Cordlife: A step towards parenthood

In its first-ever television campaign, Cordlife urges would-be parents to preserve their new born baby's umbilical cord blood in a bid to save the child from 80 life-threatening diseases.

The birth of a child means the birth of a parent. Taking a cue from this insight, global cord blood preservation and testing facility Cordlife has launched its first television campaign in India targeted at expectant parents and couples planning to start a family. The campaign aims to raise awareness about the benefits of umbilical blood preservation through stem cell banking.

Executed by Rediffusion Y&R, the campaign titled, 'First step of responsibility' captures the emotions that a couple goes through when they are expecting, the changes they experience and the responsibility that they are preparing for. The decision to secure their child's health even before he/she is born is a crucial one. Cordlife India introduces them to a technology that reassures parents that their child's safety is insured.

Sanju Menon, branch head, Rediffusion Y&R, Kolkata says that the TVC aims at increasing awareness and grow the category as well as create a distinctive brand space for Cordlife. Apart from TV, the campaign is being promoted through print in focused magazines and a host of below the line activities.

Cordlife India started its operations towards the end of 2008. The facility stuck to controlled BTL activities during the initial years owing to the novelty of the concept and inadequate levels of acceptability. It reached out to expectant parents through doctors and hospitals and associated channels.

Meghnath Roy Chowdhury, managing director, Cordlife Sciences India, says that in 2014, a growth rate of approximately 200 per cent combined with the high level of awareness amongst people across the globe regarding stem cell banking was the prime reason behind launching a full-fledged campaign.

The ad, he says, targets all expectant mothers or married couples planning a family. The average age group currently lies between 25-34 years. "Cordlife offers structured flexi payment plans making it affordable for almost all sections of the society, the minimum EMI being Rs 900 a month for 60 months," reveals Chowdhury.

The Indian arm operates more than 60 centres across the country. It has state-of-the-art processing and storage facilities capable of storing 150,000 units of cord blood. It claims that more than 20,000 families have availed their services. Cordlife offers an array of plans based on the services. Expectant parents can enroll for services by paying Rs 5,000 as a fee. The pricing starts from Rs 55,000 for 21 years. It goes up to Rs 3,10, 000. All the plans that the company offers have an instalment facility.

Speaking about the marketing challenges in India, Chowdhury says that reaching out to prospective clients by creating a mass awareness and creating faith in the concept was the biggest challenge they faced while starting out.

Cordlife has a field force of over 300 trained representatives who visit prospective clients. The entire process from enrollment until the collection and cryopreservation is managed by the team. Cordlife has tied up with most of the large-scale - prominent as well as lesser-known - hospitals across the country .

The company is targeting all A and B grade towns including cities with less than 1 million population. So far, it has covered 65-70 cities till now and plans to touch 120 cities by the end of this financial year.

Cordlife is a multinational that operates network of stem cell banks in the Asia-Pacific region in countries like Hong Kong, the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore and India. In India, the other players operating in this space include Chennai based LifeCell International, Cryobanks and Stemcyte.