Monadnock Food Co-op

As we work towards the exciting opening of our cooperatively owned food store, we’ve been thinking more about our store’s brand, more specifically, who we are and what we do.  We are considering how to best position ourselves to attract new members and shoppers – and be easy to identify in our community.

We have been working with the National Cooperative Grocers Association‘s (NCGA) marketing department on this project.  NCGA is a business services cooperative for retail food co-ops that helps unify natural food co-ops and offer more value to co-op owners and shoppers everywhere.

This process has led us to consider a change in our store’s name and logo, a direction we think would better reinforce who we are in the community.  We believe that a strong brand is essential to our ability to differentiate ourselves from other grocers, and to create a positive impression of our store.

There are countless stories from other co-ops of potential shoppers driving right by their stores without realizing the co-op sold food. In honor and recognition of our cooperative structure, the way we are already commonly referred to in the community (the co-op), and our primary product focus (food), we are exploring the idea of a name change from Monadnock Community Market to Monadnock Food Co-op.

This change would also provide greater opportunities to collaborate on projects with our neighboring co-ops: the Putney Food Co-op, Brattleboro Food Co-op to the west, Co-op Food Stores to the north in Hanover and our nearby start up Great River Co-op in Walpole, NH.

We would like to get your input on this change.  Please click on the link to answer a quick survey:

As we go through the process, our goals are to develop a brand that will:

• Communicate both who we are and what we do,
• Be easy to read in a variety of mediums and of sizes, as well as in black and white for print purposes,
• Include a graphic element that can be used to reinforce our brand in other ways in and outside the store, and
• Create a sense of pride among member owners and staff.

After hearing your feedback about our name, we will assemble a small group to review some logo concepts that we think will accomplish our goal of telling our story as a community owned food-coop.  We look forward to a great new brand that will help our store thrive and we will share more in the coming weeks on our progress.