Messaging 101What it is for startups. How we can do it effectively.

Currently providing support

and resources for

140communities nationwide

Sitka, AK

Boston, MA

we’ve helped open

79food coops

• We exist to support startup food co-ops at all stages of development• Call us any time at 844-324-2667 or e-mail us at info@fci.coop

• Sign up for our mailing list and take a look at our extensive resources

at www.foodcoopinitiative.coop

• Our support and resources are free.

Thank you to our sponsors:

and dozens of mature food co-ops all over the U.S.

Thank you to them for making our work

supporting you, the future food co-ops

of our country, possible.

BRAND IDENTITYWho the org is, what it does, what niche it fills. Who the org is, what it does, what need it meets.

MARKETING TELLING OUR STORY

The creating of MARKETS to sell a product. What

a company actively does to create those markets

for their product and sell more of the product.

What we actively DO to TELL OUR STORY of what

our co-op provides, build connection to the co-op

identity, and attract new people to the co-op.

Forms this

can take:

• Sampling, giveaways

• Social media

• Classes

• Events

• Ads

• Media attention

• Branded product

• Logo, tag line

• Tabling signage

• Sponsoring events

• Yard Signs

• Business partnerships

Forms this

can take:

• Sales, sales flyers

• Sampling, giveaways

• Social media

• Classes

• Events

• Ads

• Branded product

• Loyalty programs

• Signage

• Sponsoring events

• Donations

But WHY? And isn’t

it still marketing

and EVIL and

un-co-op?!

CORP

BRAND IDENTITYWhich uses the tool of MARKETING to create

demand for what it sells

Which uses STORYTELLING to

MARKETING TELLING the STORY

Marketing = to create markets. To SELL the product

and make PROFIT for owners.

Meet the needs of its owners and community, to

meet their ENDS, and to serve more people so it

can grow those ENDS

We use a whole

lot of the same

tools, but to

accomplish very

different ENDS

CORP

One of the tools for

TELLING the STORY is:

MESSAGING!Which has three parts:

STAKEHOLDERS(Target Audiences)

CORE MESSAGES VEHICLES

MESSAGINGCORE MESSAGES

no more than 3-4 core messages Top Message

ENDS/

MISSION• Vibrant,

Inclusive

Community

• Educational

Resource

• Cooperative

Movement

• Robust Food

Shed

OWNERSHIP• Become an

owner

• More owners =

closer to store

• Locally owned

• You own it

• Transparency

• Democracy

• Elections

• Board

Representation

BUILDING a

STORE• Development

Stages

• Architects,

Design

• Site

• Owner Loans

• Banks, Grants

• Hiring Staff

• Construction

GROCERY

STORE• Grocery store,

grocery store,

grocery store

• Product

standards

• What you’re

store will offer

• Jobs

• The real deal – a

serious business

It’s truly not possible

to share this

message enough!

Are you building a

farmers market? A

CDS? Is some sort of

food bank?

What is

YOURS right

NOW?

• Is owner loan

going on right

now?

• Is it the timeline?

• Getting our first

200 owners =

market study?

WHAT are the most important things to communicate?

OWNERS FARMERS and

VENDORS

COMMUNITY

PARTNERS

VOLUNTEERS INVESTORS

and

OFFICIALS

POTENTIAL

OWNERS

MESSAGINGSTAKEHOLDERS

• Farmers you already

work with

• Farmers/producers

you hope to work

with some day

• Farmers/producers

not yet in business

but considering it

• Local businesses

that have already

partnered with your

co-op

• Local businesses

that might

• Non-profits

• Schools

• Local press

WHO are you talking to?

• Local banks

• Cooperative lenders

• City officials

• County officials

• State

representatives

• Health dept

• Dedicated, regular

volunteers

• Committee

members

• Very occasional

volunteers

• Potential volunteers

• EVERYONE IN YOUR

COMMUNITY!

• Especially those in

the next tier of

owners you are

working on

connecting with

(early adopters,

early majority, late

majority, etc)

• Early, “founding”,

“seed” owners

• Long time owners

• Brand new owners

MESSAGINGVEHICLES

• Newsletter

• Social Media

• Co-op Events

• Tabling Display

• Presentations

• Pamphlets

• Owner e-mails

• Website

• Giveaways

• Sponsoring Events

• Volunteer Appearance

• Store Location

• Tabling (where, who)

• Potential owner

interactions

• Classes

• Press coverage/releases

• Branded product/swag

• Donations

• Partnerships w/local orgs

• Signage

• Local business

partnership benefits

WHERE can you communicate those messages to your stakeholders?

