Case Study: Turbo Health
Written Spring 2021
Problem Statement
How might we organize the news of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout to make it desirable to freshmen and sophomores in college? Texas is currently 42nd out of the 50 states for vaccine rollout (USAFacts, 2021; Stebbins, 2021), and college students don’t have time to keep up with the ever-changing vaccine information. Freshmen and Sophomores in college are too busy to research the three current COVID-19 vaccines. Additionally, the students are a non-confrontational generation and are unlikely to call multiple places to check for vaccine eligibility and availability.
Market Analysis
The target market for this venture is current freshmen and sophomores in college. We want to market our venture towards Gen Z students because of the time constraints in their lives. We are a non-profit organization helping Gen Z stay informed about the best practices and latest information regarding COVID-19. Gen Z is more racially and ethnically diverse than previous generations. One in four Gen Z is Hispanic. Gen Z is on track to be the most educated generation yet. This gives Turbo Health a wider range of customers because, simply put there is just more of the market we are looking for. Gen Zers and Millennials have a similar viewpoint on many major issues of today. We want Turbo Health. Vax is to be a platform that starts with Gen Z and then moves on up towards Millennials. We are doing this purely from a strategic standpoint to flatten the curve, starting with the young people. We want to ensure that the generation that is going out with people is protected. 6 Gen Z takes in the news when it is convenient to them. A 2019 study of how people consume news said that time filler apps, such as social media, are the primary place in which news is being consumed by this audience(American Press Institute, 2022; Deloitte, 2022; Morning Consult, 2021).
Financial Analysis
Turbo Health is a not-for-profit organization. We will generate income for our employees through donations. The current employees have signed on with the knowledge that they will be making close to minimum wage or paid with a stipend. Turbo Health Vax is fundraising money through GoFundMe and Cause Vox10. Cause Vox is a Fundraising software used by the Girl Scouts, North Texas Food Bank, and SPCA International. Cause Vox modernizes donations, makes it easier to acquire new donors, and uses a three-step digital methodology that guarantees results. Turbo Health will be using this fundraising software to host paid events to raise support for our organization. Our weekly paid events will cost $10 to get into. Turbo Health is shooting for 100 attendees at each event. Our digital events will include merch- the mask will be included. We will host two major events throughout the year. One of them will be a fun run in Austin. The other will consist of a Gala. Our Fun run will cost $50 to participate, and we expect 400 people to come to our event. Based on the nonprofit hub report12, it will take $8,400 to get this non-profit off the ground.
Diverse and Global Implications
Turbo Health is in a position to help other nonprofits globally with the COVID-19 Pandemic. Turbo Health Vax helps U.S residents- college freshmen and sophomores- understand and find vaccines. The information we provide to these colleges and students will reflect that information. We will communicate with other demographics as much information at that time, provided to us as a company, and we will redirect audiences to healthcare that will better suit their needs.
A little over a month ago, the Kaiser Family Foundation analyzed vaccination data, and it shows that “A national pattern of African Americans and Hispanics receiving fewer vaccinations compared with their share of COVID-19 cases and deaths, as well as with their total population” (Funk & Tyson, 2023). At Turbo Health, we are about to get Vaccine Appointments for those in need quickly. We are committed as an organization to helping the number of vaccines available reflect the population demographics as a whole. Turbo Health will have tents set up in the common area of the campuses and focus our information on the minority community as best we can. We plan on having African Americans and Latinos come to our monthly web seminars to best care for and reach these demographics (Kirby, as cited in Morning Consult, 2021).
The United States ranks number nine in having vaccinations underway.4 Israel Is ranked number one in leading the charge of vaccinations. In a Vox article3, Jen Kirby said a big reason that Israel can do this is that the infrastructure to pull this off already existed. Israel has a universal health care system: All Israeli citizens are enrolled in one of four health maintenance organizations (HMOs) for their care. The system is digitized, where everyone has an ID number, which allows for easy access to electronic records — and a simple way to find everyone who's 60 or above, in the current vaccination priority group. This system also allows health care workers to update a person’s vaccination status, monitor any side effects, and schedule an appointment for the next dose. The HMOs also designated vaccination sites across the country, places that were accessible and big enough can space people out and keep them as socially distanced as possible. Arenas like the Pais, where Gasner worked in Jerusalem, or Rabin Square, in the center of Tel Aviv. Israel is the only country out of the many that ethically responded to the crisis.
Competition
Turbo Health is a non-profit where we like to think of our competition as teammates. James Kip is a software engineer who used his skills to create scraper bots to find Vaccine Appointments fast. Kip posted on Reddit's Austin page that he had created the network for Texans in need of appointments in February. Now the channel has grown from around 1,000 users to nearly 10,000. 7 The strength of this product is that its slack crawlers work and are already out there. Kip has a product out already on the market2. Turbo Health wants to come alongside his product and enhance it by adding features to it. His product weakness is only helping consumers find a vaccine that helps those who desire a vaccine right now. Turbo Health will ensure that our product will help educate the customers about the vaccines and which one is best. A study shows that the Pfizer vaccine is 100% effective in 12 - 15-year-olds. Our strength is the education platform that we are in the process of creating. We have started our education with the freshmen and sophomores in college. We know that eventually, we will have to serve a larger market area.
