From national advertising and ready-to-print support materials to turn-key programs such as Co+op Explorers, NCG’s marketing department offers a variety of resources to support your co-op’s local marketing efforts. The Advising Branding for Co-ops (ABC) committee serves as an important resource for input and feedback on these programs.

Made up of six representatives from NCG co-ops across the country (with at least one from each corridor), the ABC committee meets quarterly with members of NCG’s marketing staff to discuss aspects of new NCG marketing programs, provide feedback on proposed programs in the pipeline and to contribute ideas that committee members think would be useful for NCG to develop.

Participation in the ABC Committee is voluntary and initiated by invitation from NCG’s Director of Marketing & Communication, Kelly Smith. Committee members must be marketing and/or member services managers from member co-ops. Each committee member serves a two-year term, with terms staggered to ensure a level of continuity from year to year. Visit the ABC Committee page to view a list of current committee members.

Two weeks after each ABC Committee meeting, an ABC Forum call is scheduled. Forum calls are open to all co-op staff that have marketing responsibilities as part of their job. These calls last roughly an hour and serve to update participants about current and upcoming NCG programs and resources. These calls also have time built-in for discussing marketing triumphs and challenges at participants’ co-ops. ABC Committee members are also present on the calls, which is a great networking opportunity for new co-op marketing staff to connect with experienced co-op marketers. There is nothing better than having a group of seasoned professionals on the line when troubleshooting a marketing issue at your store!

ABC Forum minutes are posted online following each quarterly call, so even if co-op marketing staff can’t attend, they can still benefit from reading about what was discussed.

These invaluable opportunities to connect directly with co-op marketing staff help NCG shape our programs and resources to better serve our member and associate co-ops and thus fulfill our mission. Thank you to our committee members past and present who have advised our efforts through the years.