Moo Cards just work!
January 29, 2009 by Simon Berry · 1 Comment
Today my mobile buzzed announcing the arrival of a text . . . from Tanzania! It read:
Hi simon! i hope ur fine,
I am grace mdc from
kinondon area since u
come u r 2 quiet why?
nothing is going on
from grace mdc tanzania
Frontline SMS! That is Grace in the pictures. She owns and runs one the Coca-Cola MDCs (Manual Distribution Centres) in Dar Es Salaam. I had the pleasure of visiting and talking to Grace during my trip to Tanzania in November. I explained what I was doing and gave her a ColaLife Moo Card. She was delighted (but then so is everyone I give a Moo card to - they are just lovely).
Anyway she must have kept the card and today she made contact. I called Grace and she says she has access to email so we are going to continue communicating that way. I hope she’ll be able to get to an internet connection to watch the video I took at the Freeman MDC.
Moo are ColaLife supporters.
Tanzania trip - summary of progress
December 2, 2008 by Simon Berry · Leave a Comment
For those of you without the time to plough through all the material generated during the Tanzania trip, here’s a summary with some quick links:
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ColaLife Pods - what the frontline thinks A discussion about the ColaLife pods outside a Manual Cistribution Centre (MDC) in Dar Es Salaam. This includes a ‘must see’ video! . |
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Discussions with an international NGO with a long-term and significant presence in Tanzania Before we can move to piloting the ColaLife idea we need to identify a local NGO who can lead on the initiative. I met with PSI, Tanzania on my last day and they may consider taking up the idea although there is no formal agreement in place yet. |
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Summary of information gained by talking with people who run MDCs There was a consensus on the logistics of including ’social products’ within Coca-Cola crates. . |
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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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.
Another good day but not so visually exciting
November 28, 2008 by Simon Berry · 4 Comments
Here are the bullet points from today in order of execution:
- Set up a meeting with PSI Tanzania
- Got the bike out and re-visited Grace MDC
- Re-located Lilian MDC and Mwenge South MDCs
- Got caught in a tropical down pour
- Bumped into the Prime Minister when trying to get back up to my room with nobody noticing
- Dried off
- Got a taxi to PSI and met with Dr Jane Miller *significant highlight*
- Tried to set up an interview with NewsTalk Radio in Ireland
Here’s the detail.
Set-up and meeting with PSI
In discussions with Euan and Adrian (from Coca-Cola) following the meeting it became clear that an NGO which operated locally was needed to move to a pilot phase. I had tried to contact PSI Tanzania before coming here and although I got an encouraging email from their Washington office - the Tanzanian office hadn’t replied. And why would they? Simon who?
So today I set myself the task of getting face to face with someone senior at PSI to facilitate future e-communications. I am grateful to Dr Jane Miller for squeezing me in at the end of what was undoubtedly a busy week. We had a very positive and constructive meeting and I am certain that now we’ve met the e-communications will flow. I showed her the pods and the video.
There are still many unanswered questions and we are still a long way from a successful pilot of the ColaLife idea but I now feel that the key players have been identified and we will be able to work out the detail.
This meeting is the most significant achievement of the day I think.
Got the bike out and re-visited Grace MDC
During the field trips of the last few days I’ve had my GPS switched on and I’ve been marking the locations we’ve visited - I might put them on Google Earth when I get back - this enabled me to find them again without an escort.
I went back to the Grace MDC but the owner (Grace) wasn’t there. But I did have a good conversation with her stock controller. I did the things with the pods in the crates and tried to explain but he was totally against putting anything inside the crates that wasn’t bottles of Coca-Cola UNTIL I explained that such pods would come on the Coca-Cola lorry and the insertion of the pods would have the sanction of Coca-Cola. His attitude then changed completely and he was very positive and we got on to discussing the relative merits of the tube vs the wedge and, like everyone yesterday, he went for the wedge.
As our conversation came to end the Coca-Cola lorry arrived and I was on my way.
Re-located Lilian MDC and Mwenge South MDC
I relocated the Lilian MDC but they were busy unloading and it was not appropriate to interrupt so I set off to find Mwenge South MDC (which my GPS said was 8 kilometres away). I was hoping to find Patrick Emmanuel who I met yesterday. It was during this leg of the journey that the heavens opened. When I got there, soaked to the skin, they were also unloading and Patrick wasn’t there so I continued on to the hotel. This was a pity because a repeat of our conversation yesterday would have made a great video.
Bumped into the Prime Minister when trying to get back up to my room with nobody noticing
I got back to the hotel absolutely soaked. It was like a wet tee shirt competition with none of the eroticism. Anyway, there I am trying to sort myself out and planning a dignified dash from the entrance to the lift when a very nice, very tall, smartly dressed man leaned down and whispered “Prime Minister Sir” in my ear. So my dignified dash was thwarted and I stood there in the middle of reception (well out of the way of the Prime Minister) looking like a very conspicuous drowned rat.
