ColaLife, MDCs and Coca-Cola’s Manual Distribution System
August 15, 2009 by Simon Berry · 1 Comment
This is an assessment of where we have got to in our relationship with Coca-Cola, our understanding of the different mechanisms by which Coca-Cola is distributed in developing countries and the implications for the roll-out of the ColaLife idea. Although the progress we have made is significant, it is evident that we still have a very long way to go.
A summary of progress
When the campaign was re-started on 6 May 2008 with this blog post, our aspiration was simply to get in front of Coca-Cola to talk to them about the ColaLife idea and this is reflected in the name given to the Facebook Group we created at the time to convene people around the idea ‘Let’s talk to Coca Cola about saving the World’s children‘. Remarkably, we achieved this aim within 6 weeks when I was invited by Salvatore Gabola, the then Head of Global Stakeholder Relations, to a meeting in Brussels. Salvatore advised that if the ColaLife idea was going to get any traction within Coca-Cola, we would need to link it to an existing Coca-Cola commitment. That commitment was Coca-Cola’s pledge under the Business Call to Action to expand its Manual Distribution System in a way that maximises its impact of poverty reduction in Africa. This was described by Neville Isdell the then Chairman and CEO of Coca-Cola in this video clip. Note that there is absolutely no mention of social product distribution at this point.
Find more videos like this on Business Fights Poverty
Contrast this with the interview given to the BBC and broadcast on their iPM programme on 25/4/09 - just a year after the campaign started:
Here there is a clear commitment, form Coca-Cola’s Euan Wilmshurst, to look at how Coca-Cola can use their expertise in distribution to get medicines and other ’social products’ to the people who need them.
While all this campaigning has been going on, ColaLife has also been working hard to get Coca-Cola an appropriate global NGO partner to make this happen and get field work underway in Tanzania. The partnership with AED was announced here on 4/8/09.
So far so good. But let’s not get too carried away. There’s a lot of wriggle room in what Coca-Cola have committed to and their Manual Distribution System will not meet all the aspirations of the ColaLife campaign.
Current issues and priorities
The ColaLife idea comes from putting these two facts together:
- You can buy Coca-Cola virtually anywhere you go in the world, including the most remote areas of developing countries
- In these same areas 1 in 5 children die before their fifth birthday through simple causes like dehydration from diarrhoea due to the lack of simple medicines and other ’social products’
The issue is, that although Coca-Cola’s Manual Distribution System gets Coca-Cola to some of the most densely populated and deprived areas of Africa, it is not the system that gets to the most remote areas. So to fully succeed, ColaLife will have to work beyond Coca-Cola’s, urban, manual distribution system.
Issue 1: We need to understand better how Coca-Cola’s non-manual distribution systems work
Coca-Cola’s Manual Distribution System works through a network of Manual Distribution Centres (MDCs). These MDCs are in densely populated areas and have fairly small territories of a couple a square kilometres. Each MDC receives a full lorry load of Coca-Cola direct from the bottler every week or so. In MDC areas it is envisaged that the ’social products’ would be introduced into the Coca-Cola distribution system at the bottling plant (see: FAQs) in boxes that would be carried in the cab of the lorry and that these would be dropped off, with the crates on Coca-Cola, at the MDC. It would be at the MDC that the ‘aidpods’ would be introduced into the crates. However, if the destination for the Coca-Cola is an MDC in a densely populated area, onward distribution of the ’social products’ may not be necessary given that no-one within the catchment of an MDC is very far away from it. So, in the MDC system, the MDC may be the best ‘offload point’ for the ’social products’ rather than the retail outlets they serve. Members of the public may come to the MDC to access the ’social products’ or the ’social products’ may be collected by a qualified community health worker and dispensed to the local population through a community health programme. In this scenario, ‘aidpods’ would not be a necessary part of the system.
Issue 2: We need to broaden our work with Coca-Cola and their partners to include their non-manual distribution systems
Issue 3: We need to encourage Coca-Cola to broaden their current focus on MDCs and look at how they could use their non-manual distribution networks for good.
Issue 4: We urgently need to prototype aidpod designs to test different materials and processes for introducing them, offloading them and, if necessary, returning them through the non-manual distribution system.
So, we’ve achieved a lot but there is still a lot to do.
ColaLife gets mention in HARVARD report
May 17, 2009 by Simon Berry · 3 Comments
Last week the HARVARD Kennedy School and the IFC published their report into the research into Coca-Cola’s Manual Distribution System undertaken in East Africa in the summer of 2008. We reported on this here. The report can be downloaded here: harvard-ifc-mdc-summary-report-final (PDF, 2.3 MB).
