Welcome back. Let's discuss the solution that a channel strategist would propose for this important world health problem. On this point, there's a lot of research in psychology that indicates that it's not always good to give things away for free. Even paying a very low price can make a good, more valued and appreciated. So, the distribution channel must deliver small amounts of product, differentiated by locale and need, and deliver it to remote rural communities, so that local health leaders can use them to prevent child mortality from dehydration. Thus, achieve intensive distribution of bulk-broken product, variety specific to the locale, to normally inaccessible locations. This is the channel strategist's task. Historically, these rehydration salts were delivered to community health centers to make one liter portions. That's fine if you have five kids lined up to use it. But you have to destroy whatever is unused because of the likelihood of contamination in the future. So most mothers and caregivers really need only a very small quantity for one kid. Now, how to do this. Well, Simon Berry was not a channel strategist. However, he did notice that even in the remote locations of Africa, he could always purchase this, a Coca Cola. And he wondered, if an organization can put a coke in the hand of each of these end users, then why couldn't oral rehydration salts also be put into those same hands? How did coke get to those remote customers, anyway? Well, it was done through distributors and sales people just like these. So then, going back to the first question that you completed, can I use an existing distribution channel to transport the rehydration salts? Well, it turns out that 80% of Coke is distributed in crates just like this. So Simon Berry's idea was to distribute the rehydration salts in the interstitial spaces between these bottles, and this is how his organization came to be called ColaLife. ColaLife customized the package that was designed to take advantage of the empty space in the crate. Let's look at a brief video of how this packaging works. >> This short animation shows how the aid pod works. It uses the unused space between the necks of the bottles and a crate. It has shoulders, which clip underneath the tops of the bottles to stop it popping out in transit. Those shoulders also give it some longitudinal strength. This one is designed to fit width-ways in a crate, and you could get up to five in each crate. Although you wouldn't have to have up to five, you could have less than five. When it gets to the other end, the aid pod comes out, the top comes off and the social products are taken out. Another design feature is that the depth of the lid is the same as the length of the collar which fits on to, which means that crushing lengthwise is resisted. >> In 2012, the year of its introduction, this packaging was a triple finalist in the UK Packaging Awards. Winning in the categories of Best Innovation, Best New Concept, and Best CSR or corporate social responsibility initiative. Now it's important to note that throughout Sub-Saharan Africa, all the organizations already exist to make this distribution channel work. All the policymakers, the regulators, manufacturers, nurses, community health workers, etc. So there's really no point in trying to duplicate the system. It's a lot more effective to use the system, already in place. And this simple idea of using the interstitial spaces behind the coke bottles is what I like to refer to as finding explosive value. And this should be the gold standard of all channel strategies. The concept of explosive value is like finding money on the street. In other words, ask the question of whether there exists slack capacity or unused resources with an opportunity of $0 that I can exploit. Now, Simon Berry saw that coke had all this free excess capacity. So, why not use it to save children's lives, decrease the mortality rate, and solve a world health problem that has persisted for decades. So, they approached Coke.