When I got to my room I tidied myself up and got into a taxi to PSI (see above)
Tried to set up an interview with NewsTalk Radio in Ireland
When I got back to the hotel, following the PSI meeting, I prepared myself for a 5 minute interview the national radio talkshow in Ireland. However, despite several attempts we couldn’t get a good enough line so that’s been postponed until next week.
Then
Then I went up to the 8th floor of the hotel and sat down looking out over Dar Es Salaam harbour, ordered a beer and started to write this blog post.
Then Philip arrived. Philip is a Central Banker from Uganda who is about 6′8″ tall and about twice as wide as me! We shared what we’d been up to since we first met two days a ago and I showed him the video. He understood the Swahili. When the video finished he turned to me and said “I‘m moved, I’m moved”. Result!
Tomorrow
My flight leaves at 2:30pm so in the morning I’m going to try and find this MDC:
which, apparently, is somewhere in Dar Es Salaam, and get my photo taken in front of it.
Onwards and upwards.
ColaLife Pods - what the frontline thinks
November 27, 2008 by Simon Berry · 17 Comments
I have written so much about what has happened over the last two days but I have not quite finished or publshed anything yet (it will come). But the video below sums it all up. The context is as follows. Today I went out with Benito Xaverly, one of the Area Sales Manager for Dar Es Salaam. He’s a Business Administration graduate and until recently he worked for Pepsi. He had not heard of ColaLife before we got in the vehicle and started on our journey. We visited 7 of the 17 MDCs that he manages and I took the mock-up ColaLife Pods I made yesterday. Here they are in Coca-Cola crates. They fitted!
Here is the video. The first 1min 15secs is in Swahili as Benito explains the ColaLife idea to the people who work at the MDC. Then it breaks into English . . . . it’s very interesting what is said . . . .
Tomorrow I’m going to try and hook up with an NGO that operates locally that I think could help move this idea into a pilot phase: PSI Tanzania
ColaLife pods?
November 26, 2008 by Simon Berry · 5 Comments
Another great day with a bunch of really creative people but more on the meeting in the next blog post. When the meeting finished I was able to arrange to tag along with Adrian Ristow to see more MDCs tomorrow and then I spent the rest of the afternoon preparing for that. And the image is the result!
I’ve mocked up a couple of inserts based on Jess’s designs: 1) one (the cylinder) is a coke bottle replacement and 2) is a ‘toblerone wedge’ that should fit between the bottles. I want to see how the Coke distributors react when I put these in the crates. I’ll try and capture this reaction on video.
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.
Plans for Tanzania trip
November 22, 2008 by Simon Berry · Leave a Comment
Image credit: Rory McCann
I’m packing for the big trip! Here is an outline of my plans. The most important thing to note though is that I intend to load a daily report here starting on the evening of Tuesday, 24/11 (internet connection permitting - but I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to get one). Thanks again to the BBC for agreeing to contribute £100 to the costs of this.
I’ve set up Skype on my laptop so hopefully that will work. I’m sxberry. I’ll also be tweeting but only when I have an internet connection as i will not be able to afford the mobile phone charges. On twitter I am 51m0n.
The itinerary
23/11 - Monday - depart Heathrow 20:00 for Dar Es Salaam via Doha
24/11- Tuesday - arrive 13:35 - field trips organised by Coca-Cola
25/11 - Wednesday - all day meeting to discuss research findings (a rep from DfID will be there)
26-27/11 - Thursday & Friday - carrying out local research
28/11 - Saturday - depart Dar Es Salaam
29/11 - Sunday - arrive Heathrow
Background reading
Coca-Cola have suggested we have a look at these two documents on ‘Business Linkages’
Business Linkages: Lessons, Opportunities and Challenges (PDF)
International Finance Corporation (World Bank Group) and Harvard Kennedy School (Harvard University)
with support from Business Action For Africa & Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands
Supporting Entrepreneurship at the Base of the Pyramid through Business Linkages (PDF)
Report of a Roundtable Dialogue
June 10-12, 2008, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
International Finance Corporation (World Bank Group) and Harvard Kennedy School (Harvard University)
I hope I can do justice to all the support ColaLife has received to get this far. I’ll do my best!
BBC to cover Tanzania Trip
November 20, 2008 by Simon Berry · Leave a Comment
Jennifer Tracey of the BBC’s iPM team was in touch shortly after it was announced here that Coca-Cola had invited ColaLife to Tanzania. The BBC have been talking to Coca-Cola about the meeting and the possibility of covering it. I spoke with Chris Vallance last week who offered to send me a Flip Video so that I could submit video. Pity I’d just bought one for the very same purpose! Chris has offered to contribute up to £100 towards the cost of an internet connection so I should be able to send all the video that the BBC can cope with and will be able to blog regularly from the front line. Thank you BBC and especially the iPM Team!
What others are saying about ColaLife- ColaLife on Flickr
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