Pharmaceutical giant Schering (South Africa) has replaced its physical product brochures with interactive electronic catalogues designed in conjunction with multimedia specialist Graphic Image Technologies (GIT). Schering South Africa is one of 140 Schering subsidiaries world-wide, part of the parent company`s international research and development chain. Group product manager, Adelia Schultz, says the catalogues cover the company`s three core divisions: fertility control and hormone therapy, dermatology and diagnostics. A fourth catalogue was also developed for Schering`s Multiple Sclerosis treatment, Betaferon.
"We`d previously used sales presenters or catalogues for all our product sales," says Schultz. "These proved extremely expensive to produce quarter-on-quarter, as new products and updated campaigns made older catalogues redundant."
Schultz says she first considered an electronic catalogue following a GIT demonstration on the advantages of multimedia catalogues in sales. "Our aim was at first to differentiate ourselves from our competition, and second to offer our sales consultants and doctors an innovative way of having all the information they need at hand," she adds. "With a complete sales catalogue on CD, our consultants could satisfy doctors` needs immediately, answer specific questions and explain complex product ideas through graphic representations, animations and video."
Schering targeted its sales presenters at:
. contraceptives and hormone replacement therapy - gynaecologists, family planning clinics, general practitioners and pharmacists;
. dermatology products - dermatologists, gynaecologists, general practitioners and pharmacists; and
. diagnostics - radiologists and cardiologists.
"With all the relevant product information on one CD (per division), our consultants could vary their strategies depending on which target group they were visiting," says Schultz. "Once new product material is made available, they can automatically update their catalogues - loaded onto their portable computers - from re-mastered CDs without losing any information they`d previously installed. They have also been supplied with colour portable printers, which allows them to print hard copies for doctors when needed."
"The project was launched in June 1997 and has been remarkably successful to date," she continues. "It`s still too early to gauge the overall market acceptance of the new electronic format, but the proficiency of GIT`s design team and presentation skills are there for all to see."
Schultz says that multimedia will prove itself as the long-term option for companies still using paper-based sales collateral.
"The only reservation at this stage is short-term cost and market acceptability - and in our industry the reception of doctors to new technology," she concludes. "I`m nonetheless confident that GIT has already done much of the groundwork in establishing multimedia as the presentation and sales medium of choice for just about any application."
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