Contents

1.0

Introduction of Bayer Healthcare....................................................................................2

2.0 Analysis of the Environment................................................................................................4

2.1 SWOT Analysis................................................................................................................4
2.1.1 Strengths....................................................................................................................5
2.1.2 Weaknesses................................................................................................................6
2.1.3 Opportunity...............................................................................................................7
2.1.4 Threats.......................................................................................................................7
3.0 Objectives.............................................................................................................................8
4.0 Target Market.......................................................................................................................8
5.0 Marketing Strategy with Justification..................................................................................9
5.1 Product.............................................................................................................................9
5.2 Price..................................................................................................................................9
5.3 Place.................................................................................................................................9
5.4 Promotion.........................................................................................................................9
6.0 Marketing Mix...................................................................................................................10
6.1 Advertising.....................................................................................................................10
6.2 Direct Marketing............................................................................................................10
6.3 Press Release..................................................................................................................11
6.4 Sales Promotion..............................................................................................................11
6.5 Personal Selling..............................................................................................................11
7.0 Contingency Plan with Solutions.......................................................................................12
8.0 Conclusion..........................................................................................................................13
9.0 References..........................................................................................................................14

1.0 Introduction of Bayer Healthcare

Bayer Group owns more than 150 years of history. It was founded on August 1863 in Barmen
by Friedrich Bayer and Johann Friedrich Weskott. Bayer Healthcare is one of the worlds
leading pharmaceutical and medical product fields innovators. Bayer Healthcare belongs to
the subgroup of Bayer and it is mainly focus on four divisions, animal health, consumer care,
medical care and pharmaceuticals. (Bayer Healthcare, 2015)
Divisions of Bayer HealthCare (Bayer Healthcare, 2015)
Management

Based in

Animal Health

Dr. Dirk Ehle

Monheim, Germany

Pharmaceuticals

Dieter Weinand

Berlin, Germany

Consumer Care

Erica L. Mann

Whippany, New Jersey (USA)

Medical Care

Alan Main

Whippany, New Jersey (USA)

Bayer Healthcare currently having about 60,700 employees working worldwide. Bayer
Healthcare had a 19,975 Euro millions of sales for year 2014 with a 3581 Euro millions of
operating profit. Diagram below showed a rose of 7.5% of sales at year 2014. (Bayer
Healthcare, 2015)

Sales 2014 (Bayer Healthcare, 2015)

2013

2014

Change

 million

million

Fx(&p) adj %

Bayer HealthCare

18,924

19,975

5.6

7.5

- Division Consumer Care

3,904

4,245

8.7

5.3

- Division Medical Care

2,526

2,360

-6.6

-3.7

- Division Animal Health

1,306

1,318

0.9

4.0

- Division Pharmaceuticals

11.188

12.052

7,7

11,2

2.0 Analysis of the Environment

2.1 SWOT Analysis
Strengths :

Weaknesses :

1. Wide range of products

1. Adverse Reactions: Xarelto

2. Strong market position

2. Product recall

Opportunity :

Threats :

1. High potential drugs like Xarelto, Stivarga,

Eylea, Xofigo &Riociguat

1. Weak global economy and problems in

pharmaceutical industries can hamper growth

2. Joint ventures and acquisitions will increase

market presence

2. Bayer's revenue growth may be impacted

negatively by Regulatory controls on
pharmaceutical product prices

2.1.1 Strengths
Bayer Healthcare owns a wide range of products. The chart below showed the top 20 most
selling products in year 2014. As per the chart, Xarelto as the top selling item owns 1,679
Euro millions of sales per year. The wide range of the products manage to help the company
to gain most of the profits. (Bayer Healthcare, 2015)
Bayar Healthcare 10 best-selling products in 2014
Product

Division

Sales
million

Xarelto

Pharmaceuticals

1,679

Kogenate

Pharmaceuticals

1,109

Betaferon / Betaseron

Pharmaceuticals

819

Mirena - Produktfamilie

Pharmaceuticals

819

Nexavar

Pharmaceuticals

773

YAZ / Yasmin / Yasminelle

Pharmaceuticals

768

Eylea

Pharmaceuticals

759

Contour

Medical Care

658

Adalat

Pharmaceuticals

588

Advantage - Produktfamilie

Animal Health

495

Besides that, Bayer Healthcare also owns a very strong market position in the healthcare line.
Aspirin had become the trademark of Bayer by generating 766 Euro millions of sales in 2010.
(Strowel, 2011) Aspirin also helped Bayer to stand firm in the industry even when the patent
is over.