Core Messages:• The real deal – volunteer wearing

co-op t-shirt, showing who they

represent and that they are ready to

answer questions

• Building a store – drawing of the

store layout shows they have a site,

what the are asking you to be a part

of

• Mission – we’re about local, we’re

tabling in a beloved locally owned

business and they believe in the co-

op enough to invite us into their

business.

The overall message is one of

approachability and solidity – this is

really going to happen! Look how well

branded! Everything fits together and

looks like we have our act together.

Possible missed opportunity:

• No images of produce, actual

food/grocery stores to telegraph

what they are about from a

distance

Stakeholders:• Potential Owners – core audience

for this messaging event!

• Owners – timeline shows them

where we’re at in process

• Officials (landlord) – see the

picture of where with the

development project labelled? Well

done!

• Community – being held in a local

business!

Not communicating to:

• Farmers/vendors – and that’s okay.

Remember, not every messaging

opportunity needs to be

communicating to all stakeholders

at once

Vehicles:• Co-op branded “swag”– volunteer

is wearing a co-op shirt (can they

get one? How?)

• Takehome “swag” – temporary

tattoos to hand out to kids (or

grown ups!) with the co-op logo

• Posters – great informational

posters communicate what the

store will offer and why the project

matters

• Handouts – something interested

parties can take home to learn

more and know how to get in touch.

The handout leads them to more

messaging vehicles – the website

and facebook page!

• Volunteer Appearance –

approachability of your volunteers

communicates a message, do they

seem knowledgeable, confident?

Are they smiling?

Cedar Falls Food Co-opFebruary 12 at 10:38am ·

LAST DAY TO VOTE!!

Thanks to everyone, like Melanie, who has voted for us this week!! We appreciate it. We are about 500 votes behind 1st place. IF everyone reading this votes by 5:00pm today, we could very easily win!!

$10,000 toward the co-op would be a huge leap forward in putting doors on the store of our very own community-owned food co-op. Vote, like & share! Today is the last day we will post about this.

WE CAN DO THIS!! It'll take the whole village though. 😉

LikeCommentShare

Top Comments

18 people like this.

21 shares

What does this post

communicate? To who?

Stakeholders:

• Owners – here’s how you can help! Your participation matters!

• Officials/lenders – we’re actively pursuing many forms of financing for our

project, we’re go getters going after grants!

• Potential Owners – look how much support we have? Isn’t this fun, easy to

do, exciting? Don’t you want to join in?

Other great points:

• Friendly face – we don’t know who this is, but adding a human face to any

image/message grabs eyes, increases reads

• Screen image – here’s what we’re talking about and bonus, this shows you

what it will look like when you get to the right page to help/participate.

See? Isn’t this easy to do? Don’t you want to join in?

Missed opportunity:

• Can you spot it? Always find a way to include your

LOGO/BRAND!

MESSAGING

MESSAGING MEETINGSIt can and should be easy, fast, and effective!

How often?

• Monthly, minimum

• About to launch a

owner funding

campaign? In one?

MORE OFTEN at

these times!

How long?

• Time yourselves!

• NEVER more than

30 minutes

Who?

• Stage 1 – steering

committee

• Stage 2 – transition

this to outreach

*or* ownership

*or*

communication

team

• Anyone can play!

How to do it?

• Start on time with

whoever is there

• Review

• Make core message

choices

• Build the plan

• Go over action

items

• BREAK!

Let’s go over

what a

messaging

meeting is like!

Before you

the meeting:

START

1. Start on time, no matter what – just get

going, others can filter in and join

2. Assign a note taker – they will need to get

the notes out to all participants, the board,

and committees within 24 hours of the

meeting (taking notes in an e-mail and just

hitting “send” at the end of the meeting

recommended!)

3. Facilitator – this is the only meeting prep

you have to do, assign one *before* the

meeting, they are responsible for 1 piece of

meeting prep – bring the notes from the last

meeting

4. Watch the time – the facilitator needs to

have a time piece, stop watch, etc and keep

everyone on time

5. It’s not personal – truly, staying on time is

important, moving fast is important, no

going into the “weeds” – the best way to

make these meetings effective is to have

them regularly and stick to time allotted!

7minutes

on the

clock!

Last

month’s top

messages

• What were they?

• What were the top 3?

• Sub messages?

Last month’s

Action plan

• Check in, did all the items on last month’s list

get done?

• This isn’t time for guilt or lectures, just find out

• Things not getting done? Leadership!

How did it

go?

• What didn’t work? You’ve got 1 min, just top of

the head things!

• What went well? What was memorable?

• Notetaker: record bullet point answers, no

names needed

3minutes

on the

clock!

Upcoming

Events

• What big events on the calendar in the next 3

months/season?

• What smaller events on the calendar for this

month?

Milestones

• What stage of development is your startup in?

• What’s the next MILESTONE for your project

(First owner meeting/election? Site? Owner

loan?)

