The collective and individual benefits of uniting around a global cooperative identity resonated with dozens of participants during a webinar hosted by NCBA CLUSA last week, organizers said.
“There was a sense that ‘We need to do this together,’” said Amy Bucaida, NCBA CLUSA consultant for Marketing, Sales & Event Planning.
Nicola Huckerby and Gareth Price of domains.coop led the webinar, explaining how adoption of the email and web address Top Level Domain “.coop” can spur business growth and raise awareness of the collective cooperative identity.
“Using the .coop identity is an effective and efficient way of promoting the cooperative difference,” Huckerby said. “It demonstrates to co-op members, customers and the broader public that an organization is proud to be a cooperative and is not hiding behind a .com, .org or .net.”
Webinar participants learned the basics of the .coop identity, and how that global identity builds cooperative loyalty, boosts marketing efforts and unites cooperatives across sectors and countries. Huckerby and Price also provided information on obtaining a .coop domain and appropriate use of the .coop logo.
Called the “global cooperative marque,” the logo features interlinked o’s that symbolize collaboration. This visual identity can be used with the slogan, “Cooperative enterprises build a better world.”
Sabra Schell, vice president for Marketing at E&I Cooperatives Services, a Jericho, New York-based sourcing cooperative that serves the educational community, said her company is interested in exploring potential adoption of the logo.
“As we seek to differentiate ourselves from our competitors, who are not cooperatives, we believe that member ownership and cooperative ideals can be important. It could be helpful to remind our members that they belong to a cooperative, and what that means,” Schell said after attending the webinar.
Another attendee, Terri Hendrix, Community Relations manager for the SC Telco Federal Credit Union in Greenville, South Carolina, said the webinar was informative. Hendrix said she plans to educate her supervisor on the many benefits of embracing the cooperative identity.
Launched in 2002 by Poptel, a small London-based cooperative, domains.coop is the original .coop registrar and the global identity for the cooperative movement, serving thousands of cooperatives worldwide.