The good news is that ColaLife is mentioned:
In November 2008, once the study’s initial findings were available, Coca-Cola convened a multi-stakeholder dialogue in Tanzania to seek input on the fi ndings. The session was attended by development practitioners from the NGO, government and international agency community to debate and explore some of the research recommendations in more detail. Co-facilitated by Business Action for Africa and the International Business Leaders Forum, the dialogue included a wide range of participants including local, regional and international representatives from organizations such as Save the Children, Population Services International, Enablis, CARE International, Colalife, the U.K.’s Department for International Development, the United States Agency for International Development, SNV Netherlands Development Corporation and UNICEF.
And so does the distribution of social products:
In these two countries and others where the MDC model is being implemented, there is potential to leverage this network of thousands of small enterprises that are located in low-income communities to achieve broader development goals, such as the distribution of social products or support for social marketing. This broader effort cannot and should not be the responsibility of the company alone. Nor must it undermine the core commercial viability of these small enterprises. Failure to maintain profi tability would clearly undermine the business model and thereby jeopardize the long-term contribution it can make to development. Yet, by working in partnership with other companies, donors, government bodies or development experts there is potential for the network of MDCs to be leveraged in a targeted way to address other development needs.
This is a huge achievement given that this was the starting point . . . . when there was no mention of social products at all:
Find more videos like this on Business Fights Poverty
Simply brilliant!
Summary of information gained from visits to MDCs on 27/11/08 and 28/11/08
November 30, 2008 by Simon Berry · Leave a Comment
On 27/11/08 I was lucky enough to be able to accompany Benito Xaverly, one of Coca-Cola Kwanza’s Area Sales Managers as he visited 7 of the 17 MDCs he looks after. The main purpose of the visits was to agree the month’s sales targets and discuss any issues the MDCs may have.
However, I took along the ‘ColaLife Pods’, the tube and the wedge, to test reactions to the overall concept of putting ‘social products’ into Coca-Cola crates and get opinions on the different ways of doing it.
Here’s a summary of what we found. There is an insightful video of the conversation at Freeman MDC here. Click on the images to see them in more detail on Flickr.
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1 Mwenge South |
2 Freeman |
3 Kisimi* |
| On the tube “Ah, no.” “But what happens to the [spare] bottle?” |
On the tube “People would think we are reducing their profit margin” . |
No discussion (lorry waiting to be unloaded) . . |
| On the wedge “That is beautiful . . . colalife.” “We would find space” [to store the wedges for insertion at the MDC] |
On the wedge “We would find space” [to store the wedges for insertion at the MDC] . |
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| Other Please see the video of the conversation here. “It would need to be waterproof” “It’s a good idea” “Coca-Cola is distributed aggressively and gets everywhere but medicines don’t” “It’s social responsibility” “It would be good we would be doing something to help with people’s health” |
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| – | – | – |
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4 DD Shop |
5 Asma* |
6 Grace* |
| On the tube “But now there are only 23″ [bottles - disapproval] . . . . . |
Discussion in 100% Swahili and a truck was being unloaded while we were there. Again the wedge was the preferred option with insertion of the wedge at the MDC the suggestion. I have a poor quality video of the conversation. . . |
On the tube “Ah, no!” . . . . . |
| On the wedge “I have the space [to store the wedges] just give me the instructions” |
On the wedge “It’s a good idea” . . |
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| Other “Is it free?” . . |
Other Insertion of the wedges at the MDC was thought to be best. See text below also. |
* owned by women
Everyone at the MDCs thought that the wedges were the best solution and everyone thought they should be put in at the MDC (not at the bottling plant). Although space at all of the MDCs seemed to be at a premium, everyone said that they would find space to store the wedges.
Payment for insertion of the wedges was not talked about at MDCs 1 to 5 but MDCs would incur costs in doing this (eg storage, handling and insertion) and a payment would seem to be justified. I did discuss the possibility of payment at the Grace MDC (MDC 6 above) and that was greeted with enthusiasm: “When would we get paid? The same day?”. I said that I thought that payment would come when there was proof of delivery to the outlets.
When I went to Grace MDC I was unaccompanied and made it clear that I did not work for Coca-Cola but was there at Coca-Cola’s invitation. This made the conversation much more cautious and the initial reaction to the idea was totally negative. “It’s a bad idea. The only thing that should go in the crates is Coca-Cola”. However, when I explained that this would be done with the sanction of Coca-Cola (or not at all) and that the wedges would arrive on the Coca-Cola lorry the attitude changed completely. “No, this is a good idea”. So although the wedges would not be branded ‘Coca-Cola’ it would appear that the sanction of Coca-Cola is absolutely essential.
Other background information
- Benito looks after 17 MDCs
- Six of these are owned by women
- Mwenge South (which was tiny and had crates filled high everywhere) was shifting 230 crates a day.
- Generally speaking an MDC takes a whole truck load of crates. I a minority of deliveries is the delivery shared between two or more MDCs.
- Truck capacities are: 390, 520, 780 or 910 crates.
- All the deliveries I saw were in the full-depth crates although I did see ‘Ian Bishop’ crates in the MDCs
Thanks to Coca-Cola Kwanza for allowing me to accompany Benito and to Benito for being such great company.