Potential Solutions
The way the vaccine rollout is happening is that doses aren’t being administered to their maximum capacity. The people that our company has talked to are unsure about the way these vaccines came about. We are going to create a platform that will be the base of Turbo Health Vax, to educate the College and Young Adult age range. Educating the public is one of the potential solutions to make sure that all available vaccines are used. Another potential solution to this problem is mobile vaccine units. This upcoming paragraph is from the FEMA website: (Federal Emergency Management Agency, 2021)
PHILADELPHIA – The nation’s first federally operated mobile COVID-19 vaccination units will soon roll through eastern Maryland.
The two mobile sites will provide access to COVID-19 vaccinations for thousands of Marylanders who live in remote or otherwise underserved areas in eight eastern Maryland counties. Targeted to people who are socially vulnerable or live in remote areas, appointments will be booked through the health department in the county of residence.
The mobile units are funded and operated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and will use trained vaccinators and clinical staff from the county, state, and federal agencies. The common goal? Get shots in arms to the most underserved and help to end the pandemic.
Mobile units will carry out vaccinations starting in northeastern Maryland and then slowly make their way throughout the country, depending on the effectiveness of this product11. This mobile vaccine hub in Maryland started on March 29, 2021 then slowly made its way throughout the country (University of Arizona Health Sciences, 2022; Facebook, 2021)
Limitations and Challenges
The main challenge with our product has to be the anti-vaccine campaign. One of the main rumors on the internet is that the vaccine can cause infertility because there is a protein that shares some amino acids found in the placenta. In a Kaiser Family Foundation poll, 68% of Americans say that the long-term effects of the vaccine are unknown. 59% of Americans worry about the serious side effects of the vaccine (that do not cause infertility) (Sell et al., 2022; National Institutes of Health, 2022). 55% of Americans believe vaccines are not as safe as they should be. 31% still think they will get COVID from the vaccine itself.8 Turbo Health is new to the non-profit market, so we don’t have a lot of credibility. The only solution that we can think of is to be consistent and reliable. We will hire medical professionals and data scientists to better understand the data around COVID-19.
SOURCES
American Press Institute. (2022). The news consumption habits of 16‑ to 40‑year‑olds. Media Insight Project. https://americanpressinstitute.org/publications/reports/survey-research/the-news-consumption-habits-of-16-to-40-year-olds
Deloitte. (2022). Gen Z teens and news consumption. Deloitte Insights. https://www.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/industry/technology/gen-z-news-consumption.html
Morning Consult. (2021). Trends in Gen Z news consumption. https://pro.morningconsult.com/analysis/gen-z-trust-social-media-news-consumption
USAFacts. (2021). Texas coronavirus vaccination progress. https://usafacts.org/visualizations/covid-vaccine-tracker-states/state/texas
Fearnow, B. (2021, March 9). Texas vaccine rollout ranks 48th among states as mask mandate lifted. Newsweek. https://www.newsweek.com/texas-covid-vaccine-rollout-greg-abbott-lifts-mask-mandate-restrictions-1573379
Stebbins, S. (2021, February 23). COVID-19: How Texas is doing in the race to roll out vaccines. 24/7 Wall St. https://247wallst.com/state/covid-19-how-texas-is-doing-in-the-race-to-roll-out-vaccines
Funk, C., & Tyson, A. (2023, May 16). What Americans think about COVID-19 vaccines. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2023/05/16/what-americans-think-about-covid-19-vaccines
Sell, T. K., Viswanath, K., Mesch, G. S., & Askelson, N. M. (2022). Widespread misinformation about infertility continues to create COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. JAMA, 327(6), 509–510. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2789477
National Institutes of Health. (2022, January 20). Study suggests COVID-19 vaccines do not reduce fertility. NIH Research Matters. https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/study-suggests-covid-19-vaccines-do-not-reduce-fertility
Federal Emergency Management Agency. (2021, March 29). First mobile vaccination units in U.S. to open in Maryland. https://www.fema.gov/press-release/20250121/first-mobile-vaccination-units-us-open-maryland
University of Arizona Health Sciences. (2022, May 3). MOVE UP outreach program administers 36,000 COVID-19 vaccines in Arizona’s rural and underserved communities. https://healthsciences.arizona.edu/news/releases/move-outreach-program-administers-36000-covid-19-vaccines-arizonas-rural-and-underserved
Facebook. (2021, June 8). Bringing COVID-19 vaccines to underserved communities in the US. Facebook Newsroom. https://about.fb.com/news/2021/06/bringing-covid-19-vaccines-to-underserved-communities-in-the-us