Bayer’s customer-facing teams drive the future of healthcare with science

Bayer is a Business Reporter client.

The future of healthcare is about personalised self-care made accessible to all – and it starts by providing the highest level of customer service

The post-pandemic consumer health market has been impacted by significant changes. These are partially induced by short-term macro pressures around inflation, the global cost-of-living crisis and supply chain issues but also by longer-term trends around how consumers shop for healthcare, what they expect from brands and the increasingly relevant role of digital commerce in the future of the industry. Data and technology are driving business and consumer actions and changing precision interactions with consumers and stakeholders, both in terms of engagement channels and the personalised content delivered.

The Consumer Health division of Bayer is pursuing a customer-centric sales agenda to address these trends head-on and future-proof the organisation. “We hope to continue to win in our priority markets and want customers to support our science-based brands and equity,” highlights Christoph Bremen, Head of Global Customer Excellence at Bayer Consumer Health. “We’ve been on a journey to modernise our sales approach to serve customer needs across our key markets, categories and channels – embedding a customer-first mentality to help us become a partner of choice in the healthcare industry.”

To get there, the division is focusing on several key areas.

As competition intensifies, shopper behaviour evolves and customer demands change, simply creating and selling brand strategies is no longer enough to get support and buy-in. Customers want companies such as Bayer to develop tailored go-to market solutions that maximise shopper and retailer value, drive category growth and help them achieve their corporate objectives. Bayer has been stepping up its capabilities and execution in this area with the ambition to be one of the leading consumer health brands customers want to collaborate with, ensuring alignment with customer priorities. It aspires to be seen as a partner of choice for key customers in priority markets by creating best-in-class joint business opportunities that provide a win for Bayer, its customers, the category and consumer healthcare shoppers.

In an innovative move to modernise sales in markets with high customer fragmentation, Bayer is reshaping customer interactions with data-powered sales to cater to demands for a more efficient, personalised approach. To get there, Bayer is seamlessly integrating traditional sales representative engagement with cutting-edge digital and remote channels, orchestrating the interactions that guide customers through fluid and tailored journeys. This forward-looking approach encompasses organisational transformation, complete with the introduction of new capabilities and roles – so the company is actively cultivating an organisation that includes omnichannel managers and data scientists, laying the foundation for a dynamic future. At the same time, it is deploying state-of-the-art technologies that complement traditional CRM systems with omnichannel marketing automation tools and advanced analytics. Bayer’s commitment to personalisation extends to interactions with healthcare professionals. Its primary focus is to foster trust in the science behind its products by offering holistic and credible scientific solutions and supporting healthcare professionals in their quest to meet their patients’ needs by delivering timely, accurate information and scientific content. In a world where data-driven innovation meets human-centric engagement, Bayer is proud to be at the forefront of this transformative voyage to reimagine sales and customer relationships in a way that benefits us all.

With the rapid evolution of digital health over recent years, Bayer has fully embedded digital commerce in its business model. The company’s ambition to become one of the leading digital consumer health partners is anchored in expanding its digital commerce footprint across more than 50 markets worldwide, delivering growth and partnership with the most important digital customer platforms in the consumer health industry and accelerating its offering with a particular focus on its anchor businesses in nutritional and skin health. As digital health continues to evolve, Bayer sees an opportunity to further expand into social commerce and telemedicine as well as fully integrated health platforms.

Along with excellence in science and innovation, customer centricity has been a major driver of success for Bayer, and it is an essential pillar for creating growth in the healthcare category and beyond for the benefit of all.

By Beatrice I. Bourdel-Grant, Strategic Marketing Communication Director at Bayer

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