve this problem. After full publicity, the fraudulent activities stopped, and there were no scandalous cases involving the organization.
The company recruits volunteers primarily through social media, sharing new events. This method allows people to learn about the organization’s goals, understand them, and realize the value of helping. They join the organization because its activities are socially significant. Inclusion is done through an offline application at the Santa Barbara headquarters or through an online form. This method is quite effective, but the lack of interviews is questionable.
The company cooperates with many businesses to create more significant opportunities in providing assistance and distributing medical equipment and instruments. More than 175 medical device and pharmaceutical companies collaborate with Direct Relief (Direct Relief, 2023b). This helps the organization focus on finding more needed equipment that cannot be provided. Prominent monetary influences remain the basis for the organization’s existence, and it can buy everything it needs.
Audience
The organization’s primary target audience is communities and clinics that cannot provide themselves with medical equipment. Support for free charity clinics is also included among the target audience that the organization helps. The organization’s audience may change depending on the current conditions in the world, such as natural disasters or wars. If any sudden event occurs where medical assistance is required, the organization hurries to provide it.
Channels
The organization is engaged in public activities and maintains many social networks, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube. The most used channels for communication are the website, Facebook, and Twitter (Direct Relief, 2023c). Direct Relief can share its current activities at any time, making people willing to help others. The organization uses six media channels, including the social networks listed above and the official website.
Message
Direct Relief understands that interaction with people on the Internet is essential, and their communication channels have an effective appearance and inspire confidence. Messages in the organization’s social networks are related to the overall goal. Photo processing and text harmonize and transfer the general theme effectively—photos, videos, or audio play an essential role in promoting an organization. The company actively uses them in its publications to clarify the information presented.
Brand
From the brand organization’s point of view, Direct Relief works well because the developed marketing moves have symbolism. The name fits into the concept and type of activity. The organization’s emblem is four orange squares and a white caduceus. This logo was drawn because the squares symbolize the boxes where the company transports aid. Caduceus means that Direct Relief provides invaluable help in saving many lives with the help of these boxes.
Strategy
The organization’s primary strategic goal is to improve people’s health by supporting them with medical equipment. The company prefers to distribute exclusively on the website and social networks. Communication with people improves as they see that their money will be used for something useful.
Direct Relief has developed a communication strategy to work effectively and cover large areas. Direct Relief’s communication strategy consists of direct dialogue with donors allowing them to organize aid effectively. The organization has directed its energies to social interactions on the Internet to prove its commitment to helping people. Table 1 summarizes the analysis results of the company’s current strategy.
Table 1. Key Aspects
Critique of the Marketing Strategy
Direct Relief relies on a direct communication strategy with its donors to truly engage with the community. Since her social media posts are always connected to the primary target, this gives Direct Relief a strong advantage in delivering aid to those in need. Additionally, the company’s marketing includes visual support and reporting to build trust with donors and recipients. This allows Direct Relief to demonstrate its commitment to the cause and earn the title of a company that aims to help.
Nevertheless, the organization’s marketing does not focus enough on crisis prevention. Much of this is due to the organization’s lack of other avenues of communication. For example, although Direct Relief publishes reports, the media channels are insufficient to amplify the charity (de Ruyter et al., 2022). The organization does not focus on why the equipment they distribute is in short supply. Donors may want to help but may not know how to choose materials to help. Direct Relief has a dialogue with donors, but forgets about those who do not trust social media.
Furthermore, the organization must increase its collaboration with vendors because its marketing does not include them as part of the core audience. Stakeholders may not be aware of the organization’s activities because they are outside of their interests, and Direct Relief does not seek to develop a desire to help (Hall, 2022). Based on the above examples, we can conclude that Direct Relief lacks live communication, a weakness, despite the decisive advantage in media activity.
Recommendation
For Direct Relief, the most preferable way to improve is to reorganize its marketing strategy to enhance the effects of donor engagement. The company should pay attention to developing its stakeholder relationships and test different strategies to select the best one. Direct Relief should set new goals to be achieved through marketing. These may include entering a new market, expanding service territories, and recruiting new special volunteers.
Conclusion
Direct Relief is an international medical equipment support company. Empowering people to access medical services is accomplished by providing many communities with equipment (Zhu et al., 2021). The company does not pay enough attention to marketing, which is its weakness and should be corrected. To improve Direct Relief, a full needs analysis system can be implemented to attract donors and explain the importance of purchasing specific equipment for those in need.
References
de Ruyter, K., Keeling, D. I., Plangger, K., Montecchi, M., Scott, M. L., & Dahl, D. W. (2022). Reimagining marketing strategy: Driving the debate on grand challenges. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 50(1), 13–21. Web.
Direct Relief. (2023a). Answers to common donation questions. Web.
Direct Relief. (2023b). Partnerships for a better world. Web.
Direct Relief. (2023c). About. Web.
Hall, J. (2022). 3 ways to improve your marketing strategy for 2023. Forbes. Web.
Zhu, R., Cai, L., Mai, G., Shimizu, C., Fisher, C. K., Janowicz, K., Lopez-Cfrr, A., Schroeder, A., Schlidhauer, M., Tian, Y., Stephen, S. & Liu, Z. (2021). Providing humanitarian relief support through knowledge graphs. In Proceedings of the 11th on Knowledge Capture Conference (pp. 285-288). Web.