Improving Sales Force Effectiveness: Bayer's Experiment with New Technology

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"Bayer and Concentric Rx [...] sought to create a game that would be educational, motivational, and entertaining for Bayer's relatively young field force, comprised of reps from the video game/Internet generation."¹

- Sara Donnelly, Associate Editor, Pharmaceutical Executive², in 2008.

"We wanted to make it [Rep Race] fun but at the same time communicate the marketing challenges and goals of the team... You have feedback mechanisms already built into the game and you can start to add quantitative measurements. We can link the rep's performance on the gaming platform with their performance in the field. We know we've done better in message recall and message retention since this program has been out there."³

- Ken Begasse, Jr., COO, Concentric Healthcare Advertising⁴, who developed a simulation game called Rep Race for Bayer, in 2008.

Game for Sales Force Effectiveness? In 2007, Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals Inc (Bayer HealthCare), the American unit of the Germany-based Bayer AG, reported a significant growth in the sales of Betaseron, its drug for the treatment of Multiple Sclerosis5 (MS), analysts attributed the growth largely to a new communication campaign for the brand targeting the doctors that was implemented by the company's sales force. And what was noteworthy was that the sales force had been trained through an online video game sales tool.

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1] Sara Donnelly, "Staying in the Game," www.pharmaexec.com, May 1, 2008.
2] Pharmaceutical Executive is a premier magazine dedicated to the pharmaceutical industry.
3] Chase, James "Got Game?" Medical Marketing and Media. FindArticles.com. 09 Sep. 2008. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa5351/is_200801/ai_n24393951
4] Concentric Healthcare Advertising is a New York-based full service advertising agency catering to the healthcare industry. It was founded in 2001, and in 2007, its revenues were US$9.5 million.
5] Multiple sclerosis is an incurable disorder in which the immune system (collection of mechanisms within our body that protect us from disease by identifying and destroying germs and tumor cells) attacks the central nervous system leading to damage of nerve cells. This often leads to disability over a period of time.

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