2.1.2 Weaknesses
Bayer is well-known in the industry and can be trusted most of the time yet theres still some
problematic products produced. Xarelto is one of the bestselling item of Bayer Healthcare in
the year 2014 which had helped Bayer to gain an almost 1,700 Euro millions of profits.
Xarelto is also known as rivaroxaban which is a type of anti-clotting medicine which mostly
used to help prevent stroke and serious blood clots. Xarelto owns a lot of benefits but at the
same time just like all the anti-clotting medicine, the major side-effect of Xarelto is bleeding
which could be life threatening. (NPS Medicinewise, 2015) The sad news is the amount of
cases reported regarding the side effects of Bayers Xarelto is still increasing and there were
968 cases reported at year 2013 which including 72 of them were deaths. (Staton, 2013) As
per now, Xarelto still do not come with a good antidote that is efficient in case of emergency.
Not only that, Bayer Healthcare also facing some products recalled issues over the years such
as the Medrad Continuum MR Infusion System (Continuum). It was a voluntary decision
by Bayer to recall that particular product in April 2014. (Radiology Solutions, 2014) The
recalls of product had definitely affected the reputation of the company.

2.1.3 Opportunity
Bayer Healthcare seem to be like having a lot of opportunities for its future. For example,
Bayer owned a lot of high potential drugs like Xarelto, Stivarga, Eylea, Xofigo and
Riociguat. All these high potential drugs will definitely be able to help Bayer to earn a
considerable profits for years.
Not only that, Bayer also will be able to increase its market presence by jointing ventures and
acquisitions. The collaboration between Bayer and Merck & Co., Inc. was one of the good
example. Bayer managed to receive up to 2.1 USD billions for that collaboration in order to
strengthen Bayers development in the cardiology business with global co-development.
(Bayer Healthcare, 2014)
2.1.4 Threats
The implementation of intellectual property rights had a strong impact towards the physical
investment and the research and development spending which will directly affects the raised
growth performance. The intellectual property rights is to promote investments in knowledge
creation and business innovation, whereby, in economic terms, a weak intellectual property
rights create a negative dynamic externality which failed to overcome the issue of uncertainty
in R&D and the risks they facing. (Maskus, 2000) The weak global economy has totally
affected Bayer Healthcares growth as well.
Another significant threat will be the regulatory controls on pharmaceutical product prices.
Bayers revenue growth might be negatively impacted by this regulatory controls. The
regulatory controls of product prices control the price at which medicines may be sold often
which is in a wide range of sectors. This changes involved not only the manufacturer and
final consumer of the new medicine but also some third parties like government and
wholesalers.
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3.0 Objectives
1. To achieve 30% of growth in revenue.
2. To become the top brand used in Malaysia.
3. To develop more high potential drugs.

4.0 Target Market

Bayer Healthcare will be targeting both men and women in all age groups as the company is
selling a wide range of products. Not only that, Bayer Healthcare also target high loyalty
status customer who generally purchase the exact same brand as they used before. Another
group of target market that Bayer is targeting will be the medium to high income customers
who can afford the price of their medicine.

5.0 Marketing Strategy with Justification

5.1 Product
Since Xaltero had earn such considerable profits for Bayer Healthcare. Bayer should continue
to improve the product by creating an efficient and fast antidote for the side effects of the
Xaltero which is serious bleeding. Malaysia has quite a high demand for anti-clogging
medicine as Malaysian are suffering from obesity that causes high blood pressure and heart
diseases. So it will be a potential product to sell in Malaysia.

5.2 Price
Bayer should set their price to be at least affordable for the middle income consumers
because most of the Malaysians are middle income consumers. They wouldnt be able to
afford high price medicine. Bayer should also consider about the exchange rate of currency as
well as the new implemented GST in Malaysia.

5.3 Place
Bayer should distribute their product all over Malaysia whether at the urban areas or the
outskirt areas to cover as much as customers they could. Bayer should make themselves
available at all the major pharmacies retail outlets in Malaysia such as, Watsons, Guardians
and Carings. Not only that, they should also sell their products at most of the private
pharmacies outlets.

5.4 Promotion
Bayer should consider to advertise in the related magazine or newspaper in various language
in considerate of Malaysia is a multi-races country. Not only that, Bayer can also set up booth
at hospital to create brand awareness and to catch patients attentions. Flyers can be given
around clinic and pharmacies too.

