“We need a go-to-market strategy for our retail channel customers that allows us to leverage our wealth of consumer and shopper behavioral research to their advantage.” My client went on to further clarify the assignment, “We know more about when and why people drink soft beverages and how they shop for them than anyone else. We need to turn this knowledge into a competitive advantage.”
It was 1997 and my client was the world’s leading soft beverage company. It was mid-day Monday and I was asked to bring the first draft of the new strategy to a meeting on Wednesday. “How do I always seem to get into these seemingly impossible situations?” I asked myself. I distinctly remember praying from my car on the way back from the meeting, “Lord, if this is going to get done You are going to have to do it.” I told my wife, “If this is going to get done a miracle is going to happen up there” as I headed upstairs to my office over the garage.
I worked tirelessly conducting one-man brainstorm sessions, referencing my trustworthy sources like Philip Kotler for wisdom, and drafting several iterations of the new strategy. Piece by piece one idea led to another until I had cobbled together a strategy I called ‘occasion based marketing’. During the follow-up meeting on Wednesday afternoon, I explained, “it leverages your wealth of consumer knowledge about the consumption and purchase occasions in a way that allows your finely tuned sales system and team to present specific in-store marketing and merchandising solutions for your key retailers.” “I love it,” replied my client. “Now go back and work out the transitions, come up with a one sentence definition that everyone can understand, and be back here tomorrow afternoon. I have a meeting with senior management on Friday and I want to run this by them.”
Time for another miracle! I have always subscribed to the principle that simpler is better; “two pages, dirt simple” is one of my favorite sayings. Now I had to get down to “one sentence, dirt simple”.
On Thursday evening I presented, “Occasion Based Marketing connects when and why consumers drink beverages with how they shop for them in your store.” OBM, as it is now referenced, was trademarked and has effectively served as the retail channel go-to-market strategy for the premier brand and marketing company in the world since 1999. Over the years hundreds of retailers have benefited from this strategy and the partnerships it enabled.
Screen capture from the original presentation deck circa 1997.
