Communicating Your Value
Phil Kenkel
Bill Fitzwater Cooperative Chair
The original cooperative principles include “A Duty to Educate”. However, member
communication is a weak point in many cooperatives. Communicating the value of the cooperative
is a particularly difficult challenge. Communicating value is not just delivering a standard message.
It’s involves identifying what each member perceives as valuable. In communicating value, it’s not
just what is said, but how it is said that makes the difference. There are several tools to enhancing
your member communication efforts.
The first tool is to make it personal. Cooperative members, like everyone else in our society, are
flooded with information. Because of this overload of communication it is helpful to segment your
communications. Cooperative members are different. They are farming at different scales, use
different services and product, are located in different parts of your trade territory and are at
different stages of life. Organizing your newsletter with sections for customer groups such as
“grain markets”, “agronomy” or “petroleum” or with periodic reports on branch locations can make
them more appealing. Some cooperatives take it to the next level by targeting specialized email or
print information to sub-sets of members based on their characteristics or patronage patterns.
The second tool is to be informative. Most newsletters do a good job of describing changes in
cooperative operation or infrastructure. Your communications should also provide information what
is happening in the industry in which the cooperative operates. Giving members the big picture
view on market demands for grain quality, fertilizer price volatility or OSHA regulations can help
them appreciate the cooperative’s efforts to position to continue to meet member needs. The more
that members can see through the cooperative to the market forces, economic trends and political
landscape that shape your business environment, the better they appreciate the cooperative’s
strategies and investments.
A final tool is to promote the cooperative difference. Newsletters can provide a profile of a board
member, highlight the board member nomination committee or simply encourage input and
suggestions. All of these efforts remind members of their unique ownership role. Reminding
members of your patronage and equity retirement payments over the last ten years can help
highlight the financial difference of cooperative membership. You can also remind members of
cooperative’s role in fostering competition and supporting rural America. As part of their response
to the attack on Capper Volstead the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives has developed some
excellent talking points on the cooperative advantage. You can find them on their web page. Next
month is Cooperative Month so it is also a good time to check out the Cooperative Month Toolkit at
www.coopmonth.coop
9-2-2010