Keep these in mind and head into . . .

CORE MESSAGES!

no more than 3-4 core messages Top Message

ENDS/

MISSION• What are

owners/community

confused about?

• What part of our

mission is most

exciting, gets the

most response?

• What part haven’t

we communicated

about lately?

OWNERSHIP• What’s our next big

ownership goal?

• What’s going on this

month to drive

ownership?

• Board – let them in

on what the board is

working on

• What do we need

their input on?

• Elections/owner

meeting soon?

BUILDING a

STORE• What stage of

development are

we in?

• What’s the next

big thing in our

process?

GROCERY

STORE

• Constant reminding

that we’re building

a GROCERY STORE!

• Have we shown

examples lately?

What is

YOURS right

NOW?

• What is the TOP

THING right now

we need to get

across for the co-

op’s success?

Keeping EVENTS and MILESTONES in mind, what needs to be communicated most this

month? Review each core message category, no more than 3 things in each category,

aim for two when you can. Some categories will have only 1!

10 minutes

on the

clock!

10 minutes

on the

clock!

EXAMPLE

no more than 3-4 core messages Top Message

ENDS/

MISSION• We have a

mission

statement,

get the word

out about it!

• Link to it

• Illustrate it

OWNERSHIP• we’ll be launching

ownership next

month!

• Join early and be a

visionary!

• Be a “founding

owner” – first 100

owners

• Your investment

used for feasibility

BUILDING a

STORE• We’re following

a well tested

model

• It takes years

but yields huge

success/impac

ts!

GROCERY

STORE

• We’ll be building

a grocery store

together!

• Examples/pictur

es of other food

co-ops and what

they offer

What is

YOURS right

NOW?

• FOUNDING

OWNER DRIVE

NEXT MONTH!

This is an example from a startup in Stage 1 development:

Their top goals? Set a strong foundation of understanding about what a food

co-op is, that it takes time, that we’ll invest as a community in finding out if

our community is a good candidate for a food co-op.

Have a question on this topic? E-mail us NOW at info@fci.coop or call us at 844-324-2667!

EXAMPLE

no more than 3-4 core messages Top Message

ENDS/

MISSION• We haven’t

talked about

education

much lately,

bring up

examples of

how co-op’s

impact this

OWNERSHIP• Next big owner

goal: 300 owners

to pay for our

market study!

• Mini-campaign

this month to get

to that 300 (we

need 50 more

owners)

BUILDING a

STORE• Market study Is

next – it will

tell us what

size store we

can build,

areas it can be

successful in

• We’re in

feasibility, what

that is

GROCERY

STORE

• We’re building a

grocery store!

• Market study will

tell us size =

soon we’ll know

what kinds of

departments/se

ating, etc we’ll

have!

What is

YOURS right

NOW?

• GET TO 300

OWNERS =

MARKET STUDY!

This is an example from a startup in Stage 2a development:

Their top goals? To keep growing ownership consistently, continue to make

the community aware they are growing a *grocery store*, and to help owners

understand why the market study (and whole development process) is so

important

EXAMPLE

no more than 3-4 core messages Top Message

ENDS/

MISSION• Local farms

– highlight

local farmers

who support

us, what

impacts co-

op will have

on local

farms

OWNERSHIP• At 682 owners, we

need to be at 800

to launch the

owner loan

campaign!

• “Plus one” owner

campaign

launches later this

month, what you

can win, business

partner support

BUILDING a

STORE• We’re in the

design process,

store designer

on site later

this month!

• FUNDING is

next – primary

lender almost

secured, owner

loans next!

GROCERY

STORE

• We’re building a

grocery store!

• Store design

coming soon so

you can see

what your store

will be like!

What is

YOURS right

NOW?

• GET TO 800

OWNERS,

LAUNCH OWNER

LOAN!

Owners/loans

key to opening

our doors!

This is an example from a startup in Stage 2b development:

Their top goals? To keep growing ownership consistently, educate owners

about funding their business and the upcoming owner loan campaign.

EXAMPLE

no more than 3-4 core messages Top Message

ENDS/

MISSION• Highlight

impacts the

co-op will

have once

open – job

creation,

local food

sales, etc!

OWNERSHIP• Sooo close to

1000 owners, let’s

get there in time

to greet our new

GM!

• Ways existing

owners can help

get the word out!

BUILDING a

STORE• GM search

almost complete,

announcement

coming soon!

• Just short of our

loan goal, $100K

more needed to

break ground!

GROCERY

STORE

• We’re building a

grocery store!

• Store designs

are up on the

website, go look!

• Talk about depts

we’ll have, paint

the picture!

What is

YOURS right

NOW?

• FINISH OUR

OWNER LOAN

DRIVE, so we can

break ground!