6.0 Marketing Mix

6.1 Advertising
Theres a lot of media that Bayer can consider to advertise in. Bayer can advertise themselves
at the major TV station such as, Astro, 8TV, NTV7 and TV3. Malaysians generally spend a
lot of times watching TV at home and TV can help to reach to all demographics of people.
Not only TV, radio stations are also another good media to advertise. The working adults
spent a lot of time to travel to work and back home everyday due to the hectic traffic in the
city area. Advertising at radio stations can easily catch their attentions too. Example of radio
station to advertise is Hitz FM, Fly FM, One Fm, My FM and Mix FM. These are a few of
more popular radio stations at Malaysia.
Besides the audio, Bayer can advertise at newspaper and magazine as well. It will definitely
be cheaper to advertise in newspaper and magazine. Most of the Malaysia citizen like to look
for special offer or promotion through newspaper and magazine. Bayer can have some
discount advertisement in order to catch their attentions.

6.2 Direct Marketing

Bayer can create some social media page such as, FaceBook, Twitter and Youtube to update
their new launching product to the public. Benefits of using all these social media is the
company can trace the feedback or the response of the customers and it is easy to share the
news to the public.

10

6.3 Press Release

Bayer can offer sponsorship to related events like healthcare day or sports event like SEA
Games. Not only that, Bayer can also offer scholarship program to those who intend to study
pharmacy at certain colleges. By doing sponsorship and scholarship can help to build a
positive reputation for the company.

6.4 Sales Promotion

Bayer can do some sales promotion by giving seasonal discount to their product. Not only
that, they can also come out with buy one free one for certain items to boost the sales.

6.5 Personal Selling

Bayer needs to have business with all other pharmacy retails outlet. Hence, well-trained
salesman is needed to go out and sell their product to the retails outlets.

11

7.0 Contingency Plan with Solutions

A contingency plan is an action plan that is designed to take a possible future event or
circumstances into account. (Business Dictionary, 2015) A contingency does not prevent the
accident to happen but to prevent a reckless decision made due to emergency.
Risk Event
Side effects of medicine
Contaminated product

Solutions
Create an anti-dote for all medicines
Make a product recalls and a total refund

8.0 Conclusion
In conclusion, it is important for Bayer to analyst the SWOT analysis of their company in
Malaysia and to discover their target market. By realizing their target market will help to

12

make a more efficiency marketing mix planning which will help to reduce the cost of
promoting their company. Next, a complete contingency plan will helps them to reduce the
reckless decisions made during emergency and to avoid more losses too.

13

9.0 References

Bayer Healthcare, 2014. Bayer closes acquisition of consumer care business of Merck & Co.,
Inc.,
United
States,
for
USD
14.2
billion.
[Online]
Available at: http://www.press.bayer.com/baynews/baynews.nsf/id/Bayer-closes-acquisitionconsumer-business-Merck-Co-Inc-United-States-USD-billion
[Accessed 10 July 2015].
Bayer Healthcare, 2015. BayerHealthCare: Science For A Better Life. [Online]
Available
at:
http://healthcare.bayer.com/scripts/pages/en/company/corporate_profile/index.php
[Accessed 10 July 2015].
Business
Dictionary,
2015.
Contigency
Plan.
[Online]
Available
at:
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/contingency-plan.html
[Accessed 10 July 2015].
Maskus, K. E., 2000. Intellectual Property Rights And Economic Development. Beyond the
Treaties: A Symposium on Compliance with International Intellectual Property Law, 1(1), pp.
1-32.
NPS
Medicinewise,
2015.
What
is
rivaroxaban
(Xarelto)?.
[Online]
Available at: http://www.nps.org.au/medicines/heart-blood-and-blood-vessels/anti-clottingmedicines/for-individuals/anticoagulant-medicines/for-individuals/activeingredients/rivaroxaban/for-individuals/what-it-is
[Accessed 10 July 2015].
Radiology Solutions, 2014. The Medrad Continuum MR Infusion System (Continuum) is
no
longer
available
for
purchase.
[Online]
Available
at:
https://www.radiologysolutions.bayer.com/products/mr/mraccessories/continuum/
[Accessed 10 July 2015].
Staton, T., 2013. Bayer's Xarelto faces stepped-up reports of side effects, deaths, German:
Fierce Pharma.
Strowel, A., 2011. Bayer's Aspirin. A Lasting Success Without Patent and Strong Trademark
Protection, 1(1), p. 1.
The Malaysian Insider, 2013. Budget 2014 announced, 6% GST from April 1, 2015, Kuala
Lumpur: Edge Insider Sdn Bhd..

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