The dimensions of a Coca-Cola crate
November 29, 2008 by Simon Berry · Leave a Comment
Here’s all the detail you will ever need! To read the numbers, click on the image to open it full size on Flickr.
This is the crate. it takes 24, 350ml bottles and 80% of the Coca-Cola produced in Tanzania goes out in these bottles/crates.
There are lots more photos of crates here.
Tanzania Diary - Day 1 - 25/11/08
November 25, 2008 by Simon Berry · 2 Comments
Children at Rene MDC, Dar Es Salaam >>more photos
Well, where do I start? I’ve learnt so much in such a short time. Here is a brief run-down of the day. It’s a bit ‘notey’ but I need to get some sleeeep!
The programme for the day was an introductory talk which I missed as I was still in the sky. Followed by a visit to the Kwanza Bottling Plant and three Manual Distribution Centres (MDCs). The ones we visited were run by women.
There are about 20 people here and they are all going to be great contacts for taking ColaLife forward. I think the best way forward is to try and engage some of these people, including people from Coca-Cola, in co-developing a business plan to trial. Otherwise we are going to have to put up something ourselves which there will be no commitment to and will be shot down. Anyway, that’s the tactic I’m going to try.
Key learning points:
- I’m getting challenged by some of the ‘development professionals’ here but I was expecting that. But I think I’m responding OK but I’m not sure they are listening!
- The Moo cards are BRILLIANT at getting people’s attention
- 350 ml glass bottles account for 80% of sales - I’ll get some measurements before I leave
- There are two sorts of crates that these go into:
- A full height crate that is deeper that the bottles and is load-bearing
- A ‘Ian Bishop’ crate which the bottles stick out of the top of (these are being phased out - which is good as it would be more difficult to carry stuff in these)
- See the photos
- The Manual Distribution Centres (MDCs) - we were taken to ones run by women - take a lorry load of crates at a time (ie the lorry doesn’t go on a circuit it leaves the bottling plant and goes to one MDC which takes the whole load (helpful when thinking at which point the ColaLife Pods could be inserted)
Tomorrow is the main meeting so I’ll report back on that and hjopefully provide more photos for you to see.
Sorry, but the Flickr photos are still uploading - I’ll put the link into these tomorrow.
Calling all innovative designers
September 6, 2008 by Simon Berry · 5 Comments
Let’s project ourselves 12 weeks into the future and imagine that by then Coca-Cola will have committed to undertake trials of our idea in east Africa.
And let’s imagine all the answers we will have to come up with. Like “How are we going to incorporate non-Coke items in Coca-Cola crates?”
Questions like this spark other questions like “What are the dimensions of the Coca-Cola crates and bottles used in east Africa?” and so on.
Can anyone with thoughts, answers or more questions please post them here by commenting? Click here and scroll down.
There are now nearly 5,500 members of the Facebook Group from all over the World; there are employees of Coca-Cola looking at this website along with people from the frontline in Africa, Asia and South America and some of the best design brains in the business . . . . The genius is in the network! Let’s see what we can come up with. Your contributions please!
One reason why WaterAid are reluctant to engage
July 9, 2008 by Simon Berry · 1 Comment
There has been a lot of activity going on behind the scenes recently in our efforts to get an international NGO to engage with the Coca-Cola Campaign. As I have indicated on the Facebook Group this is going to be a challenge.
The biggest leap forward came yesterday from an extremely helpful person in DfID who highlighted a WaterAid Report that was published on Monday (7/7/08) to coincide with the G8 Summit.
Above is a scan of page 6 of the report. As you can see, Oral Rehydration Salts (ORS) are the highest cost intervention when it comes to extending children’s lives BUT hygiene and sanitation promotion are at the top. We have always said, and I have said it in all of the interviews I have given, that education and awareness raising are just as important in this campaign as anything else. Now we have the data to show that.
LESSONS LEARNT: We need to be far more careful in our approach to NGOs. The two-sentence description of what we are doing is not enough. We need to spell out that we are not just about distributing ORS, we are about raising awareness of hygiene and sanitation issues as well. And ORS through Coca-Cola crates is potentailly a very effective way of doing this.
In my interview with Eddie Mair, I said (and I paraphrase) “It’s not as if people in the remote parts of Africa are crying out for rehydration salts. Many would not know what they are or how to use them. But ORS salts arriving in Coca-Cola crates would generate questions. ‘That’s not Coke? What is it?’”.
For this reason we have said that the ORS needs to be _inside_ the crates and they need to carry messages. They should be the UK equivalent of the plastic toy in the cereal packet. In addition, Coca-Cola agreeing to do this in a particular locality, may just be the stimulus that the local institutions need to form the foundation of a local campaign.
Right. WaterAid. Here I come again . . .
What others are saying about ColaLife- ColaLife on Flickr
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