This is an example from a startup in early Stage 3 development:

Their top goals? Get across the finish line in number of owners and in owner

loans so they can start building!

Fill out your co-op

messaging pie!

OWNERSHIP: we

need to get to

700 owners to

announce a site!

BUILDING a

STORE: when we

announce site

owner loan

starts – we have

to fund it!

MISSION: we

know store size,

so we have

estimated

impacts, get

them out there!

2minutes

on the

clock!

Where’s the emphasis? All core

messages are important at all

times, but where does the

emphasis need to be now?

Start with a blank pie, toss

around perspectives for a

minute, draw it, move on!

Fill out your co-op

messaging pie!OWNERSHIP:

next big goal,

1000 owners

BUILDING a

STORE: owner

loan starts this

week! Get your

packet! Come to

kick off event!

LOANS!

MISSION:

creating

35 jobs,

$1 mil in

local farm

revenue 1st

year

The core messaging emphasis

will change over time,

sometimes the “pie” will look

very balanced, sometimes more

than half of it will be one

message!

8minutes

on the

clock!

Which

Vehicles?• Go over list of vehicles – which will you use to communicate which core

messages?

• Assign – who’ll turn core messages into social media? Who’ll make sure the

newsletter contains a farmer featured farmer this month that highlights our

mission to impact local farms? Assign to committee whenever possible.

• Add – review some of the less obvious vehicles, can we add the owner goal

message to the farmer’s market booth? Can we get the founding owner

message out by giving our business partners founding owner signs for their

shop windows?

• Which stakeholders need to most hear each of the core messages?

• Can you reach more than one stakeholder through a message? “Oh,

if we involve a local business in doing a giveaway for the owner

growth mini-challenge we could mention in a post that local

businesses are welcome to partner with us in this way and where to

contact us!”

• Focus, not every message needs to target ALL stakehoders, it’s

better to have a primary audience, maybe one secondary

All

Stakeholders?

Have a question on this topic? E-mail us NOW at info@fci.coop or call us at 844-324-2667!

Action Plan EXAMPLEThis is an example from a startup in Stage 2b development:

Their top goals? To keep growing ownership consistently, educate owners

about funding their business and the upcoming owner loan campaign.

Ownership and

Outreach• Owner goal sign – we’ve got a owner thermometer but add a sign to it saying our next goal is 300 =

market study

• Owner meet and greets – bring the grocery store pics display to these and set up, still hearing confusion

about if we’ll be a CSA, etc

Communications • Social media – communicate this month’s core messages consistently through FB/twitter, make sure to

highlight business giveaway partners

• Newsletter – we want to attract more farmer-owners, do a highlight on Smith Farm and blurb at the

bottom about how to contact us to be one of our featured farms

• Shout out – post at least one shout out to volunteers on social media, emphasis how they are making a

difference!

• Press release – ready to launch press release when market study results come back!

Board• Newsletter – write article about how we own it means we fund it, why co-ops can accept owner loans and

what details we can share about when owner loan will be on the horizon

• Timeline – we need up date our graphic version of the timeline with recent timeline changes, board to

communicate what the changes are to the communications committee so they can get that complete

MESSAGING MEETING PLAN7minutes

on the

clock!

3 minutes

on the

clock!

10 minutes on

the clock!

2 minutes

on the

clock!

2 minutes

on the

clock!

• Last month’s messages

• Last month’s action plan

• How did it go?

• Big events ahead

• This month’s events

• Milestones

• In each core category

• Identify TOP message

• Where’s the

emphasis right

now?

• Review vehicles

• Review stakeholders

• Assign

Done in

30 minutes!Send out

digital notes

and a photo of

the pie chart

drawn at the

meeting to the

Board and all

committees.

TAKEAWAYS

#1 – review the 3 parts of messaging and how they work with your Board and

Outreach/Ownership committees. Even doing just this will improve your co-op’s messaging work

and give it context.

#2 – build a messaging cheat sheet. Request an example version from me by e-mailing

jacqueline@fci.coop or make your own with your co-op’s CORE MESSAGES, STAKEHOLDERS, and

VEHICLES. Give copies to all committees and Board members, laminate them and bring them to

meetings! Review often! Does this speak to our core messages? Are we on message? Who are we

speaking to? Who should we be speaking this message to?

#3 – go for the GOLD, hold MONTHLY MESSAGING MEETINGS for your co-op and watch all the

ways they will build clarity and momentum unfold!

MESSAGING!

IDENTITY

TELLING OUR STORY

Is a tool we use to communicate and promote our

which is

to our STAKEHOLDERS

using CORE MESSAGES

and VEHICLES of communication

Q&AMessaging 101

Have a question on this topic? E-mail us NOW at info@fci.coop or call us at 844-324-2667!