Domains.coop launched a toolkit last week meant to encourage more organizations to complete their cooperative identity by adopting the email and web address Top Level Domain “.coop” and the cooperative logo, or “marque.”
The toolkit includes a downloadable poster, a video message from Dame Pauline Green, president of the International Co-operative Alliance, video tutorials, message points for newsletters and websites, a “.coop Toolkit” clickable button, and banner ads available in English, French and Spanish—all designed for use in member communications.
The poster, “Seven reasons to adopt the global cooperative identity” was designed by Calverts, a worker co-op based in the United Kingdom that previously developed the cooperative marque.
In her video message, Green calls identity a “crucial” part of the Blueprint for a Cooperative Decade. The Blueprint envisions that by 2020, cooperatives will be the acknowledged economic leader, the preferred business model and the fastest-growing enterprise worldwide. As the visibility of the cooperative model grows, so will the public’s awareness of the movement, allowing consumers to make informed decisions about products and services.
“There are other marques—recycling marques or fair-trade marques—which we know are actively sought out by consumers looking to understand the ethics behind their choices,” Green said.
“We believe the cooperative mark can be such a mark,” she added. “It should demonstrate to the world that where you see the co-op marque that you are a part of that trusted cooperative family of businesses.”
So far, more than 650 co-ops in 70 countries worldwide have adopted the marque, while more than 6,000 businesses in 74 countries have registered for the .coop domain.
Nicola Huckerby, director of Marketing for Domains.coop, said greater visibility will come as more co-ops embrace the global cooperative identity.
“Working together, we will achieve our aim for the cooperative identity to become one of the best-known ethical marques in the world by 2020, with users in 100 countries,” Huckerby said.
“The new toolkit is key to achieving this,” she added.
It’s also a way to demonstrate cooperative pride, Huckerby and Green said.
“Why hide behind a .com or a .org or a .biz? Be proud to be a cooperative,” Green said. “Let’s show the world the size, the strength and the cohesion of the cooperative model of business.”
—Click here to apply to use the cooperative marque.
—Download the toolkit today.